When: Tonight at 8 p.m.

Where: North Village Art Studios

Whether it was selling lemonade or raking leaves, your first business ventures probably profited by mere pennies. Local artist Morli Wilcox was no exception.

As a child of a surgeon, Wilcox flipped through her father’s medical journals and was allowed to peek through the window during operations.

“That was where I first started contemplating abstract expressionism through having an understanding that there was much more on the inside of everything that was going on besides what you can see on the outside,” Wilcox says.

At the age of 8, she went door-to-door selling her collection of abstract paintings for a few cents. It was then she realized bringing art to others was her calling.

Today, Wilcox does just that. Abstract work that once sold for pennies now sells for hundreds — but, obviously, she’s improved artistically. After collectors began expressing interest in her work and a stint on display at Make Scents last spring, Wilcox was inspired to pursue a studio space. Tonight marks the official grand opening of the Studio of Morli Wilcox in the North Village Art Studios. The event, as part of ARTlandish Gallery’s First Friday LoveFest, also happens to be Wilcox’s birthday. Great birthday present, right?

“I was shocked to find out in December that I was nominated for (Inside Columbia’s) Best Visual Artist of 2013,” Wilcox says. “That blew me away and was very exciting and encouraging. Those were all pointers to show me that I’m making the right decision by opening my own studio”

For Wilcox’s longtime friend Billy Cabral, the nomination didn’t come as a surprise. After working with Wilcox at Village Wine and Cheese, Cabral says he knew Morli was special.

“It never really surprised me when I started seeing her stuff because she’s ridiculously creative and always kind of awesomely eccentric,” Cabral says. “It seemed like a logical transition to me. You can talk to her for five minutes and tell that she’s brilliant. There’s an eccentricity there that’s awesome, and it’s in everything she does. She’s one of those all-around people.”

In 2009, Wilcox launched her Etsy page and quickly sold to collectors around the country.

“Once I got to about 35 paintings sold, I became more confident,” Wilcox says. “That’s when I just decided that this is what I’m going to do. That was around 2010 when I broke out into the local art scene.”

That same year, Wilcox met Kenney Greene, owner of Monarch Jewelry in the North Village Arts District. Ironically, they met at the 2010 LoveFest where her work was on display.

“I was totally enamored with several of her pieces,” Greene says.

There’s a piece Greene purchased from Wilcox that now resides in his eccentric and cozy shop. The story behind the transaction is one Greene won’t tell, but he says it’s one that will endear them to each other forever.

To achieve her distinctive, organic aesthetic, Wilcox uses tinted gesso (a base for the canvas that “gives it direction”), vintage collage clippings, oil and acrylic paints and sometimes even scribbles added by her kindergarten-aged son.

“I feel like I could pick her stuff out of line-ups,” Cabral says. “There are always a lot of reoccurring shapes. There is a fluidity and continuity to her work. They’re all unique but of a similar style.”

For Wilcox, inspiration for abstract expressionism comes in unique forms. She says it’s spontaneous inspiration from what her mind sees that doesn’t require her eyes — it’s fractal, molecular biological and organic. She says an enormous inspiration in her work is what the universe already has out there for us to find under the surface. From stars to life forms, Wilcox says she believes she is connected metaphysically through her art to the all-encompassing force of life.

“I try to draw from the most uninterrupted creative source of my mind,” Wilcox says. “Sometimes when I’m going to sleep at night, I close my eyes, and it isn’t just darkness. Sometimes I see fractal patterns and different images and things that just dance around on my eyelids in the dark. I freeze-frame those, contemplate those and take them to the canvas the next day.”