For Rosalie White, the breakthrough came when she silenced the voices and pushed ahead.

For Caitlin Palagi, it arrived when she decided to pick up the brush and just let the paint do the talking.

For both White and Palagi, however, the result was the same: A new career launched later in life, but this time, doing what they loved most, expressing themselves in art.

“I tell my students: ‘Paint’s not permanent,’” Palagi said. “Meaning there’s always a way to move forward. And it’s never too late. It’s all in what you make of it.”

For Palagi, 38, of Geneva, the problem was a kind of psychological paralysis. While she had created art since a child and studied art in school, Palagi opted instead for a career in the corporate business world, with the thought to continue to pursue art as a hobby.

But Palagi said those plans took a back seat when she became a parent, and her son presented special needs, which demanded her sole focus for years.

Years later, she realized she couldn’t return to the corporate role she held before. But she soon realized she also couldn’t easily restore the creative flow, either.

She said she would go through the traditional planning approach she had learned, but would be gripped by indecision, which quickly translated into a freezing fear that none of her ideas were “good enough” to be brought to life on canvas.

“I had to retrain my brain and my approach to creativity,” Palagi said.

That retraining resulted in a fresh way to create, a process she likens to calling out shapes and patterns seen while gazing up at passing clouds in the sky.

“I know, for me, if I just start painting, a composition will eventually shine through,” Palagi said.

Today, that approach has translated into a whimsical, emotive, “intuitive” signature style that has, in turn, translated into a full-time art career since 2023 and invitations to show her creations in solo and group exhibitions in galleries in the Tri-Cities and even beyond Illinois.

White’s plunge into her art career came after her retirement from a successful, 40-year-long career in education.

Throughout that time, however, White said she always felt there was something missing. And she had a strong hunch those feelings were connected to words spoken decades ago by two of her fellow art students at Columbia College in Chicago, words that still echoed in her mind.

“I overheard two students say I would ‘never make it as a successful artist,’” White said. “They said I was ‘too normal.’

“And it stuck in my head, really made me think that maybe I wasn’t cut out to be a ‘serious artist.’”

In retirement, however, White moved to St. Charles and at the age of 60 decided to get behind the canvas once more.

“I said, ‘What am I doing? I’m old enough now that I’m just going to do my thing and create what inspires me,’” White said.

That decision has translated into a steady stream of fine art creations, and a series of awards and recognitions, beginning in 2025 with an award for Best Emerging Artist, at the St. Charles Plein Air Festival, sponsored by the St. Charles Art Council.

The festival annually invites dozens of artists from throughout the U.S. to set up outside and paint what they see in the “open-air” in St. Charles.

White, now “a young 62” said that recognition not only shocked her, but also further fueled her, lending confidence to “delve more into my art life.”

Like Palagi, White’s work has now landed in a number of galleries and exhibitions in the Tri-Cities, other suburbs and in Chicago.

Both White and Palagi said they hope their stories can help inspire artists, no matter their current state, to “keep going” and “keep creating.”

“There are going to be outside voices that talk about your work,” White said. “But what you paint, and what you create, it shouldn’t be for anybody else.

“It’s about this thing you’ve created and brought into the world.”

Palagi agreed.

“Paint in the present,” she said. “Paint what you feel. Use it in your art. But make it reflective of you.”

And White and Palagi said, there is no time better to start — or restart — than right now.

“Let your creativity out,” said White. “And don’t wait 40 years like I did to do it.”