We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Edith Pair. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Edith below.

Edith, appreciate you joining us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?

I remember my parents being less than thrilled when I decided to go to art school knowing how difficult it can be to make a living. They stood behind me and knew I would come up with something that would be fulfilling and put food in the table. Starting by opening a gallery in 2006, it was the worst economy to open a gallery not to mention I am not the best at selling my own artwork. The stress of not making money stunted my creativity. I had to find something that worked for me where steady money was coming in, but I still had a creative outlet. In a nutshell, I have been able to make a living as a freelance artist by starting the mushroom house tours where we visit and discuss over 28 stone houses in Charlevoix, Mi. It’s now become the #1 “Thing to Do” on TripAdvisor in downtown Charlevoix, Mi. This has allowed me to make all the souvenirs, paintings and merchandise we sell for the tours along with all my personal artwork and pick up custom order jobs from the tour clients. I don’t know if I could have anticipated how popular the tours would become….it was a mix of luck, very hard work and always always staying positive that someday it will all click. Every failure along the way taught me a lesson.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My father knew the architect who designed the houses we tour and we actually grew up in one of his designs. It was a natural transition to living in his design and always intrigued by his creativity and imagination, to giving tours of his houses. Having a BFA allows an added benefit to how I can describe the houses with a artistic perspective and utilizes my creative side. I am most proud of the fact I was able to marry a profitable business I truly enjoy with the ability to keep my creative juices flowing. Most creative persons have a very hard time with the business aspect of owning a company and that was definately a big hurdle but I went very slow, tried to grow a little year by year and now I have 4 tour carts, 20 employees and a small retail space to showcase all my artwork along with booking tours.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the way you can inspire everyone around you. It’s very hard for artists to feel they are deserving of praise and monetary compensation as for us, it’s something we hold so dear to us, why would we expect to be given money for it or have ppl understand. Now that understand how artwork can make a persons life more enriching and not everyone has the talent to do it, you realize that your time is worth every penny!

Have you ever had to pivot?

I had to pivot my journey when I realized that sometimes you have to do the jobs you may not think are the most valuable use of your time or “beneath” you if it means that you will get more exposure. Most artists are so against doing anything that isn’t their style, medium or something that is more of a “sell out” situation, but I have come to realize that some of those jobs lead to the most rewarding jobs down the road.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ellair.com
• Instagram: @edithpair
• Facebook: @EdithPairArt