We recently connected with Krista Awad and have shared our conversation below.

Krista, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I used to think I couldn’t call myself an artist if I weren’t earning my income from my art. This mentality held me back. Once I let it go and kept creating while doing other jobs, things finally started happening for my art career. What you do to pay the bills doesn’t define you. I create. I am an artist. Eventually, this led to so many opportunities that I became a full-time artist. But I know anything can change, and if I need to find another job one day, I know I am an artist regardless. Keep creating, despite what society tells you: the world needs more artists.

Krista, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I graduated from Grand Valley State University with a BFA in painting and a minor in writing. I moved to Los Angeles the summer after my graduation with no plans except that I knew I loved the art and artists that lived there. It didn’t take long to realize how naive I was, but I found work as a waitress and gallery/studio assistant. During this time, I kept painting. In 2020, I started to create more on social media; I only took it seriously once I succeeded on TikTok. A couple of my videos went viral, and suddenly, I found my website store was flooded and all my paintings sold. Apart from selling my work, I found a supportive art community on TikTok. That is the most vital component of art: community. Above all, art connects people and reminds us of our humanity.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

Towards the end of 2020, I first started to hear about nonfungible tokens and the Ethereum blockchain. It all sounded too good to be true that artists were making a living off selling their digital artwork and receiving royalties each time their work changed hands. The more research I did, the more I understood how the technology made sense for artists and collectors. The NFT became the new certificate of authenticity for original artwork. It cut out the middleman and allowed artists to connect directly with new collectors. Shortly after entering the Web 3 space, I was approached by the president of Time Magazine, Keith A. Grossman, to become a Time Piece artist. Since then, I have done multiple collaborations and art releases with Time, launching my art career to another level of success.

Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?

It can be challenging to find creative inspiration. The spiral of not being creative for too long can make it even more daunting to start again. This is when I turn to “A Book of Surrealist Games,” compiled by Alastair Brotchie and edited by Mel Gooding. Playing a creative game every day takes the pressure off of finding inspiration. Instead, the inspiration will find you just by putting your mind in a creative state. My favorite is automatic drawing and painting. My series called Window onto The Marvelous is based on this process. It’s wild to say that over 11 million people have watched me create this series on TikTok.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.kristaawad.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kristaawad/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KristaAwadArt
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/KristaAwad
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kristaawad
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@kristaawad

Image Credits