We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anna Charney a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Anna, appreciate you joining us 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?

Although I began selling my work and earning money from it at a very young age, I consider the beginning of my career to be immediately after I graduated from art school at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago and returned to my hometown of Denver, CO in the beginning of 2016. I am very grateful to have been earning consistent money from my creative work since then, although it took between 2-3 years until I made it my full-time income.

I am now healthfully employed as a full-time artist and have been so since I made the transition. However, I do not think there would have been a way for me to speed up the process, nor do I think that it is necessarily wise to rush it. I believe that someone pursuing a creative career must always remain focused on long term goals and maintaining stability, so I took my time to ensure that I had a solid base and the confidence to move forward. The way that I moved into having art as a full time income was incrementally, through part time work that I began to schedule fewer days and hours of each month in order to slowly transition into being a full time artist. I chose to work as a nanny/babysitter to support the beginning of my art career specifically because I saw the scheduling flexibility that I would have working for individual families, while also being able to easily pay my bills every month. Over the course of several years, I would take on fewer days and hours working as a babysitter, only when I knew that I would be making the equivalent (or more) amount of money through my artwork that month in order to cover all my expenses and continue living a comfortable life.

Taking my time through the transition and not rushing it allowed me to begin my career more confidently as I was focused on my successes and small wins instead of my stresses. Because of this, I was able to maintain my healthy relationship with my art and to not compromise my style. I kept making paintings that I loved instead of trying to make paintings that sell and viewing my work only as a commodity, instead of a passion (a trap that I see many artists fall into). Making the slow and incremental move into full time creative work also allowed me to pursue opportunities in art that, although they were low paid or not paid at all, completely altered my career for the better. If I hadn’t had a flexible part-time schedule or a guaranteed amount of income to pay my bills, I never would have been able to say yes to volunteering for my local mural festival, painting my first two walls for free (and developing the beginning of my mural portfolio), or to giving my time and energy towards an apprenticeship that taught me the craft.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an artist and muralist. My story of how I entered my industry and became an artist was one being written as far back as I can remember. As a child, I was always interested in art and both loved and excelled in creative activities like drawing or painting. There was never really a question in my mind of what else I wanted to be when I grew up. I am so grateful to not only have had that sense of direction at a young age, but to have been able to follow a path that led right to it. I was accepted to and attended an arts magnet school in my hometown of Denver, CO for both middle and high school called Denver School of the Arts, where I effectively began majoring in Visual Arts at the age of 11. I continued my arts education into college at the School of The Art Institute of Chicago, where I graduated with my Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2016, with a focus in drawing and painting. I returned to Denver that spring, with the intention to only stay for a few months and save up money before traveling the world. I had full intention to move to one of the big art cities in America after that, perhaps Los Angeles, but was following the common narrative that everyone had told me as I was growing up that immediately after college is the only chance you’ll have in your life to travel big. I like to think that I proved them all wrong as a traveling mural artist that spends about 30% of the year out of town or out of the country to create artwork.
Anyways, it is that summer that I used spray paint for the first time and in one fell swoop all my plans got knocked around. I knew nothing about murals at the time, but was making very large paintings and had an interest in installation work. I had offered to volunteer at a local mural festival in order to learn more about scaling up my work onto buildings and about spray paint as a medium (keep in mind I had just come from a highly institutionalized art school where anything graffiti-related was very much not on the table for serious art making). I was given my first wall that week and from there, my becoing from artist to muralist as well was immediate and unquestionable. I had the distinct feeling that “this is IT”, even though I’d had that feeling with painting my whole life, this was even louder and more enthusiastic. I had to listen.
I knew I had to continue learning, so I reached out to a local graffiti artist was offered an apprenticeship, which I accepted and worked at for nearly two years. I began getting my own jobs more frequently over time and those jobs have kept growing over the years into bigger and greater opportunities. I’ve been painting murals for just under eight years now and have already had multiple opportunities I could have only dreamed of in those first few years. I find it important to elaborate the story of my early career because it is not only when I learned some of my greatest lessons, but it is when I discovered and honed in on the exact path, discipline and focus in art making that I do now.
I have seven years of dedicated mural experience and an extensive portfolio (of over 100 walls) to show for it. My mural practice ranges from detailed installation pieces to massive sides of buildings and structures. I’ve created many different pieces in both indoor and outdoor settings, and working on private commissions or city projects.. I have exhibited in galleries and created murals across the United States in Colorado, California, Illinois, Nebraska, Missouri, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Florida, Alaska, Utah, Nebraska, and Texas and internationally in both Costa Rica and France.

The large majority of my work is on commission, working with a client to create a site specific piece of artwork that creates a vibrant and memorable atmosphere for their space. I have worked with such notable clients as Meta and Doterra, and in a whole range of sectors including both commercial and housing developments, dispensaries, restaurants, nightclubs or venues, offices, private residences, etc. A smaller portion of my mural work every year is for mural or music festivals. When I have a chance to get in the studio, I still do paintings on canvas and more traditional art and design. It is important to me to keep a balanced and multi faceted art career where you can see my work on the streets, on merchandise and also in a gallery format.

I think that what sets me apart from many other artists or muralists is my distinct style and imagery. The most important thing is to stand out and my work is extremely unique, contemporary and up to interpretation by the viewer (which lends itself well to a lot of public art spaces as abstract work isn’t alienating to any group). I have taken to describing my style as “digital taffy”. I am interested in optical art and systems of illusions. Each painting or mural consists of many flowing and bending forms, which are primarily made up of enlarged halftone dot patterns, vortex configurations, or heavily distorted shapes that make up anamorphic illusions from a specific viewpoint. My work could be considered as abstract, geometric, or graphic and lends itself to great discovery and interpretation by any viewer.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Support for the arts and a thriving creative ecosystem can be made at any level. I think people assume that you have to purchase a painting or commission a mural in order to support your favorite artist or to add to a thriving creative economy. However, support can be shown in many different ways. If you can afford to become a client, by all means, jump for it! If you don’t have the funds for that, most artists provide smaller items for sale such as prints, merchandise or sticker packs. There are also many ways to support the arts for free. For artists working in the modern day, social media is one of the most important aspects of maintaining our business and attracting new clients. The easiest ways to show support are to interact with artists on any platform, to like, comment, save, subscribe, etc. Even though it seems small, this really does have a positive effect on any artist or small business you are looking to support. Another way to support an artist for free is to recommend them if an opportunity arises and through word of mouth.

Beyond that, don’t ever be afraid to communicate your gratitude and simply let your favorite artists know how much you appreciate their work! Sending a message/email of kind words or dropping by and saying a quick hello to an artist you see working in public can truly make someone’s day or inspire them to keep going. I love hearing from my followers and supporters :)

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

There are so many reasons why I continue to pursue a creative career and lifestyle that it is hard to narrow down. When I think of my art career and what feels best for me, it is the freedom of being self employed as a creative that is the most rewarding. Even though it is unbelievably hard work to create for and manage my own business, I get to wake up every day and pursue what I believe is my purpose in life. Not only do I get to do what I love, but I get to design my own schedule for every day, week and year that is custom fit to when my creative energy is best, when I need down time and whenever I want to go travel and for how long. Being a self employed creative allows me to live the passionate and charismatic life I always dreamed of, with room for spontaneity and flexibility to bend wherever the next opportunity or inspirational whim may take me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.annacharneyart.com/
• Instagram: @annacharneyart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/annacharneyart