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

Hi Liv, thanks for 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?

I started painting murals at age 18. I had painted my whole life, but didn’t think art was a valid career. I went to college for journalism and graphic design, and worked for magazines and newspapers while I was apprenticing under some local muralists on the side for fun.

Ultimately when I was 22 I decided the publishing industry wasn’t for me and I wanted to be a muralist for a living. One of the muralists I worked for hired me full-time to work for her. I got introduced to the world of public art, getting grants and public funding to create murals for schools and communities. That took me around the country, getting to work in Massachusetts and Philadelphia. With the connections I made I worked for so many artists and communities, painting their designs and learning the trade even more. I also worked on sculptures, learning metal casting and construction.

But I was missing something still, I wanted to paint my own designs. I traveled around in California and Mexico City, approaching local businesses to paint their chalkboards, windows, vans, anything I could. I started to teach myself how to tattoo.

I moved to New York in 2020 and started working in carpentry and glasswork for an architect who designs artistic hotels. Still unsatisfied and wanting to create my own art, I took my tattoo portfolio and got a job at a tattoo shop which provided a bit more of a steady income. At the same time I started my own mural business with my partner Ramon. Between painting for small restaurants, coffeeshops, smoke shops, etc. we were just making ends meet and dealing with shady clients often.

In 2022 we ended up using my connections and going back into public art, painting walls for big name artists. Now we are settling into a balance. I think there is something beautiful about working with and for other people to create their art. To take an idea they have and execute it. I have a wide variety of skills, but the most important thing I possess is my belief and dedication to art.

Even though I wanted to sometimes, I never gave up on my dream to have my own business and create my own art. Now, after 10 years of working in the creative industry, I am finally developing my own style, and people want to hire me for my own art.

I recently opened up a tattoo shop in the Lower East Side in January 2024 with my friends. As my second business, and one with employees, it has been a challenge, but one I do not shy away from.

My favorite saying is “A jack of all trades is a master of none” but people don’t usually hear the rest of the quote: “and oftentimes better than a master of one.” To be able to work with all different types of people, and in different mediums, I have found success. A bit different than the path of a traditional artist who focuses on their own style from the get-go, I have focused on developing technical skills and people skills. Now I get to continue on my own unique path to develop a recognizable style that people can see and say “Liv did that.”

For folks who may not have read about you before, can you please tell our readers about yourself, how you got into your industry / business / discipline / craft etc, what type of products/services/creative works you provide, what problems you solve for your clients and/or what you think sets you apart from others. What are you most proud of and what are the main things you want potential clients/followers/fans to know about you/your brand/your work/ etc.

In the mural industry, we are specialists in Polytab Mural Cloth technique, which is like wallpaper. It was developed and is widely used in Philadelphia. It works great for community art because kids, elderly people, all members of a community can paint a mural on a canvas-like cloth on tables and then a professional team can install in on a tall building. In New York City me and my partner Ramon are the only specialists in this installation. We are contractors for New York Arts in Medicine to install community-painted polytab murals in their public hospitals. Traditionally, these installations are permanent. The industrial-strength glue used to install the murals lasts as long as the building does once dry.

A new innovation we launched last year is using washable glue to make these mural installations temporary. Doordash partnered with The NY Knicks and hired us to install a polytab mural in Queens as a backdrop for a Meet-and-Greet with Knicks Star Jalen Brunson. They wanted the mural up for 9 months. Using the washable glue, we successfully installed a polytab mural on a brick wall that lasted through the winter and caused no damage to the wall. It looks like it was painted on the wall!

This is an amazing innovation for companies, pop-up events, locations where the mural cannot be permanent. It opens the door to so many more locations and organizations to have a mural that looks painted on the wall but doesn’t last forever.

Similarly, in the tattoo world, I am pioneering something different as well. My tattoo shop, Unscripted Ink, is the premier New York partner for Ephemeral Ink, an ink that doesn’t last forever. It is applied like a traditional tattoo with needles under the skin, but the ink fades away in the body, lasting up to 3 years. This creates a new market for people to get tattooed: professionals, religious people, anyone who wants the experience of getting a tattoo but without the commitment of forever. You can get silly tattoos without the regret.

It truly is an exciting time in both of my industries, and I am excited to watch them grow and change. I think innovation is great for the creative industry. It is important not to gatekeep knowledge and techniques, but to share with younger artists so there can be more art in the world.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I have often had clients ask for more work for the same pay, edits on top of edits, not fulfill payments and contracts on time or at all, the stories go on and on. Every time they make a case for how hard their business is, how expensive art is, how tight their budget is, how they just “need” this art “right now!”

Art is subjective and emotional and takes a long time. It is hard to put a price on it. If I averaged out all the time I spent on my projects, I am making dollars on the hour. For years I didn’t really get time off, I put my all into my work 24/7. I am passionate about what I do so it doesn’t feel like working, but that doesn’t mean this isn’t how I make a living.

Over many many years, and still to this day, I am learning to communicate with clients. How to properly explain my services, what I offer and for what price. Set boundaries with clients when projects are taking a turn, as they do. It is not easy at all, and oftentimes people don’t have bad intentions, they just are unaware.

To deal with this, time and time again I have put my focus back into my main goal of why I am doing this all- to create a beautiful and stable future for myself. To create community, not to gate keep artistic knowledge and skills, to teach, to share my art and my experience as a creative business owner with the world. Art is in everything we have and do. From your morning coffee to setting your nightly alarm clock, an artist helped create that.

Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?

There is a podcast called the Artful Dollar by Ryan Roi. Ryan is a tattoo artist turned financial coach. His podcasts have greatly helped me shift my mindset about making money with art.

Jobs, clients, money, is not scarce in this world. It is all around us. Just because another artist got a gig doesn’t mean you lost a gig.

In the mural world, there are so many empty walls in this city and country. Practically endless. In tattooing, the amount of square inches on a person’s body is more than you think. Entire empty canvases waiting for you!

Even though this world isn’t run as we wished, we are not victims to the systems. We have so much opportunity to change and effect the world and make money doing it.

Ryan has a lot of guests artists talk on the podcast and the vibes is always so positive and inspiring. I highly recommend it to all creatives and business owners.

Contact Info:

• Website: unscripted.nyc, locuststreet.nyc
• Instagram: liv.tats, liv.handpaints, unscripted.ink, locuststreet.nyc