We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Andree Areno. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Andree below.
Andree, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?
This topic is very fresh for me so that’s why I’ve chosen it. Actually full disclosure I am currently taking a break from my art and just doing carpentry for a contractor. I still have my wood shop and I am not finished with that chapter in my life. But I have soooo many things to say about making a living as a full time artist and trying to make ends meet. The business side, the creative side, the social media and self promotion side and the struggles of wondering I am good enough. I’ve had so many ups and downs. Being broke, then feeling like maybe I’ve made a breakthrough, to being broke again. Feeling like I have endless creativity to then feeling like I have none at all. These things may resonate with many.
Andree, 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 started working as a full time carpenter with a finish carpentry crew in 2008. At this same time a wild fire in my neighborhood burnt down many homes in my community including my own. I liked carpentry very much but I also knew it was lacking the artistic side for me. I had in my head that making furniture would be the perfect mix of art and woodworking. I grew up with a dad who was a full time artist, Joseph Areno, who created beautiful oil landscapes and charcoal and pastel drawings. He passed away in 2006. He made his own frames which I helped him with when I was young. After he passed I was left with some of his tools. They were basic but I learned how to use most of them on my own.
After homes started to be rebuilt in my neighborhood, some of my friends parents gave me the opportunity to try and make some custom furniture pieces for them, as they knew I have been talking about my interest in doing that. I never grew up with computers or the internet at this point and had no idea how one would get started or even that there were schools that taught that. Which seems embarrassing to me now haha. So I just started buying books on using tools and making furniture, and started practicing on my own. Finally I found YouTube and experimented with tips from there. People really loved what I made and I continued to do that on the side while still being a carpenter full time. It shocked me how long the process of making a piece of furniture took so pricing was another thing to learn. Eventually I got better at both and had enough business to quit my carpentry job and just focus on making furniture. I was lucky to have people who believed in me and all my business was word of mouth. I would design and build all of my furniture on my own. I made ends meet pretty well after this for many years. But once social media ramped up, and I didn’t have much interest in it, so I fell behind. I have struggled immensely with this part of the business. Advertising and self promotion is not comfortable for me. But paying someone to help me seemed like not an option as now at this point I could barely even make my ends meet. So many ups and downs came throughout the years.
I love woodworking and making furniture. I love working with my hands, obsessing over detail, tuning up my tools and learning to use them better and better every day. I love problem solving and coming up with unique design which is surprisingly difficult at times but very rewarding.
Ultimately this is a very hard road for many including myself.
But art and creativity keeps my mind afloat :)
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I think one of the most rewarding aspects of being a creative is having your finished piece or project built by your hands and your mind. There are many ways to get the same outcome, but the outcome is always 100 percent unique and your own.
Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?
I have had to pivot my thinking that if I can’t make it purely by supporting myself as an art that I have failed. I have had such hard times financially that I have had to stop for periods of times and work a regular carpentry/construction job just to make ends meet. Every time I have to put my furniture to the side, Ive felt like I have failed. But after finally talking to so many others about this, I’ve realized that it is very common to not make a full living all the time just on your art. Some people even just do it as a hobby but on social media it makes it seem like that is all they do for a living. Ive learned that it’s ok to have financial or even creative lows and have to take a break and find another way to make ends meet while you get back to where you need to be in order to do what you love most.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Andreeareno.com
- Instagram: Andree Areno
