Earning that first dollar is incredibly special and a moment many never forget. We asked some very talented creatives from the community to tell us the story of the first dollar they earned from their creative works.

Renee Reid

My first in-person sale holds a special place in my heart. While I launched my Mallorca Blues collection through my website, the sale I treasure most came during my first on-site pop-up market a couple of months after launching my website. Hesitant but hopeful, I set up my table at an event hosted by a local art club. Soon after setting up, a visitor, Alexis, showed interest in a coaster but left to retrieve his wallet. Read More>>

Kathleen Johnston

After graduating from college in 1997, I started experimenting with oil painting. I had set up a studio in my grandfather’s basement and found a local coffee shop to have my first show. It probably took me way too long to hang those paintings, but the people at the coffee shop were very accommodating. Most of my pieces were small but I had one larger painting. Read More>>

Haze Nguyen

My family has always been pretty crafty and passed that down to my early on. I have memories of my family gardening, collecting and drying seeds which we normally give to extended family and family friends. Since there was so much extra I created little envelope seed packages with cute custom designs and walked around the neighborhood selling our gardens seeds. Read More>>

Shaun Piccinino

The very first money I earned in the film industry was as an “Extra” or background artist through Central Casting. I was in my early 20’s and already writing and creating my own short films, filming music videos for friends but this was the first Hollywood set I’d ever been on. Read More>>

Elija Kane

When I was 16 years old, a local hair salon turned art gallery at night was kind enough to hang some of my work for First Friday. It was my first art event, outside of anything held at school. At the time I was interested in fashion, so the majority of my drawings and paintings were geared towards design. Read More>>

Landon Porter

I self-published my debut collection of poetry, “Whiskey & Cash”, in the summer of 2021. I held a book release party in my backyard in the swampy heat of mid-July (thanks COVID). Family and friends provided a wonderful head start with a handful of pre-sales, but with the expense incurred to produce the book (design, artwork, website, the initial batch order, etc.), I wasn’t in the black until I sold book #150 (or thereabouts). Read More>>

Callie Zimmerman

I’m not sure if this is the very first time I earned money doing photography, but it is the most memorable. A former high school teacher of mine asked me to photograph her mother and the mother’s dog. The dog was elderly and about to pass away soon. I barely knew what I was doing – during this time I still spent most of the shoot fiddling with camera settings I only half understood. Read More>>

Mark Redden

As a kid I drew and painted and made little sculptures. As many kids do. When I was around 15 I had a business studies teacher called Mr Ward. I wasn’t much interested in business studies, I used to secretly draw in his class. He didn’t mind much, he caught me a couple of times and gave me a light scolding. One day I brought a couple of wire sculptures into his classroom, as I had my art class after business studies class. Read More>>