We were lucky to catch up with Daniel Sanzone recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Daniel, 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?

Yes! I’m definitely able to earn a full-time living from my creative business. It’s been quite a rollercoaster of feeling incredibly abundant and feeling like all of my capital and energy has been spent on keeping the ship upright. The pandemic was a huge challenge that I was able to eventually overcome, but the lack of any music festivals and limited local events made the financial side of the business very difficult. Ultimately this challenge made me and my business much stronger.. I started in 2016 just making art prints and stickers to sell at music events and local shows. Once I started live painting at these events I was able to build a name for my art and slowly gain a following of supporters. I remember my first real merch drop of 10 blankets in 2017. When these sold out in the first hour I thought “wow this might actually be something I can be successful at”. I set up my first booth at a music festival that year and then slowly improved my set up over the years. There have been tons of challenges and it definitely wasn’t an east road to get where I am today. I believe that the authentic nature of my craft is what has led to my success. I don’t make art and merchandise to make money, but rather am excited to create for myself and then benefit by others resonating with the imagery and items I create. I now find a lot of success by bringing a massive set up to vend at some of the largest music festivals in the country, many people in the festival community now know my work and products, and really love to show support.
With the knowledge I have now, I definitely could have sped things up and avoided a lot of unnecessary pitfalls. This is an area that I love to offer help and advice to order creatives going down a similar path. It’s honestly one of my favorite parts about doing what I do. Guiding others to find their creative success is amazing, and feels like one of my main purposes in this life.

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

Lightning struck me at the core of my being when I first discovered the band TOOL and the artist Alex Grey. I was 12 years old, and knew at that moment that I wanted to create in the visionary style. I started drawing at Very young age and kept it up all through high school and into college. My college major changed a few times until I realized that I wanted to pursue fine art as a lifelong career, and was accepted into the printmaking and sculpture programs as SCAD (The Savannah College of Art and Design). I was introduced to the mainstream art world through SCAD, the High Museum and MOCA GA, but quickly realized that the path of contemporary art was not a fit for me. By some incredible luck I found out that there was an event called the Visionary Art Fair Featuring Alex Grey happening just blocks away from my college campus. This was my first time seeing live painters and being introduced into the counterculture art movement called visionary art. This art form fit right into music Festival culture which I was beginning to get involved with as well. I knew right away that this was the thing I wanted to be a part of. I applied to be a part of the fair for the next year and was involved every year that it happened until the final year in 2014. This was also when I graduated from SCAD and began to live paint at large events around the country, it took many years of patiently building my artistic skills, finding my style, and growing a devoted following to get to the point where I could successfully vend and paint at large music festivals. I also put a lot of time and energy into building an online following via my Facebook group and Instagram pages. This part has become increasingly difficult over the years with the way that social media works and seemingly does not favor artists. It’s a constant battle to switch my brain from art creation, to business management, to social media, to fashion design, etc.. Lucky my brain works well at multitasking, which is a critical element to success in this field. My artwork is heavily inspired by visionary states of consciousness, psychedelic visions, lucid dreaming, scientific knowledge, nature, ancient cultures, mythological creatures, and the evolution of technology. I tend to get really excited about art projects and am constantly flooded with new ideas. I really “nerd out” on creating art and turning it into useful or collectible items that people can bring into their lives. I also put a lot of effort into making sure that my customers get the absolute highest quality possible and are treated as family in every interaction. It’s surreal for me to know that thousands of people have my artwork in their lives every day.

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

It’s all about freedom and the ability to express myself creatively, this is a big part of what gives life meaning to me. I feel incredibly rewarded by the connections I’ve made with other artists along my journey, and with all of the amazing people that resonate with and support my work. Pretty much all of my best friends were made because of my decision to pursue art full time and attend festivals as a performing artist. I also find great rewards in helping other artists along their creative path and in creating opportunities for people to work with my company, paying an employee well after a successful festival is just an incredible feeling.

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

I think that NFTs can and will be a critical part of our lives in the future. Right now, the technology is in its infancy but will eventually become a very common thing that we interact with every day. The part of NFTs that most interests me is the real world utility aspect, and potential that has to being real value to peoples lives. I’m personally building my own NFT project that allows collectors to gain access to extremely rare physical items, only obtainable by people who possess one of my unique physical coins called “Evolving Coins”, and by purchasing my NFTs. It’ll become a super cool way to give exclusive access and value to people who support my art. Both the artist and collector perpetually benefit from the NFTs, and allow for truly authentic ownership that can be verified with blockchain technology. I’m really excited for the future of NFTs, especially when combined with other technology like Augmented Reality art. The potential is limitless!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://infiniteevolutionart.com/
• Instagram: @sanzoneart
• Facebook: Danny Sanzone, @Sanzoneart @infiniteevolutionart https://www.facebook.com/groups/947377762083331/?ref=share_group_link
• Twitter: @sanzoneart
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/channel/UCs87koAgoIWPUxwAQrSyWpg
• Other: @sanzoneart on TikTok