Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Chloe Dougherty. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Chloe , appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start with the decision of whether to donate a percentage of sales to an organization or cause – we’d love to hear the backstory of how you thought through this.

I donate 5% of all profits from my art to organizations that fight to keep our planet, air and water clean.

As someone who’s business is built on the magic and awe inspiring world around us, I feel it’s my duty to use my art to fight for a safer and healthier world for the animals that I paint in my work, as well as the people affected the most by climate crisis.

That’s why I donate a portion of profits from my business to organizations such as The Nature Conservation Org & The Sierra Club.

Chloe , 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 am a full-time freelance illustrator and painter! Before jumping into my art career I earned my degree in Studio Art with an Oil Painting concentration. After college I was a public school and private school art teacher to K-8 students across the tri-state area.

In 2023 I left the classroom and began to focus more on my own art practice and began selling my work online and at local craft shows as prints, stickers, bookmarks, tote bags and more!

By early 2024 my art business had taken off thanks in large part to social media and I was able to pursue art full time.

My goal when creating my work is for it to spark joy and comfort for the viewer. I also wanted my art to be accessible to most people, which prompted me to put my art on variety of lower price tag merchandise such as stickers and bookmarks.

I hope that my art serves as a reminder of how lucky we all are to exist on this wonderful planet of ours!

How did you build your audience on social media?

My best advice for any artist that wants to turn their passion into a business would be to use all the tools you have! For me this included social media since it’s a free way to get my work out there and seen by people who might appreciate it.

My best advice with social media is to be consistent and focus more on building a community of people that really appreciate your art rather than focusing on “going viral”. By being authentic you will find your crowd as long as you continue to share your work consistently!

Can you talk to us about how you funded your business?

Start your business with as little expenses as possible! When I first started selling my art I used borrowed materials for my craft shows, a less sophisticated printer to make my merchandise etc…Each good sales day I would choose a few new things to invest in that I thought would improve the quality of my products or social media reach such as a tripod for filming my art process or a new type of packaging.

Another really important component is tracking all your expenses. If you aren’t tracking your expenses you may be not profiting as much as you could be, I use an excel spreadsheet to keep track of income vs expenses.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://chloedoughertyart.etsy.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chloedougherty_art?igsh=MWJvMHc0NzZvazdyMA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
• Other: TikTok:
  https://www.tiktok.com/@chloe.doughertyart?_t=ZP-8yuNKKrRPPq&_r=1