We were lucky to catch up with Jacci Farlow recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jacci thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you 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?

Life quite literally began on a shoestring for me back in 1977 when I arrived in New York City. By the time I left in 1990, I’d gone from scraping by to earning a six-figure salary. My early career was all about shoes — illustrations, posters, magazine work — and the real magic came from meeting the right people at the right moment. I was helped, guided, encouraged, and I learned the power of saying ‘yes’ even when I’d never walked that road before.
What it really takes is a need, a willingness to work, creative thinking, faith, determination, and persistence. If you keep showing up, the path rises to meet you.
Today, I make a very good living as a property manager, and my canvas has simply changed. Houses are my current art form — spaces, light, flow, potential. Back then it was shoes; today it’s homes. The creative instinct is the same.
The process unfolds. The pace is yours to create. The vision is yours to manifest. For me, it always starts the same way: imagine your best day ever… and then start taking steps toward it.

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

My career began completely by accident — proof that sometimes life nudges you in the right direction when you don’t even have your shoes on yet. I was an apprentice to a film editor in New York City, spending long hours in a dark, cramped cutting room. To stay sane, I started doodling people’s feet, and surprisingly, you could always tell exactly who it was just from their shoes. That little habit was my first real step in a direction I didn’t yet know existed.
At the time, I was also working part-time at Sardi’s Restaurant in the heart of the Broadway theatre district. After seeing my first Broadway show — A Chorus Line — I was so elated I practically floated out of the theater. That visceral reaction sparked an idea that put me on a whole new path.
Sardi’s, of course, is famous for its signed, pen-and-ink caricatures of Broadway celebrities. Since I’d been sketching the film editors’ shoes, I suddenly wondered: What if I created shoe portraits of Broadway shows and hung them at Sardi’s? To my surprise, Mr. Sardi himself invited me to display them at the entrance — and soon after, the entire second floor.
That’s when I really stepped into my stride. The buzz around these ‘shoe portraits’ grew, and I became known as Gacci — the world’s only shoe portraitist. Before I knew it, I was doodling famous feet on Broadway, getting them signed and enjoying my five minutes of media stardom. One opportunity laced right into the next.
My work caught the eye of Dick Jacobson, founder of the Fashion Footwear Association of New York, who hired me to design an artsy shoe magazine for the footwear industry. That gig opened the door to illustrated and photographic shoe ads — one step leading naturally to another, each opportunity fitting like a well-worn favorite pair.
Those early years taught me that when you follow your instincts, stay curious, and keep putting one foot in front of the other, life has a way of leading you exactly where you’re meant to go.”

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

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the deep appreciation it builds for our visual world. I’m constantly amazed by how much beauty we overlook — the tiny, ordinary details that can enrich our lives and quietly encode meaning, if only we pause long enough to see them. Art trains us to look differently. To welcome difference. To seek out what is unfamiliar so we can grow, expand, and feel more connected to the mystical fabric of existence.
Art is everywhere. It lives in our bodies, our minds, our emotions, our surroundings. Just look around the room you’re in — nearly everything near you was shaped by an artist’s hand, imagination, or influence. Yet artists often struggle to survive financially, emotionally, and socially. What’s missing isn’t talent or contribution; it’s respect, acknowledgment, and appreciation.
Art doesn’t just decorate life — it deepens it. It is the thread that binds experience, beauty, and meaning. That’s why I create, and why I believe art deserves to be recognized for the essential force it is.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

My career has always unfolded one unexpected step at a time. What began with illustrating shoes — my first true artistic footprint — carried me farther than I ever imagined. After the birth of our first child in 1990, that path widened into designing children’s furniture. Even then, I didn’t hang up my shoe life. I continued working as a graphic designer for Fashion Footwear, serving as editor, photographer, and designer of a bi-yearly,trendy industry magazine.
When my husband, daughter, and I moved to the Finger Lakes region, we launched Woodwhims Woodever Inc, our own hand-carved, hand-painted furniture company. For five years, we poured our hearts into developing a style, a production system, and a loyal clientele — only to be blindsided by a wave of inexpensive, decaled imports that flooded the marketplace. With too much invested in advertising and trade shows, we found ourselves overextended. Declaring bankruptcy was a painful blow, a moment that made us feel like our soles had been worn thin.
Starting over wasn’t optional — it was necessary.
In 1997, I resigned from the NYC magazine work and turned toward something I’d learned from my shoe-portrait days: photography. I refined my skills, hit the local streets — quite literally — and rebuilt a new creative life from scratch. That step led me to MacKenzie-Childs, the internationally known home furnishings company here in Aurora, NY. I became the graphics department for a time, contributing design, photography, and creativity.
Along the way, we purchased an income property so my mother could live closer to us. That single decision cracked open yet another new door. As the Airbnb boom began, I stumbled into a completely unexpected career as a property manager. One house led to another, and another… Now we own five homes and manage five more.
Today, my latest creative expression is what I call PLAYING HOUSE. Every home we buy, renovate, design, and share becomes my latest art form — as expressive as a painting, as intentional as a sculpted shoe, and as joyful as any illustration I ever made. These homes are big, grand canvases, and the true magic is that people don’t just look at them — they live inside them. They get to inhabit a living, breathing piece of art.
My journey has never followed a straight line. It’s been more like trying on shoes until you find the right pair. My advice? When the door appears, walk through it. You never know where you’ll land — but it just might be the perfect fit.”

Contact Info:

• Website: https://gaccishoes.com
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5KZtJY8k4U
• Other: https://www.auroramainstays.com