We recently connected with Jeston Rodriguez and have shared our conversation below.

Jeston , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have been very fortunate that I was able to start making a full time living from art. When the pandemic hit, I wasn’t able to work at my current job so I had to find another way of making income. I was already doing art shows and markets around Houston, so I just took the time to start making more work and focused on commission work all through 2020. Around October of 2020, I came across another artist in South Dakota on TikTok who was starting to do live wedding painting. It looked like fun, and I felt confident in my abilities to do the same. So I found a friend of mine that was getting married in April of 2021 and asked if I could practice at their wedding, and it would be for free, they agreed. (They loved it so much that they, and their parents ended up paying for my stay and time). So I had done my first demo, and started working on different sizes, created social media for the business, made a website. I launched everything in late June of 2021. It took off fast. by the end of 2021 I had booked 60 weddings, between September 2021- July 2022. Within a few months I was able to quit my other job I had before the pandemic, and focus solely on my live painting business. I was extremely lucky to be able to hire on other artists as well, they’ve all been amazing at helping grow the business.
I just hit a year last month in September and we are booked solid until June of 2023 with dates filling fast. Its been wild.
If I could have predicted how fast this would have blown up, I would have launched the business a lot earlier, like right after the trial wedding in April, which is “booking season” in the wedding industry.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’m originally from Houston, I went to art school in New Hampshire, and after I graduated, I moved back to Houston in 2015. I started out as a freelance artist under the name Kiss the Grave Studios and working full time at Painting with a Twist. My original art is horror based, but I also did lots of commissions, memorial art, and murals around town. Now, I still do my horror art for conventions around Texas, but my main focus is wedding business Rendered Moments. We offer live wedding and event painting, guest watercolor sketches, guest caricatures, commissions, and custom wedding signage.
The paintings are completely customizable, we can add in past loved ones, pets, combine scenes, and more! We want these paintings to be a family heirloom for our couples (and families) to enjoy for generations to come. We also travel all over the US and internationally as well!
We have multiple artists on our team so we are able to provide multiple services for the day of a wedding or event. We are also woman , latinx, and LGBTQIA+ owned, operated, and inclusive.
I think what I’m most proud of is being able to employ other artists. For two of our artists, Rendered Moments is their main income which is super cool! We get to travel together and paint every weekend which is so much fun! It still feels like a dream.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Social media is rough! I started out with Kiss the Grave studios Instagram page in 2014. I believe back then it was all about branding, keeping your life vs your personal life separate. Which was super difficult and boring. It was hard to separate who I was and who I was as an artist. Thankfully I think a lot of creatives got tired of that rule. I slowly started seeing other creatives basically say “screw it” and started letting us as the viewers get to know more about them instead of the super curated version of their work. It was refreshing and super relatable. I didn’t really start opening up on my Instagram until 2017-ish, still felt super awkward and forced, I’m not a big writer, so I could never find something for the caption that felt genuine. Then TikTok became and thing, videos were soooo much easier! I didn’t have to think so much to get my point across, plus trends made it super easy for you to connect to your audience. I ended up doing one of those “Get to know me” sounds and it kind went viral. My audience compared to my Instagram quadrupled over night, over a silly video that I made one afternoon!

I know TikTok gets a lot of hate, and its a lot more effort to come up with an idea, remember to film, and edit together than posting a quick pic, but it really has brought me more opportunities than any other platform! It’s also the biggest reason Rendered Moments has been so successful.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Being able to give back to my community, help other artists thrive, and be able to feel fulfilled and happy at the same time is amazing. I know they are “just paintings”, but the sincere happiness on clients faces when they see their painting, or their commissions of a lost loved one, it feels like I’m helping the best that I can.
Plus working with other artists on a regular basis helps me to continue learning, teaching, and brainstorm new ideas together to grow the business towards a collective goal which is to create art daily, and to bring art to others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.renderedmomentsart.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renderedmoments/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Houstonweddingpainter
• Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@renderedmoments

Image Credits
Jeston Rodriguez