We’ve seen way too many talented creatives quit because they couldn’t make it work financially. No doubt, the financial challenges of pursuing a creative or artistic career are daunting, but we felt there wasn’t enough discussion around how to make it work. So, we connected with artists and creatives who’ve been able to earn a full time living from their creative work and asked them to share their stories with our readers.

Lamarr Sanders

For the most part, what we do, my wife and I is full-time with a little bit of supplemental work on the side, but still in the same field of business which is visual / fine arts. Before painting pictures full-time, I started out on my entrepreneurial journey as a graphic designer. In my earlier years of doing graphic design, I was making decent money but really good jobs were few and far in between and during that time the field was developing pretty fast. To make a long story short, I ended up quitting graphic design and moving away from that field of work all together. Read more>>

Scott Hilburn

100 % of my income comes from the creation of my comic. I had a day job in the telecom industry before becoming syndicated. After getting noticed by my syndicate in 2007, I was offered a developmental contract. About a year later, in April of 2008, my comic launched into newspapers, calendars and greeting cards. From my understanding, that’s pretty much a whirlwind launch – and 6 months later I left my day job and have worked for myself doing nothing but my comic ever since.. Read more>>

Dave Clark

I purchased my first guitar at age 14 and knew absolutely immediately that I wanted to play music for a living. Of course, my family had other ideas and pushed me toward college to prep for a professional career. I played in bands from age 15 through age 26, trying to get that elusive record deal. When it didn’t happen by age 26, I unwillingly decided to build a career in the corporate world. And I hated every moment of it! Read more>>

Kristen Sellentin

I have! This last year, 2022, I had a goal to make 6 figures as a social media Content Creator and I did it with determination, consistent social media posting, making connections with brands, and brand campaigns. Read more>>

Elena Gunderson

If you had told me three years ago that my primary source of income would be my art I would have struggled to believe you. I had attempted to go full time art twice before. I usually made it a few months at a time before realizing my pockets were far too light, and returning to the restaurant and service world from which I came. While I would love to say that I know longer work for anyone but myself, I have found that working one day a week for someone else isn’t necessarily a bad idea. Read more>>

Adriana Larue

Yes I been highly blessed to be able to fully live of my creative work. It definitely was not an easy road , having to start from zero coming into a scene that was already established I had to work my way up. Doing endless free shows where I would sometimes make 1-5 dollars in a night , doing local competitions on a weekly basis on top of that I had a full time job but it did not stop me from achieving my goal ! Nothing stood in my way I wanted my art to be seen and be appreciated! I managed to get where I am today by working hard , with integrity and a good heart ! Read more>>

Aleksandra Stojanoska

I’ve always known that I want to be an artist, but never really thought about how will I actually make a living from it. It’s something that I was doing since I was little, drawing, painting. My dad is an artist so he was my inspiration and the biggest motivator. Long story short, I graduated from the College of Fine Arts back in my home country Macedonia. And then there’s this moment, when reality hits you: now what? Sure, it was great 4-year experience but no one really teaches you what to do next. Read more>>

Rei Rei

I took the leap and resigned from my position working at Amazon to pursue my dreams and passions. I know this doesn’t work out for everyone so I feel extremely blessed and privileged that it did for me. Read more>>

Natalie Murphy

I am fortunate to always have been able to make a full-time living from my creative work. Sure, there have been tough times, but I’ve never had a month when I couldn’t pay my bills. Wearing many hats is what’s made it possible: I take gigs playing fiddle, guitar and singing in other artists’ bands, I produce music, I do recording sessions, I write songs, I tour with my own band, and I do a lot of corporate work. Together, it works. Read more>>

Paula Vanlandingham

After I finished my Master’s Degree in Linguistic Anthropology in 1998, I was thrilled to work as a research analyst (a career I enjoyed for a decade until the Great Recession hit in 2008 and gutted the company I worked for). Like millions of other workers, I was faced with a drastic career change in order to continue to provide for my family in the midst of a terrible economic disaster. I took a low-level administrative support job at a local university to make ends meet. Read more>>

Sam Kahn

I have, just recently, been able to thoroughly support myself making dice. I started while I was in grad school, mostly out of necessity. I was in a tiny town that is completely dependent on tourist dollars, and when COVID hit everything shut down, which meant I had to immediately get very creative about how I was making money. I had been making TTRPG dice for my friends for a few months, so I did an improvised photoshoot and opened an Etsy shop. I had no idea how to price my dice, very little idea of how to run production on a retail scale, and a good amount of panic, but I scraped by. Read more>>

Dani Bauer

I’ve been fortunate to have been an entrepreneur for 19 years and the skills I’ve learned from starting and growing multiple businesses has been instrumental in becoming a full-time artist. I started stained glass almost three years ago after a long time of searching for an art form I was passionate about. Lots of things caught my attention, from water painting to making soaps and shampoos, but I didn’t fully connect with any of them. Read more>>

Jadah Queen

I have been a dancer since 1992 and when the pandemic hit I strived to find a different way to express myself from home. I signed with a reputable talent agency in Dallas entitled The Linicomn agency and I began acting. I took classes and learned from the best but realized that acting is full of highs and lows. Not exactly a job I could do full time. I decided to open up a Tiktok account and shared my creativity on the platform. I grew a large following very quickly and discovered that it was something I could do from home, as a Stay at Home Mother of 6. Read more>>

Camille Blouin

I have a few times earned a living from being creative. I was on a national tour a few years ago and loved every second of it, except when I lost my shoes, we got our vehicles broken into and robbed, and my watch broke on stage. I have to put together my own tour and make funny videos to be scene. All you have to do and do it with whatever you have. Never wait on the right time because there’s no such thing. I tend to be a perfectionist and find myself waiting for certain things to happen in order for me to go, instead of making my own way and do it with faith. Read more>>

Daniel Mendoza

I started Amoroma Productions in 2010 and at the time I had been working as a Lab Technician in the Dermatology field for about 5 years. Seeing as I had been self-employed for a while already, the decision to start a second business centered around my passion for filmmaking came fairly easy. I began working hard to make strong connections and building a solid work portfolio to begin making the transition to video production full time. Read more>>

Ashley Love

My grandfather, who lived through the Great Depression and was a very frugal and smart man, had a saying: “Be in the business of something people need everyday.” People surely don’t need what I do everyday, maybe, but our on-going clients do need their constituents’, clients’, members’, beneficiaries’ stories told and when you add up several clients with several retainers, the foundation is there to keep the company afloat. Read more>>

Sandra Alexander

I am really fortunate that I have an entrepreneurial spirit, and have always been able to monetize my work. When I was struggling financially to get through college, I started approaching small shops I saw advertising in my local newspaper. My first real freelance job was for a small clothing store. The owner let me redesign her print ad. I gave them way too many options, but that very first check, even though it was small, felt pretty rewarding. After college, I worked for a magazine and a few creative agencies, but I always supplemented my income with freelance work on the side. A lot of my projects came to me through friends, and quite frankly, still do. Relationships are everything! Read more>>

Hulis Mavruk

Although I am a creative, I knew if I wanted to make money I needed to approach my art as a business. I surrounded myself with people who ran their own businesses and learned the ropes and gained insight. When I opened my first gallery I thought, how can I get people in the door to see my art? What is associated with art that can reach a broader audience, and so I made the decision to turn my gallery into a custom frame shop. Read more>>

Lexi Sanchez

I started working full time in my creative work around the summer of 2020. I was working an office job that wasn’t bringing me joy, and I honestly kind of experienced a moment where I realized that I don’t want to keep doing anything besides what I love; making art. In the beginning it was a big leap of faith.. I didn’t have a lot of cliental and I had to push my work on socials an embarrassing amount haha. Read more>>

Zen Nguyen

I have been able to earn a full-time living from dance for the past 4 years. Back when I was in college, dance to me was just a passion, a way to release stress from school, and to connect with other people (Because I’m from Vietnam, I moved here for college in 2014, so I didn’t have many friends). Read more>>

Alex Conover

I used to work full-time at a start-up soap company where I ran the social media and did a lot of photography/design. It was ok, but I wasn’t especially passionate about soap or what we were doing. I looked around a lot for a new opportunity creating content, and had a very discouraging second-place finish with a dream job opening. Read more>>

Enrique CHIU

I have been able to make a living from my creative work and skills. It has been a process of learning different techniques, new skills and experimenting throughout 20 years. Since I have always liked to work with the community it has allowed me to also work with many people, learn and grow, which at the same time creates new opportunities for work; in reality I don’t even consider it WORK because it’s really what I LOVE to do… Read more>>

Mila Milana

Most people look at the life of a creative and think it must be the best thing ever, well to a point. Making a full time living as a talent definitely takes time it is not a process to rush and doesn’t come all at once. I remember when I began to take my talents more seriously and rely on them as a primary source of income, to say the least I was a bit confused. If I could say anything to the 2016 creator me I would tell her don’t forget to invest in marketing. Read more>>

Andrea Serrano Villaverde

During my senior year of high school, advertising entered my life out of nowhere. I came upon a video online titled “The Power of Words” by a marketing firm named Purple Feather and I found it to be so fascinating that I changed my major. I came to understand that the way you tell things may affect how individuals live their lives. Read more>>

Barry Alston

It was scary. I was taking acting jobs here and there while working a full time job. Acting opportunities then came consistently and I found myself debating calling out of work and did a lot. It came to a point where a decision had to be made. Me making decision to go full throttle with the acting was not easy, it was extremely scary, but yet it was an act of faith Read more>>

Damian Fitzsimmons

I grew up in an environment that neither nurtured nor encouraged creativity. I wasn’t even aware I was an artist ’til much later in life. Making a living was not the first priority for me as an artist. Not being from a creative or artistic background meant that I wasn’t even really aware that you could make a living doing this. When I eventually decided that I wanted to be a filmmaker, I really didn’t think about the financial aspect of it. I guess partly because I was young and naive – part of me assumed I would figure that stuff out later – which is exactly what happened. Read more>>

Audi Geis

When I was in college, I was there because it felt like that’s what I was supposed to do. I loved learning, but the concept of paying for an education before I knew what I wanted to do… just felt off to me. At the time, social media hadn’t taken off yet, and it certainly wasn’t a potential job option. I ended up choosing to major in Communication Media Studies, and minor in Digital Media & Design, because I knew I’d want to work in business, but wasn’t sure which area I was passionate about. Read more>>

Rebecca Jack

Yes, I made the transition last year to a full time artist. It’s been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember! It definitely didn’t happen overnight. It’s been a slow process for me. Being an artist seemed like an impossible career to make a living at. The misconception of “starving artist” is very much prevalent in society that it can be crippling for creatives to take action and focus on their practice. Read more>>

Kennedy Oneself

When I realized that the direction of my life was moving in a way that would not be fulfilling or satisfying to me, I dropped out of college quit all my jobs and decided to cut off all expenses so that I could have a wealth of time to find out who I am and what I liked to do. Read more>>

Allie Miller

From my own experience, I’ve found that the best way to making a full-time living as a musician is to start developing music skills as early in life as possible, and by keeping an open mind by diversifying and broadening your skillset. Read more>>

Elena Paiola And Alberto Boffa

Alberto and I are life partners and work full-time, together, on all of our projects. Defining what we do is something we’ve always found hard because we are so curious and love exploring new paths and new activities – we always have some idea or project brewing! I think we can say that our main job, at the moment, is working as visual designers: we are partners in a creative agency and have the privilege of working with big international brands. But we also have a passion for photography on the side and have always worked on independent photography projects (which is how I think your team discovered us). Read more>>

Ariee

Earning a full time living as an artist can be a challenge when you’re first starting. You can be confused on where to start who to talk to and when the right time would be to start. I’m here to tell you there is no correct blueprint to making a living as an artist. Read more>>

Jess Sheeran

Yes! I took many, many baby steps in the process of becoming a full time maker and each one lead me closer to where I wanted to be. I don’t believe any of those steps were accidents and I’m grateful for the ups and downs throughout the process, as they were all learning experiences that shaped this weird and cool path that I’m on! Read more>>

John Hill

Yes, I have been very fortunate to earn a full-time living from my artwork. Earning an income from my work started back in October, 2016 when I was drawing on thick, watercolor paper with pens. I had a commission opportunity to make a good bit of money from a drawing and I was so excited that I quit my job delivering major appliances and started drawing full-time. It went really well for a short period of time, but it wasn’t going the way I wanted it to go. Read more>>

Jose Vargas

My journey to become independent and have a stable job has been long and is still under construction. I was born in Chile, a country where living from art is unthinkable, much less from musical theater. Artistic culture in Chile hardly exists and artists there have to be self-taught and create our own opportunities. In 2016 I had my first big break, when the great musical theater director Baayork Lee went to Chile to put together A Chorus Line. Read more>>

Kimberly Kong

I’ve made my living as a full time performer for 8 years. When I first started, I had a part time serving job at Olive Garden. I worked 1-2 performances a week. When I began booking more gigs weekly, I still held onto Olive Garden as a safety net, because your schedule can be very on call and inconsistent as a performer in the beginning. Lots of last minute booking confirmations happen the day of or day before. When you’re a new performer in the industry, especially for gogo dancing, most of the time you’re called to fill in for a veteran dancer until you earn a resident spot. Read more>>

Stephanie Hennessy

I think the biggest obstacle has always been, “is it even possible?” Prior to opening and owning this wedding photography business, I was a 10-year property manager stuck in a corporate career that was absolutely miserable, and incredibly emotionally draining and toxic. Because I made this large and steady corporate salary, I just always thought I was required to continue the grind to continue to earn a 6-figure payment, and never thought there was another option. When covid hit, it was really my last straw in being able to mentally carry the career, and I started the photography business as a side-gig just to bring me some joy and add the hobby back in. Read more>>

Moira Villiard

My path to becoming a full-time artist was both incredibly spontaneous and intentional. I wouldn’t say I knew I wanted to be an artist professionally when I was a kid, but I had enough trauma to sort through that it did feel like a natural progression most of the time. Through art, I could time travel – I could make the day end faster and it helped me disappear. As I got older and became more recognized for my work, paradoxically, it became a way to be seen. Read more>>