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.

Vania Soucy

Being an artist is not for the faint at heart. But I don’t see any other way for myself. I can’t remember the last time I had a job. I really love what I do and that’s what makes me feel motivated to start the day. Ever since I sold my first piece ( a tote bag) I knew that I could make a living from that so I never stopped. I sold that bag to a friend, then some other people want to buy my bags, then I did a monthly market, Read more>>

Nick Petrillo

I’ve had many small victories on the way to what I consider my greatest achievement: to earn a full-time living from my creative work. My journey was never all-or-nothing; meaning I didn’t leave my day job one day and make a living 100% by myself the next. In fact, I’d say a lot of my journey has been working for companies on the side as a contractor and picking up the do’s and do not’s from their successes and failures. Read more>>

Caleb Kelly

I have owned and operated a music recording studio for 6 years. Through this process, I learned to put business before passion. There have been moments where I looked out (Provided Free Service) to some of my clients based on how much I liked their work but in the long run, I can see the decision to do so had little to no benefit to the success of my business. Read more>>

Madison Oakley

I would say I am about ninety percent full-time living off my creative work. Most of my income these days comes from my freelance model work, along with life modeling for various art studios then acting work. It will change month to month depending on what is more available and how my auditions went. When I first moved to Atlanta I was not living off my creative work full time. Read more>>

Michael Aslan

I had always been interested in magic from about 12 years of age on after I saw my first magician at a school assembly. Un fortunately there were no magic shops where I lived . I got my first book from the school library called ” The Amateur Magicians Handbook “. When my family moved back to Colorado I sort of lost interest. It wasn’t until I joined the Navy and went overseas to Guam that my interest began again. Read more>>

Steve Bernal

Hi, thanks for having me! I’ve been a professional artist for about forty years now. I’ve made it happen with a combination of perseverance, a talent that is recognized by some, and some luck. I don’t think there’s a way to speed up that process. Recognition takes time, and the journey can be fraught with lots of rejection, and that is normal. I learned long ago to not focus on the wrong things. Read more>>

Caitlin Campbell

I started my interior design business in 2006. I had dreamed of doing this from the time I was a young girl. My vision was to have a business that would allow me to be creative, provide an income and give me a flexible schedule that I could control when I decided it was time to raise a family. The first 5 years were not very profitable and I was very disheartened each year when I had been working so hard but didn’t have a lot of revenue to show for it. Read more>>

Megan Stiles

I’m building up a full time living. A year after starting my business, I’ve been able to help supplement my husband’s income to better support our family, while also staying home with our kids. In February of 2022 I decided I wanted to take the things I made with crochet to a more serious level and instead of casually making thins here and there for people, I wanted to turn my art into a full business. Read more>>

Jenni Pirmann

I’ve spent several years working towards making a full-time living from my creative work. In the beginning, I took side jobs thinking they would allow me to make art more freely. I did graphic design and taught yoga. This stability was practical while I was maturing as an artist, but I wasn’t satisfied with splitting my attention. Read more>>

Russ Connell

This year marks my second as a full time self-employed artist. Up until this point I’ve always had odd jobs to make ends meet. I got my first gallery sale while I was still in college, we maintained a relationship for several years and they helped sell works for me- this was when I began to realize I could actually make money with the work I was producing. That entire time I was still delivering pizzas to actually pay bills. I remember my first interview (Dallas Morning News) by phone. I had to call her back in between pizza runs to finish the interview. Read more>>

Stefanie Salguero

My mind was always a little bit different. I would overanalyze some things, and completely disregard others. This was, of course, extremely difficult when I became a teenager and school was a priority. It is safe to say I was not a very good student, but I won’t lie and say I tried my best either, I really didn’t. Read more>>

Eva Redamonti

I have been able to make a full time living out of my work through many years of odd-jobs and wearing multiple hats. In the past, I’d been part-time freelance part time barista, waitress, graphic designer, and others. You have probably heard this story before. Read more>>

Tarion

I can distinctly remember one night while being a cater waiter in NYC for one of those televised award shows and watching the singers on stage in overwhelming awe and admiration. In that moment I thought to myself, “that’s gotta be my next move! I have to start living my life through my art.” From that moment on, I decided that if I was going tome my living through my artistry in one way or another. Read more>>

Bob Eckstein

I have never had a, what one would call, a regular job except for last year when things for my wife and I were difficult. That job was Art Director at a publishing house. That ended and it was a relief and I’ll leave it at that as there is no lesson there. But I began as a freelancer and also teaching art. Read more>>

Lilia Kazakova

My journey of becoming a full-time online creative in Los Angeles began on the other side of the world. I was born and raised in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, and moved to the States as an exchange student. I moved to Washington DC to study law at the George Washington University. Even though I immensely enjoyed my studies, I was missing something creative. Read more>>

Sarah Goone

I always knew that I wanted to be an artist. Since high school, I have had a strong feeling that I may not know exactly how it will happen, but I will definitely find a way to make it work. That something will come together and make it possible for me to always create art, and make a living doing so. Right out of college, I had a few odd jobs to help make ends meet. Read more>>

Corey McMullen

My business, photography, didn’t happen overnight or just suddenly fall in my lap. For the longest time, I didn’t truly realize or expect that I would even be able to do it as “work”. About 6 years ago, I was personally going through a time in my life where everything felt like a struggle. I was living somewhere I didn’t want to live, I felt depressed at times, I didn’t love my job like I had hoped, and I had just got out of a relationship. Up until that point, I had done very little with photography. Read more>>

Celeste Godoy

Yes, I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work and it’s been a process to get to this point. I initially came to New York to take photography classes and my goal was to find a job where creativity was the focus. After a few freelancing jobs as a photographer, I was lucky enough to run into a professional real estate photographer who hired me to do real estate photography for the company he was managing back then. Read more>>

Dylan Sadiq

For the last 12 months, I’ve been able to earn a full-time living as an independent artist. However, it has not always been like this. As an engineering student, I loved using my imagination to create one of a kind projects but I was suddenly removed from the classroom due to COVID-19. In April 2021, I created my first mosaic as a way to continue my engineering education because online education was not meeting my expectations. Read more>>

Haley Varacallo

The ‘rollercoaster’ that is freelance life, is truly one of the most challenging and most rewarding journeys. I definitely have had my lows and highs; some months I am flourishing and others it is more of a struggle, but working consistently on something that I A. believe in and am passionate about and B. have to in order to survive, is truly a daily testament to my work ethic, my drive, my vision.. Read more>>

Amy Elizabeth

I’ve been fortunate to independently support myself as a makeup artist in the film/TV industry for the last 15 years. It took me some time to get here, but I stayed diligent and focused on my goals, and it has proven to be worth all of the work that has been put in. Read more>>

Franzy Staedter

I am fortunate that I have been a full time artist for over 11 years. And the last 5 years, I have especially been pinpointing the successful actions that strengthened my virtual styling company, StaedterStyle, which is expanding year after year. Read more>>

Joey Joesph

I have not been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. I was really troubled by this for a while, living in the reality of capitalism where we’re pretty much constantly getting the message that – if you’re spending your time doing something, no matter how happy it makes you, if it isn’t making you money then it’s not worth doing seriously. Read more>>

Eleanor Rhinehart

I knew that I wanted to be a full time artist since childhood but I had no idea how to do that. The only options I saw in my small town were teaching, children’s book illustrating and gallery/wall art. I went to Skidmore College for art and concentrated in painting, hoping to be one of those coveted few gallery artists that we studied in school. After graduation I moved to NYC to be a part off the art world there and I worked in a few galleries, even showing my work, but the environment wasn’t an inspiring celebration of art, it felt more like car sales to me. Read more>>

Sarah Rachael

When I first started my business it definitely took time to place value on my own work so I started off like many creatives and I severely undercharged. I knew I was talented but it is easy to get in your own way with your inner doubts and self talk, questioning a dollar amount to your worth. Read more>>

Gerry High

I came to the realization that I enjoyed creating art. I had spent my time as a bus driver,,maintenance man and many other professions. I was asked to create 100 large paintings for the Ocotillo Lodge in Palm Springs where I was working as a maintenance man. I was selling drawings to the hotels guest. An art gallery saw my work and invited me to display my work. Started selling and I haven’t stopped. I was basically self taught. Showed at art fairs, restaurants and wherever I could hang my work. This gave me confidence in my work and abilities. Read more>>

Lord Goldie

I haven’t got to that point yet but that is the goal. I have made money off of multiple incomes in the music industry that include live show bookings, merch sales, sync placements, streaming and more. In order to survive solely in this industry, multiple incomes is the way to go. It wasn’t like that from day one. Physical sales of music was still a thing when I started taking music serious. That’s another source you can add lol. Read more>>

Laurel Greenfield

Yes! It took several years and a lot of patience, but I am so grateful to be able to say that I make my full time living as an artist. At first I wasn’t sure what an art business could look like. I saw artists on instagram selling out of their collections of original paintings in one day and just assumed that would work for me, but everyone’s path is different. I started out doing small commissions for friends while I had part time jobs. Read more>>

Cindy Baron

Yes I have been able to earn a good living selling my paintings. I started selling early thru a few galleries but outdoor park shows were a big contributor and a great way to grow and learn the business. Starting out early with outdoor art festivals also gave you discipline to work on a body of work during the year to sell mostly when spring and summer approached. Read more>>

Shelby Dunlap

Yes, I’m currently am working as a full time tattooist. I knew this is what I wanted to do, I made it an absolute priority in my life. I took big leaps that had a 50/50 chance of working out. I applied for interviews that I wasn’t qualified for, I said yes all the time, I quit my full time job so I could put full time work into my craft, only earning part time pay. I drew over 1000 hours in one year, I did free services for practice and word of mouth. Read more>>

Raeah Carroll

If I could go back in time and tell 12-year-old Raeah that 34-year-old Raeah writes for a living she would be so proud. She would also be confused because 90% of the writing I do is for platforms that either didn’t exist or were brand new when I was 12. It took a long time and a winding road for me to finally be able to make writing my full-time career. Read more>>

Mattie Stillwell

I’ve worked as an artist selling my paintings at Jackson Square in New Orleans for 12 years. I am self taught with no formal training so it has been a learning process. At first I didn’t know where to start or what to create, I was inspired to try selling at the square when I met my now boyfriend of 12 years, Nathan. He has been an artist there since 2010 and does quite well at this point. I spent the first four years posted up on Decatur Street by the mules and carriages and I definitely struggled. Read more>>

Claire Marti

It took me more than 5 years to start making full-time income as a romance novelist. My first novel was published in 2017 and my thirteenth book came out on February 9th, 2023. My debut series was published through a small press and then I decided to indie publish my new series, Pacific Vista Ranch, beginning in 2019. Read more>>

Sanne Vander

My whole entire life people kept telling me I should pursue modeling. I remember during primary school the teacher wrote a poem for everybody in the class and she praised a lot of the other kids for their maths skills or their creative writing. However, in my poem she told me I looked like a model. Of course it was a huge compliment, but at the time I felt like my academic achievements were overlooked and people only focused on my appearance. Read more>>

Michelle Johnson

When it became clear that I wanted to pursue a career in the arts, my mom and dad insisted that I made sure to have something to “fall back on” in in the event of a disaster or failure. Like the parents of many young creatives, they were worried about my financial stability and future earning potential. With that in mind, we made a deal that I would go to college first, Read more>>

Ziana Pearson

In February of 2021, I decided to quit my retail job and pursue my art business full time. I started my online store summer 2020 and my bedroom slowly transitioned into my creative oasis where I would already spend hours on hours creating, I transitioned into my full time entrepreneurship less than a year later, not because business was booming but because I knew and still know my true passion and calling. Read more>>