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.

Amanda Christine Harth

I have been able to make a living from my creative work and it’s something I never really thought was possible until the world shut down in 2020. At this point in my career I’ve been a part time entrepreneur longer than I have been a full time one. I was concerned about not having a safety net if I were to leave my full time job. My work at the beginning of my career focus on programming, experiential activations, and workshops on creative entrepreneurship. I got my first financial sponsor three years after I started my business and came out of pocket for the majority of these events. My events always did well, I just couldn’t figure out to make a profit! Read more>>

Jessica Brooks

Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now? Read more>>

Kristian Zenz

Unfortunately, not yet. I believe the process to achieving ‘success’ within the realm of the publishing industry is a canvas for me to paint on. I have been given the opportunity to create something great that will result in financial stability and success. But, I am still painting upon this canvas. I am still learning everyday. Metaphors and motifs aside, it is simply up to me and only me to achieve a full-time living. It’s up to me to take matters into my own hands, and believe in myself when few others do. I may be my biggest fan, but I am also my biggest critic. I must not be afraid to risk my security and safety, and branch out to showcase my work. This work may not be polished and it may not be perfect. My writing will likely improve as I keep creating, leaving my prior work in the dust. But, to be vulnerable and to speak from the soul on stage or in print in the current frame of mind of which I possess is my greatest power. If I lose this power, I will never be able to earn a living from it. Read more>>

Heavy Gus

We all have managed to make a living off of strictly creative work, but not strictly in this project. Heavy Gus adds to the pool for our resources, but we all keep our hands dirty with many projects. Stelth Ulvang plays in a few bands the most successful being “The Lumineers.” Ryan Dobrowski, the drummer plays in a few bands, his most successful being “Blind Pilot” , but he spends more of his time these days painting than anything. Read more>>

Bill Brady

The journey of a career is rarely a straightforward path. It zigs and zags, peaks and valleys, always evolving. Working in a creative industry, it is a common assumption that talent is the key to success. But when talent is a given, what factors contribute to the success of one individual over another? I would like to share my story. Read more>>

Sacha Harford

As a veteran makeup and hair artist , besides my set work which I have done for many years , I am in the process of creating a brand and educating fellow artist and new artist , inspire , create and use all of my knowledge to advertise my ideas and brand . Read more>>

Kyle Anderson

Thank you for having me here. Yes I do earn a full time living from my creative work, but I don’t think it’s a worthy goal. Certainly, I don’t think it’s important to speed up the process. Even if you’re broke or you feel stuck. I do what I do to enjoy whatever time I have in this life. It will feel counterintuitive to follow your curiosities when you’re struggling to meet your survival needs but if you’re not enjoying yourself, your decisions will tend to lead to a downward spiral. Changing professions will not cure you. Poverty is painful, but riches do not heal. What value does life have if there is no joy? I learned that one the hard way like so many others so I wish for these words to inspire you to follow a different path. Read more>>

Sonya Katarina

I am lucky enough to have always known I wanted a career in the arts, and to be able to split my time between photography and acting is more than I could have hoped for. I strongly believe that the interests you gravitate towards in your free time, especially as a young adult, coupled with how people in your life positively reinforce your specific skills and talents, is the best metric to use when deciding your vocation. If you are steadily being goaded in a certain direction, why fight it for the sake of convention? Life has always pulled me towards the freedom and joy of creating, and pushing against that by forcing myself to get a “real job” just to satisfy the status quo would be an affront to how I am inherently wired and designed. This should be an encouragement to fellow creatives: listen to your desires and don’t be afraid to go after what personally brings you fulfillment and joy. You have been given a unique blend of interests for a reason. Read more>>

Mariah Green

The journey of my creative work started when I graduated with my Bachelors of Arts in Photography in 2014 in Denver, the goal was to be freelance from the start but plot twist – it’s not that easy! I was working at Office Depot print department while juggling 3 other photography freelance jobs for different companies. I was exhausted and worked myself sick. Read more>>

Joel Crosson-Kline

I never fit in doing a 9-5. I always felt that there was something more important I should be doing with my time. When I was working other jobs I always wished I could’ve been making money doing something I love while filling my time. At first I thought it was impossible and that art would always just be a hobby or side hustle for me, then I started applying my extra time and nights into learning how to tattoo. I learned in every way possible just to know the craft. In doing so I became more well known from tattooing all my friends. By then I had built a decent portfolio and knew I could do something with it. I took that portfolio to a city that was bigger and easier to market in and got in at a low level tattoo shop. I knew I couldn’t get into a big name shop off the jump and I’d have to start somewhere smaller first to make a name for myself. Five shops and six years later I’m a well known artist with a broad clientele and I love what I do. I never knew tattooing would be a job that would not only transform my life but take me to places I never thought I would go. It’s given me the freedom to do what I love and make a living at the same time, and a decent one at that. Read more>>

Stephanie Hennessy

I’ll say this–I wish I would have started so much earlier, and yet, I don’t think I would have been nearly as successful. I spent a decade in a career as a property manager before starting my photography business; not only did this teach me the ins and outs of running a successful business from every aspect, but it gave me the grit I would need to carry me through self-employment. I actually picked a camera back up after the suggestion of my therapist (don’t you have any hobbies you used to enjoy?), and realized quickly how much I couldn’t live without this passion in my life anymore. Covid hit the world, and I spent a miserable last year in my property management career, looking for any escape that I could use as a way out. Photography was essentially going to be a side gig and the light at the end of the tunnel to reduce hours in my full time career, and instead I put every ounce of myself into this business and went full time with my creative career in 9 months. Read more>>

Judit Reding

From the moment my oldest was about to turn one, I knew I wanted to make cookies for her birthday party. I taught myself the art of cookie decorating and loved it. Crafting became a passion, and I quickly became adept at it. Read more>>

Laura Cheadle

I work every single day at my craft, I live and breathe music. My typical day consists of waking up, going over my travel schedule and proceeding from there. When I am not traveling, I am in the recording studio working on new music. I have mapped my life in a way where my creative efforts afford me my life. I do everything from live performance, to voiceovers, to tv appearances, to film and tv music. I love living this way and sharing my music to the world! Read more>>

Micah Jones

I’m grateful to say that music is my full time job, but it certainly hasn’t always been that way. By the time I graduated from college, I had just enough music work to make ends meet. Then, a few months later I got a touring gig that allowed me to travel around the U.S., play cool venues, and make some of my dearest friends. It wasn’t without its difficulties and sacrifices, but I really enjoyed it and felt like I had “made it” as a musician! Read more>>

Kevin Christian

Yea I earn a full time living from being a creative. Honestly the best way I can put it is slow and steady wins the race. The more you stick to something, the more it will work out for you, that’s how focusing energy works. I’d been to college, worked a million jobs, finally acquired a high paying job in my field and the whole time I hated it, I was stressed and anxious, all I could think about was my art. So one day I just stopped, cold, stopped trying completely at my job, and they let me go. I decided to focus all my energy on myself and my craft, and literally since the day I made that decision, its been getting better and better, even through extremely rough parts. It’s been over 6 years now. Read more>>

Jennifer Weir

After a lifetime of working in the arts, I have finally left my corporate day job and am working full-time in my creative life. For decades I have struggled with the balance to provide for my family, have financial stability, and have enough energy and resources leftover to pursue my art. Finally, when I turned 50 years old, I realized that it truly is now or never to make the life I’ve dreamed of. I left my corporate job of 18+ years, and now I work full time for the arts nonprofit I founded. My days are filled with dreaming, creating, fundraising, and hustling. I’m only 4 months into it now, and I am happier than I’ve ever been. In part, I wish I could have told my younger self to make the leap sooner. However, I realize that I may have not been fully ready for it. I have a newfound sense of what my vision for the future is. The perfect job, opportunity, career, etc isn’t waiting for me to earn it. It is simply waiting for me to build it. I think my life unfolded as it should have, and I have no regrets. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is to say out loud the big dreams, even if they seem impossible today. They have a funny way of manifesting as you put more attention and energy into their being. Read more>>

Mayuko Ono Gray

I have always worked day jobs and/or took care of my daughter as she was growing up, so I was never fully artist 100% of my time. The most recent positions I had were gallery director position at a local community college and instructor at an art school. I knew I was fortunate that I was at least working in art related field, but always felt like I was not using my time as I was meant to in this life time. However, working as gallery director position was such a learning experience seeing exhibitions and art handling from gallery operation aspects. I also were able to meet so many artists from exhibitions planning and attending conferences through college. Read more>>

Alicia Stevens

The goal is to eventually be able to survive off my small business earnings. Right now, it’s almost paying for itself but I made many investments this year with new display items that I’m still trying to pay off. I try to give myself grace while my business is growing and I’m still learning. Read more>>

 

Shalah Turner

I make a six-figure salary by creating digital products. In 2018 I experienced a mentally draining year and decided that I wanted to look into creating products that did not require me to be physically present. I launched my first ebook. After that I became a student of digital offers and in addition to launching over 37 for myself and my son, I have helped over 1500 people do the same. This was no overnight thing. My first ebook made close to $200 a month but it showed me the possibilities. Within 2 years we hit the six-figure mark without running a single ad. I made a lot of errors along the way and now what I have done in 3 years clients are able to see in nearly six months and some shorter. Read more>>

Karl Payton

When I decided to make freelancing my full-time job, it definitely was a rocky start. At the time, I was working full-time and freelancing when I could. When I decided to make the full leap and resign from my position, I calculated how much I needed to earn from freelancing to be good for the month. Knowing how payment works in the industry, I knew what I booked in the current month I wouldn’t see until the following month (net 30). In the beginning, it was a struggle, for sure. I said yes to every potential booking (even ones I should have turned down) that came my way. Throughout the years, I’ve been able to command a higher rate, be more selective, and expand on streams of income. The pandemic helped spark me to do product development, consulting, and paid posts on top of sessions hairstyling. It’s important to not burn yourself out and to know what your expenses are. I’m so grateful that now I’ve built relationships with people and companies where work is consistent, and I earn enough to take care of myself and my family. Read more>>

Gabriela Tubert

I have been working extremely hard to earn a full time salary from my creative work. In the beginning, it was very slow and I constantly had to reach out to brands first. Read more>>

Daphne Lee

It never ceases to amaze me that I can call myself a full-time paper artist. This naturally did not happen from day one. My journey in paper art started in 2016. Luckily, coming from an architecture background, and with dedication and persistence, I was able to earn a full-time living from my creative work in around 3 years. Major steps and milestones include: Read more>>

Caroline Kwas

I had always dreamed of earning a full-time living from painting. When I was younger, I would carve away a few precious hours, or even minutes, to grab a paintbrush. I would long for the day when I didn’t have to put the brush down and go grade a stack of papers or create English lesson plans. Thankfully, over the past several years, my art has allowed me to leave behind the 9 to 5 world. It was a strange transition, as someone who always had at least one full-time job outside my home that paid weekly or bi-weekly. Casting aside that security brought a lot of anxiety. I have had to overcome the notion instilled in me by a less-than-supportive family that art was not to be taken seriously: a nice hobby but certainly not a career path. To this day, I fight those voices, and fortunately, they have faded. But the idea of “what’s your real job” did trip me up quite a bit in the beginning. Read more>>

Matthew Sim

As funny as it may sound, earning a full-time living from creative work requires immense creativity. As a mixer, I had to experiment with different clientele and business models to establish a sustainable income solely from mixing and mastering music. I dedicated years to expanding my client base worldwide and building a healthy ecosystem that offers mixing and mastering services. Additionally, I have streamlined my workflow and started streaming my process to save time and costs, maximizing my profits. Read more>>

MarQueta “M.J.” Pippens

I consider myself a brand as a whole…”MJ’s Brand” . It consists of everything I am made of, me being an artist as a whole, who I am, what I can do, and how I can do it. I sing, act, perform, custom design clothes & have my own beauty/cosmetics brand. Read more>>

Renee Peterson

It is still hard for me to believe I am a full time artist. We live in a world that makes this career sound like some mythical fantasy world. And now that I have been fully employed by my art for almost 3 years I can say it is sometimes indeed that world and sometimes it is most definitely not. Becoming a full time muralist has given me so much freedom. Sure I don’t always paint the designs I want but I get paid to color on the walls! How freaking cool is that? If you are reading this and think you have to wait for the right circumstances to align for you to peruse your passion then you’ll be waiting at that bus stop for a bus that will never come. I started my business during the hardest year of my life. Within less than a year I became a 1st time mom, my father passed away, I lost my job of 7 years, and my marriage fell apart. What a perfect time to start a career as a full time artist! Read more>>

P. Louie

I am not at the point of creating music for a living yet. If I keep consistently making music and videos, especially for the vertical video apps, then I wi get to that point. Creative burnout and writer’s block is real and it’s always nice to take a little break but don’t get too comfortable. Read more>>

Wayne Jiang

I’m make a living being a fine art painter and teacher. It’s a very rewarding career Read more>>

Michael Karydas

Yes! I actually do custom plush work full time, thought it wasn’t always that way. I originally worked a few odd jobs while making plush toys on my own time, it was just something I really enjoyed doing as a hobby. As more and more people became interested in my work, it gradually took over my life, outpacing my actual job at the time. Read more>>

Emily Kinsolving

I’ve earned a full-time living as a photographer now for around 15 years. It’s been a long journey with ups and downs, but I would do it all over in a heartbeat. Read more>>

Rosy Fu

Yes. I currently work full-time as a technical artist at Naughty Dog. I am also a part-time oil paint artist that earn from doing commissions. When I do oil painting, I like using the traditional way, like Caravaggio. I do underpainting first, then apply colored glazing, layer by layer, and then one final layer that varnishes the entire canvas. Surprisingly, this overlaps with how we create materials for game art assets more than I thought. With layered material, we ensure that it represents how a real-life object is made. Take a pistol as an example, in game we would break down the material into layers like dusts, scratches, clearcoat, rust, etc. And by finding the closest math model that can represent how certain materials respond to light, game artists can get the result they want with just some number tweaks. I also love pushing the highlight and slightly change the substance when doing traditional painting/ game arts. Giving skin color a taste of metal, or exaggerating the saturation and the anatomy. The idea of blurring the definition of day-to-day objects is fascinating

Oropeza Marisela

It all started back in 2008 when the principal that I worked with, Mr. Luke, invited me to teach the arts under contract at Albany Park school. This is when I was working as an instructional aide, while also going to school to work towards my art degree. He knew how passionate I was about art since I was involved in various art exhibitions within the area and was continuously featured in art magazines and broadcasts. Mr. Luke saw my dedication as an artist and he was certain that I could bring this passion to the students in Delano, CA. I still remember my very first day as an art instructor very vividly. I looked at the children’s eyes and saw their eagerness to learn and it all seemed so surreal to me as teaching hadn’t really crossed my mind at that point. Rather than entering the field of education, I was gearing more towards museum management and curatorship, but the children won me over. After that first day, I knew that this is what I wanted to pursue, for at that point, I realized that art had such connection and impact within the lives of our little ones, and I wanted to provide them with this experience as many of the art programs had been eliminated from education at that time. This really was a win/win situation! Ever since, I became an art advocate for the Delano Union School District servicing various different schools and providing a unique art program in which students engaged in fun and educational art activities throughout the years. Now, with 15 years of experience, I still wake up every morning feeling like I have one of the most rewarding jobs in the world and I will always cherish this opportunity that opened my path into teaching. Read more>>

Patrick Earl Hammie

Thanks so much for the opportunity to share! Yes, I’m able to live as an interdisciplinary visual artist. I produce exhibitions, sell artworks, complete commissions, speak publicly, curate and jury exhibitions, and teach and administrate in higher education. These activities keep me fed and make it possible to own a home. They’ve taken me toward projects and people that are dear to me, and helped me grow others’ dreams. A naive compulsion to aim high, love from my circle, and a bit of luck have been key. A lot started shortly after graduate school. Wellesley College discovered my work through a job search. I didn’t get the job, but fortunately they saw a potential worth nurturing and took a different chance on me. They awarded me a fellowship that financed me for a year. With the time it provided I engaged with the Wellesley community and created and exhibited new work. Their acknowledgment was like nitro at the start of my career. That momentum led to several New York exhibitions and accepting an assistant professor position at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. That was 14 years ago. Read more>>

Stephen Powell

Since graduating from Northwestern University in 1986 (Bachelors in Theory & Composition, piano emphasis) I have made my living as a musical artist. I sang in Choruses (Chicago Symphony Chorus and Grant Park Chorus); played the piano for voice lessons, voice recitals, auditions, recordings, competitions, educational programs; was an assistant conductor and accompanist with the Chicago Children’s Choir; gave piano lessons; had a wedding band; sang and played for weddings and receptions; owned and ran my own Christmas Caroling business; mowed the lawn and did yard work for my first voice teacher Norman Gulbrandsen in exchange for voice lessons – you name it, I did it to make a living. In 1990 I decided to pursue a career as an Opera Singer, so I went to DePaul University and earned my Masters and Certificate degrees in Vocal Performance. I was a member of the Young Artists Program at the Lyric Opera of Chicago from 1993 – 1995. In 1995 I began my full-time career as an independent contractor and have made my living as a singer ever since. In 2015 I joined the faculty of the Mannes School of Music at The New School in New York City, soon to begin my 9th year there as a Professor of Voice. Read more>>

Diana Vergara

I’m a creative video director, writer and artist. I create multimedia content for brands, publications, and myself. I’m passionate about visually stunning, engaging stories that capture audiences. I pride myself on having a wide range of genres in my repertoire. From short-form documentary, to beauty, cannabis culture and entertainment. I enjoy covering taboo topics and creating content that makes viewers think. My style is bold, colorful and raw. Read more>>