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.

Dawn Gerety

Arts and crafts have always been my passion. As a child, I would lose myself for days in various creative pursuits – sewing, beading, soft sculpture, drawing, painting. Read more>>

Graciela Montich

For 25 years I worked in business, Love to do this but I always had ART as a side activity, because it gives me an indescribable satisfaction of happiness. I thank all my family supporting me to dedicate my self full time to this activity, to understand me and to accompany me in this process of change. Read more>>

Garrett Brown

Before I was able to make the jump to full-time creative, I was working here in Austin, Tx as a backline technician for tour acts. The company I worked for rented music equipment out to artists/bands across Texas. Read more>>

Sam Guillermo

I moved from Brooklyn, New York to Baltimore in 2015 to take a ministry position at a church in Maryland. Six months into my son being born my wife had an epiphany and left a note on the coffee table that she was going to back to NYC with our son. Read more>>

Nate Crawford

My journey begins when I was 18, fresh of high school and starting my first semester at community collage. When you’re 18, the world is so big and you have wide eyes and an eagerness to create and do everything! Read more>>

Phil Lober

I was 16 when I had my first paycheck for the documentary ‘Children of the Wind’. It was essentially a stipend but it sparked the chronology of paychecks to come. Read more>>

Chernisse Butcher

I made the bold decision to transition from a structured job to freelance stylist assistant work at the onset of COVID, a decision full with uncertainty. Read more>>

Krys Marie

My passion is what I do and invest in for our San Antonio community. I do this because I love bringing women together and I love finding ways to have fun in an active way being in nature. It’s so good for us physically and mentally. Read more>>

Alejandro Pantin Gil

I’ve never imagined been able to live out of a hobby that I was starting from recollecting obsolete books from the street and turning them into art pieces. One day I had a viral video in Reddit just at the start of the quarantine. Read more>>

Yiwei Wu

In my 27-year journey through life, the interplay of art’s brilliance and the wisdom of business has added nuanced layers to my pursuit of dreams. A captivating journey unfolded at the intersection of creativity and diligence, where I navigated the realms of art and commerce. Read more>>

Randy Corinthian

– Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? Yes! I’ve been very fortunate to be able to earn a full-time living from my creative work over the years. Read more>>

LIZ CASELLA

I started my first print studio in 2005 in Sydney Australia with a friend from design school. It was started with a couple of hundred dollars, some markers and paints and silk and we’d draw directly onto the fabric. Read more>>

Jodi Lynn Buckles

When I first began my Photography business I had no idea what a gift it would become to me and my family! Being able to help support my family of six through my craft has been such a tremendous season, full of grit, hard work and a mindset of never giving up and chasing my dreams. Read more>>

Juan Manuel Ramal

From an early age, my love for art has been unwavering. I pursued various artistic disciplines, including drawing, painting, sculpting, and theater. At 17, I ventured to the United States, fueled by a fierce ambition to pursue my artistic passion. Read more>>

Kim Hall

About eight years ago I left my full-time desk job because I was struggling with the manager I was under. I had been throwing pottery on the side for years and was dabbling in selling my work at art shows. Read more>>

Madelynne Grace

I have been fortunate enough to have turned my passion, my art of food photography and visual storytelling into my full time career for my company Bites and Bevs Media. Read more>>

Chad Barela

I started in the music world making little to no money. I did the typical starving artist thing. My only focus/priority/concern was just to make the best art that I could. Read more>>

Gabrielle Wildheart

I started my career as a street busker, drawing on the sidewalks for tips. I was living in Florence, Italy, and I would draw reproductions of famous renaissance paintings in chalk pastel directly on the sidewalk. Read more>>

Michael Cooper

Full-time from day one?! HA! I was trying to transition from my first career (contract /commercial Interior Design for 20 years), when my girlfriend (now wife for 30 years!) saw a mural that I painted in my apartment, where I was living after my divorce. Read more>>

Frederick Nichelson

I have been a profesional musician since graduating college in 1986. I have a BBA in Management and also earned a music minor at (NTSU) now Now University of North Texas in Denton. Read more>>

Kelly Schaub

I started in a creative field and spent almost 30 years working with nonprofit theatres, but my full-time income (mostly freelance) was on the business and management side of theatre and the creative side was often more for my personal fulfillment than for the remuneration. Read more>>

Kennedy Braucht

Yes, I’ve been fortunate enough to forge a full-time career from my creative endeavors. My journey commenced fresh out of college in 2020 when I ventured into entrepreneurship, establishing my own social media services company upon relocating to Florida from my hometown in Georgia. Read more>>

Danielle Olana Jagelski

Earning a full time living as a musician has always been a dream of mine. Growing up in rural Idaho and Wisconsin, being a music teacher was my first dream. Read more>>

Bradford Loomis

I left music for just over a decade in my early 20’s. When I came back to it I was 32. I looked around at the other artists in the scene that I was coming up in in Seattle WA and I was older than a lot of folks. Read more>>

Carlos Martinez Leon

Being an artist today means rewriting the script, much like Andy Warhol approach to marketing: unconventional, entrepreneurial, and always evolving. Gone are the days of waiting for opportunity to knock and have clients knocking at your door to buy everything you had. Read more>>

Sauraj Patil

“Harmonizing Passion and Profit: My Journey as a Musician and Entrepreneur” In the heart of Mumbai, where life’s rhythms resonate as diverse melodies, my journey unfolded—a symphony of passion for music and the pursuit of entrepreneurial success. Read more>>

Sam Gehrke

Over the past 10 years I’ve been able to fully transition into living off of full time creative work. Initially photography was a kind of hobby- a sort of release outside of work. Read more>>

Michael “Bambi” Held

Earning a full-time living as a professional body piercing wasn’t something I thought was possible in my early years as an up and coming body piercer. Read more>>