The world needs artists and creatives. Unfortunately, being needed doesn’t often easily translate into financial stability. The struggle is real for so many incredibly talented artists and creatives and so we think it’s important to hear from creatives who have made it work – there is so much to learn from the folks we’ve featured below.

Christy McLeod

McLeod Nine is an Americana/Roots musical duo consisting of my husband , Gordon, and myself. We have been performing music together for the past 27 years. We also founded and continue to perform with a well-known Celtic/Americana quartet, Beyond The Pale, Gordon and I currently earn our full time living as musicians and performers and did so from around 2003- 2010. We took a hiatus from full time performing from 2010-2016 and returned to full time musical work in 2016 until the present. Read more>>

Natali Jones

In 2001, I graduated from K.D. Studio Acting Conservatory in Dallas, and they taught us in front and behind camera. Focusing on acting, I realized I loved the entire process, not only as an actress, but the overall creative process of putting shots together, the look and feel, to even the business side of the legality/ logistics that are involved infront and behind camera! Read more>>

Jennifer Starrett

Years ago, I started a media company to connect people with our local Jewish community. I knew that people wanted to connect to Jewish life but often heard that they had trouble finding out about events and programs when searching online. By myself, I was limited by time and capabilities, but I was determined to find a way to make my vision come alive. I built strong relationships with other Jewish professionals and was able to help them connect to people in the community in a variety of aspects from marketing to event planning. Read more>>

Caleb Morris

Being self-employed as an illustrator took a few years. Thankfully in the beginning, I had a great internship at Wit Design and Advertising that allowed me the extra time to pursue freelance work while also learning a ton about the different aspects of running a creative business. From there I had a couple design jobs at different companies but realized that I didn’t like being stuck in an office so I would work every night on freelance projects until I finally had enough clients and steady work that I could (barely) pay my bills and went freelance full time. Read more>>

EILEEN CORSE

I am a full-time professional artist. What does that mean? To me, it means several things. First, that I have a studio that is separate from my home. Second, I go to “work” at my studio every day. Third, I make my living from selling my art. A studio can be in a building in your backyard. It can also be a part of your home that is solely used for your art. My studio is in a shop in a retail area, and I have a separate storefront room where I receive visitors. Read more>>

Jonathan McAfee

I consider myself very fortunate as I am able to earn a full-time living from my artwork. Back in 2014 I had a solo exhibition in Indianapolis that went very well. Almost all of the paintings sold during the opening night and the rest ended up selling not too long after. This gave me an incredible boost in confidence to begin taking the steps of pursuing my art career full-time. I was working at a PR agency at the time as a means to a paycheck and nothing more. I had no passion for my day job and really wanted to take the leap and go full-time as an artist. Read more>>

Michaela Galvin

I have been very lucky to earn a full-time living from my creative work since I began my professional career. I am also very lucky to have chosen a degree in college that I still use every day. I studied Graphic Design and began working in-house as a designer/in marketing when I graduated. I don’t think I necessarily could have sped up the process in any way, and I’m not sure I would have wanted to. I believe that every step of the way — school, my first job, transitioning to freelancing, and so on — were all important parts of the process that allowed me to learn and grow into who I am and where I am now. Read more>>

Kenrick Mills

I am very lucky to be able to earn a full-time living doing both videography and photography for businesses here in South Florida. I graduated college and was still unsure about the career I wanted to take on moving forward. I knew I couldn’t be someone who was doing a typical 9-5 and I needed to be doing something creative to keep myself ultimately fulfilled. Read more>>

Jim Gardner

I’m 71 years old at the time of this writing, and I have been able to earn a living with my talent for most of my life. It was really a committment or a choice about how I wanted to live that drove my decisions about what I was willing to do and how I would go about doing it. The talents I needed to get where I’m at today were developed along the way. I didn’t have all of them when I started, but talents are skills that can be developed as needed through repetition and practice. Read more>>

Anthony Moreno

balancing, family, full time job and time for myself (which is a must) feels sometimes that one has to neglect a part of themselves to earn a living entirely on creating art and I know many artists that sacrifice one or the other to reach that goal only to find that something has been lost or something is missing and I believe that something is the part of them that ignited thru every struggle. I know there’s a happy median where you can keep all personas that helped create the artist that brought you this far. Read more>>

Ted Levin

In a nutshell, I’d describe myself as a former Rock Star wannabe who got close but never quite made it, currently enjoying his days as a pseudo Lounge Singer/Elvis Impersonator. And I’m totally okay with that!! I’d always wanted to make a living as a musician. After my almost decade long time with my band, Space Cadet, I ended up sadly bartending and waiting tables to make ends meet. I did gigs where I could find them, but it was never enough to live off of. Read more>>

Dom Moio

I have been earning a living from playing music and teaching music for 50 years. I started out playing gigs 6 nights a week every summer when I wa 15 years old.I would do this all summer then go back to high school and wait for the next summer.
After my senior year in hight school, 1970, I realized i wanted to make my living from playing music and i also started giving drum lessons. Read more>>

Kelly O’Neal

well, yes, but i’ve been self-employed for the better part of my 60 years. each day is a replay of that “if i knew then” addage. on day one, i should have hired a consultant to run my business or at least asked them into my fold to help learn the ropes. creatives
like me live up to the reputation of poor business people to a certain point and then when we tire of just making ends meet, the serious side rises. knowing the actual packaged cost of doing a wholesale show would have saved me a lot of headaches. in other
words, it’s not just the rent. it’s the lights, the walls, the shipping, the drayage, and the cost of the goods sold. Read more>>

Laurie Perez

Photography was not always my full time career, originally I set a course in college to become a pharmacist. However, after losing everything in a house fire, I realized life is too short to not explore what I loved. Art was that love, but coming from schools that focused on traditional careers, art felt like an unrealistic path. With no on really supporting the choice to go from pharmacy to photography, I had to navigate the waters alone. Read more>>

 Gillian Kennedy

Thursday, September 2019 was a memorable moment in my art career. I decided to hand in my resignation from my eleven-and-a-half-year-old part time job as a Recreational Programmer for a local city. A Master in Sports and Recreation Management had me sitting as a part timer for too long. I was consistently passed by numerous times for full time jobs with the city. Having built an amazing Seniors and Active adult program for them I reassessed my life and decided to dust my feet off and move on to my full-time art career. Wow! what an amazing choice. Read more>>

Michael Christopher

My art skills have supported me most of my life combined with tremendous struggles. I dropped out of the ninth grade and at 18 I was a shop foreman at Neon Specialist in Richardson, TX. It was a beautiful journey and the skills I learned I utilize every day. Study, study, study. In my 30s, I earned an academic full scholarship to Southern Methodist University: the exposure to art precedent, disciplines and techniques was what I needed. That experience really made me a metal sculptor. My latest major milestone is, I am 5 years into my studio and residence in west Texas. I am focused on my beekeeping, glassblowing, metal, ceramics and garden. I have gratitude for the journey. Read more>>

Elle Jimenez

I never imagined I would become a professional mermaid, let alone making this like of work my main source of income! I began with my small entertainment company in 2016. I would offer different entertainment services and performing arts presentations and acts for special events. I received a request one day for a *swimming* mermaid performer. At the time I was providing princess party entertainment and I did not know how to swim. I had no one available for it that was kid-friendly AND also swam in the water. Read more>>

G Sparticus

Yes! After 8 years in, It’s a very cool thing to be able to say, especially these days with the pandemic. My journey started with more of a big leap rather than a step. Having set up 3 steady gigs a week, I decided to take the risk and quit my day job. My bills were relatively low plus I had a great deal with rent so I went for it. Sure I’ve had different musical endeavors since I was 17 but not like this. I didn’t even really make any money until my 4th year in. I had to borrow musical equipment every week until I was able to save up for my own. Plus it took time to find my groove with it all. Read more>>

Shannon Matlock

The most important aspect of earning a full time living from your creative work is putting as much time into the business of your art as the art itself. While I do earn a full time living now, it was not always that way. I worked part time as an assistant photographer while I was a student and for some time after. I used the extra time to do my own photography work and learn while making extra money. The hands on experience was invaluable to me. Read more>>

Daniel Angeles Dentlok

At the age of 5 my dad bought me dragon ball z posters which he thought me how to trace by placing a blank paper over them against the window I then took them to school and sold them for .25 cents to my classmates . Soon after we came to the states from Mexico City back 2002 I started to draw on my classmate journal covers for $5. In high school I painted back packs and would draw on people’s skins with pens (mostly In detention) I soon found my love and passion for the art of tattooing. Read more>>

Kevin Viner

I’m one of the lucky few who has been able to create a full time living with my passion. I started as a magician when I was five years old, and now make a living as a mentalist, which you can think of as a “magician of the mind.” I perform almost exclusively for corporate meetings, both virtual and in-person, and guess what audience members are thinking. As a young child, I would perform close-up magic at local Farmer’s Markets, restaurants, and anywhere that management would allow me to be! This was before YouTube, so really putting myself out there was the only way to gain traction. Read more>>

Kyle Strahl

Yes I have been a graphic designer and now the owner of KEYLAY Design for over 14 years. I originally sought out to be a freelance graphic designer after I was laid off from an advertising agency after the 2008 crash. I wasn’t trained to be an entrepreneur nor did I have goals to be one. I sort of landed in this position after discovering a big need for supplementary design services to larger agencies and companies in Atlanta. Read more>>

Jared Blackstone

I Have, even though there have been times where I had a regular job I still burned the candle at both ends to keep pushing for my career. If you have a passion for what you do it doesn’t seem like work and it just comes naturally to do what you love regardless of the payout. Read more>>

Jeanne Oliver

As kid it was always inferred by the adults around me that people don’t make a living by following a creative passion. I think this may have been more prevalent in the small rural town where I grew up. With my heart wanting to pursue fashion design and with a portfolio full of drawings, I believed them and went on to pursue other majors in college. It would take many years for me to forgive myself for not believing more in me and following who I knew I truly was. Read more>>

Louanne Ferro

Yes, I earn a full time living from being a creative but no, that didn’t happen from day one. As creatives, I think I speak for many when I say our love for our art comes before the learning of a business. I spent many years making a good living but had no idea because I didn’t have the knowledge or discipline to manage my money. I started my career at 17 years old. I was young and I was naïve. I started to become frustrated because I was working really hard every day and was very driven but somehow couldn’t obtain goals I wanted like getting loans for things like cars/homes. I never seemed to be able to build my savings and tax season would spiral my anxiety. I was very lucky to have friends and family who were in professions like financial planning, and taxes. Read more>>

Aaron McCloskey

I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to make a living doing the things I love. I perform in an award winning bluegrass band called Wood Belly, build custom handcrafted tube amplifiers, and teach music. Between those three things I’ve carved out a comfortable living. In the recent years I’ve shifted more towards playing and building but still love teaching as well. I started playing music professionally when I was in my mid twenties and didn’t have a lot of responsibilities or living costs so I was able to make it work by playing and teaching. Since then I’ve developed in both areas and my income has risen with the general costs of life that have grown as I’ve gotten older. I started building amplifiers on a whim and have since built 125 of them and learned a ton along the way. Read more>>

David Simmons

I’ve been blessed to combine my professional experience and training as a singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and teaching artist with my lived experience as a thriving survivor of my own suicide attempt, person in recovery with over 29 years sober and as former victim of bullying (often times at my own hand.) In a professional career spanning over 44 years my work has taken me to all 50 states, 19 countries and 4 continents. I’ve played for baristas in an empty bistro and for over 2,000 service people performing on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier the USS Kittyhawk. Read more>>

Michelle Talsma Everson

I am very grateful and blessed to be able to make a living writing and editing. I am the managing editor of a family of newspapers in the North Valley (north of the Phoenix metro area) for a small, locally owned publishing company called EG Publishing. I am also a freelance writer and do PR when I can, with a specialization in nonprofits. My background on the journalism side is mainly in print—magazines and newspapers—and on the PR side, I tend to specialize in nonprofits and small businesses. I am nearly 100% focused on writing and editing now though but do keep my PR muscles flexed now and then on individual projects. Read more>>

Melanie Warsinske

I received my BFA in Studio Art from Texas Tech University in the mid-70’s. From the day I started painting, I was constructing large scale canvases with attached wood, metal and other textures; then painting into them with oil paint. I have continued painting in this style of using added textures prior to the painting process, and I love how the paint seeps into the textures and the experimental and experiential ‘journey’ begins with each painting. Read more>>

Daniel Moore

When we first started, we did not have a business plan, however, we knew we wanted a stable and sustainable business model with multiple streams of revenue. Each day we learned, and as we worked and accepted commissions, designed new product, etc., we were able to see what was successful and what was not, and adjust accordingly. We now have a plan, our family has an annual meeting where we look at our retail and wholesale clients, custom commission clients and public art opportunities and tweak as needed while also brainstorming improvements. Read more>>

Christopher Barili

The great thing about where I am with my writing career is that I don’t need to earn a living through my writing. I support my writing habit through my day job as an intelligence analyst for the DoD. That job lets me pay my bills, and takes the pressure off me as a writer. I don’t have to “make it” at any given time. The day job also makes me appreciate the opportunity to write stories and have people read them. Read more>>