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.

Megan Jones

Well, I have always had a deep love of photography, ever since taking high school courses geared towards the art of photography. Turns out, being a photographer is a lot different than being a business owner, or knowing how to make money with your art. I did study Photography at the Savannah College of Art and Design, which taught me a lot about the art of photography, but nothing about how to make money through my photos. When I graduated college, I floated through life, working odd jobs like a breakfast buffet at a hotel, while also taking the occasional photography job, which were few and far between. Read more>>

Arianna Horton

I am grateful to say yes, and I know it will only get better! I started out creating brand identities for my own various businesses, including jewelry, my visual art, and the branding company itself (among some other unrevealed projects). I shot my own product photography, and merchandise photos for local musicians. I dabbled in web design, focusing on UX and conversion optimization, including copywriting. Read more>>

Georges Etienne

Yes I’ve definitely been able to earn a full-time living + more with my creative work. I design the visual identity for businesses of all sizes so my services are always in need. This started as a side-gig so I was creating graphics for party promoters and low-grade logos in the beginning. But once I noticed that my clientele started was increasing by the week, I knew I was gifted and I decided to quit my full time job and do this full time. Read more>>

Destiney Powell

Yes I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. I created a plan to match my salary with creative work prior to leaving my corporate job. I started by first creating work at night, after work and after I had put my kids to bed. I would share my work online and search social media for events happening near me that I could participating in. I reached out to the event organizers and curators and this began my season of participating in group shows, vending at festivals and art crawls. Read more>>

Jessie Ritter

I think when I first got interested in music I really believed the starving artist narrative. I thought you were either Carrie Underwood, or probably homeless. And that’s just not the case. There is so much room in the middle for hardworking creatives. After I graduated from college I took a job with Carnival Cruise Lines. I was able to sing every single night and get paid every two weeks. It was a dream job for a young singer. I learned so much from that gig. Eventually I moved back on land and joined a house band at a club in Florida. Read more>>

Paula Luu

Over 13 years ago, after graduating from college and getting married, I had a major change in what I wanted to do with my life and career. Since I was 9, I had always helped my parents with their businesses and translated all of their business meetings and contracts. So naturally, I was planning on going to law school after I finished college. You could say all of my life from age 10-21, I was determined to go to law school. However, I was always passionate about music, theater, and fashion. I knew I had to get a bachelor’s degree before I could go to law school. Read more>>

Linda Clayton-Behr

I am currently making a living from my artwork.I always wanted to be in the Arts. First choice, teenage me would’ve said Rockstar, Actress, Artist or even a Stand Up Comedian. I just new I wanted to make people feel good. Make them Happy, or feel empowered or get them through tough times. Maybe a way to remember great times. I just knew I wanted to make people FEEL Something good. Read more>>

Ke’Asia Johnson-Bell

Yes, I have been able to earn full-time living from my creative work. It definitely did not begin like this. When Covid came, I was not only homeless but also a first-time pregnant, single mother, entering into my last semester of college. I had also just lost my father during my pregnancy and was unsure if I could mentally deal with what was now my life. I worked any odd job I could find as a pregnant woman during covid, just so that I could quickly earn enough income to afford a cute intimate apartment before I gave birth, as I was already well into my last trimester. Read more>>

Kari Lynch

I think when you choose to pursue a career in the entertainment/creative arts industry, you also choose to take on risks throughout your career. You’re choosing a career path in which there is no guarantee that you’ll be successful, no promise that things are going to work the way you want them to, and your ability to reach milestones in your career depends on many different factors that you have zero control over. Read more>>

Taliferro Neal

I have been a full-time photographer and videographer for almost five years now. In 2018 I closed down my computer repair shop I ran for 10 years and decided to follow my creative passion. There was no transition period for me. I closed my shop on a Friday, and was considering myself full time that Monday. I had been shooting Family portraits as time allowed, but now I was able to take on more work even during the week. Read more>>

Jarrod Napierkowski

I am fortunate to earn a full-time living from my creative work. I started working with wood as a teen and narrowed my focus to jewelry around 2006/2007 when a friend asked me to make her a pair of earrings. From there, more and more friends (and friends of friends) started asking for jewelry and I was happy to oblige. After all, it was the first time I was making some cash off my hobby. Read more>>

Kirstene Adkins

Thank you in advance for the opportunity to present my art business and myself to you! I have always been an Artist. Even my mother told me at a young age that I would be an Artist when I grew up, as she watched me doodle on coloring pages and be a very animated and vivacious young child, but I was very much a “tom boy” and loved the outdoors! Read more>>

Angel Lance

I have been able able to earn a full time living from my creative work. In the beginning is was a challenge because I didn’t have the love and support that I needed. I had low self esteem and parents and family that weren’t there to guide me through this journey. I was mentally and physically abused. I grew up thinking that I was fat and ugly. It wasn’t until I became a teenager that I started to develop more confidence, and even then I had people use me. Read more>>

Sonika Surati

Yes. When I first started, I had no idea that it had the potential to turn into a career that could eventually earn myself a living. I started as a hobby with absolutely no knowledge on the financial end of things. Over time, I started earning commissions from sharing links, working with brands, and just creating content in general. There are so many ways to earn a living in the industry, and I love that I was able to turn my passion into a paycheck! Read more>>

Javier Vazquez

I have been blessed with the ability to support my family with what I make as an actor. That is not to say that I don’t pursue other streams of income (which I do) but is a testament to how far I’ve come. In the beginning, things were really tough. After an amazing gig in The Mule opposite Michael Pena and Bradley Cooper, I thought things were going to take off. I didn’t book anything in 2019. Read more>>

Alexis Mueller

Being able to create a full time living doing something I love was always a dream of mine! When I was little I always knew I wanted to work somewhere in fashion and in the creative industry. To be able to wake up every single day and be excited and passionate for what I was going to be doing for the day as my work. I didn’t want to be bound to a job that I did not like or that I was not passionate for. I was always a little scared to start posting more artsy and unique images to my socials because I was scared of what people thought. Read more>>

Matthew Stuart Piper

It’s a true blessing and joy to make a living selling my fine art photography. True blessing. As I capture both visible and infrared light with a special camera system, I create unique artistic pieces with the precision of photography and the creative control of painting. I call them “Dreamscapes”. Read more>>

Casey Hamilton

There’s a big misconception that with social media fame comes immediate riches, and that’s just simply not the case. I was able to live full-time on TikTok funds, and money made from the occasional brand deal, but after two years, it became harder and harder to make a decent living. A video that would have made 100 dollars two years ago is making 10 dollars or less today. That is a significant decrease, and not enough to feel comfortable about. It can really affect one’s mental health as well. Read more>>

Mi’Chel Bombshell

I think for any creative or business owner the common goal is earning a full-time living on your craft alone. Thank God that I had enough faith to take that leap and be blessed enough to actually be successful in it. However it was not always that easy. I had no confidence in my craft early and doubted myself. Doubt, is nothing other than a form of fear, and is what holds most of us back from taking that leap of faith towards our dreams. Read more>>

Alyssa Lee

I’m very grateful that I’m earning a full-time living from my artwork. I’m still in the early stages of my career, as I graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design in June 2022. I’ve always wanted to pursue an art career, so it was natural for me to attend an art school. My journey throughout college was a combination of great friends, new adventures, and a lot of work. I really kicked my artwork into overdrive at the start of junior year. Read more>>

Jordan Wong

My creative career did not have a smooth and easy beginning. I was unemployed for two years after graduating college and was fired from my first (and last) full-time graphic design job – I lasted not even a full year. Since then, I have been working for myself full-time for the last seven years. I started primarily making a living off of designing logos and identities for local Cleveland businesses, non-profits, and other solo entrepreneurs. I also was showing my personal art and illustrations in coffee shops, which lead to more client work. Read more>>

Casper Alexander

I have been blessed to have my creative abilities become a full time gig. I started making music in high school. Never really thought about the business side. In college, I learned I enjoy the marketing side of music, along with the performance and creation. There was a time when I was curating events, touring, creating marketing campaigns for artists, and making my music. I was also still holding down a serving job. That was a time where I realized I was almost there. Read more>>

John Curtis Ortiz

Earning a full time living from creative does not work like a full time job for us. We earn pockets of money from one moment to the next. We may earn mortgage payments for an entire year in one day, then go a month eating beans and rice while we wait for the cycle of cash flow to come back in. We experience many spectrums of existence (rich, poor, everything in between) in our creative work. Read more>>

Kierra Peoples

I am currently making a living as a full time makeup artist. I have my own business as well as employment at a photography studio (as an MUA). When I started taking clients in March of 2021, I barely knew what I was doing and wasn’t bringing in many clients besides friends and family. In the last year I’ve worked with other artists, photographers, stylists, etc. and started to get my name out there. I’m proud to say I went from having 1 client every other week to making a living now by doing makeup and facial services full time. Read more>>

Daniel Alvarado

I have! It’s been officially a year since I left my corporate 9-5 job to pursue photography full time. At the time I was working a Business Development role with a SaaS company in the medical field. I was doing photography pretty regularly but on the side. At some point my photo work started to eclipse my 9-5 workload so I decided that maybe it was time to try pursuing photography full time and see where it takes me. Read more>>

Andres Beto” Delgado “

From 2002 I was able to make a living and raise a family doing one of the things I love the most: to create a personal guitar sound and helping others to develop their own. I am absolutely self-taught and at the beginning it was a personal quest that was growing step by step. My goal was to find the best possible guitar sound and to achieve that, the only way was to build my own equipment. Through time that process grew up to a point that some fellow musicians started to ask for my services. The most important milestone I achieved was to reach a high quality sound that can rival with any other amp brand in the world. Read more>>

Jamorris Brown

I have tried to make money but all I have come up with is 5bucks in royalty from streams so basically I work to make ends meet and use the extra cash I save up to promote and release my own singles. Read more>>

Nicholas Johnson

I’m lucky to be able to make a living as a full time creative. It’s been a career path that’s meandered back and forth over the years. It’s taken some time, luck, and valuable learning experiences/mentors that taught how to create income out of my passion. I think when we’re young and impressionable we’re maybe persuaded to pursue a structured path that has known outcome or a stable salary. I think that mindset caused me to “dip my toe” into pursuing my music career instead of dedicating myself full time. Read more>>

Heather Renaux

Earning a full-time living as a painter is a dream come true for me, though pursuing that dream did not come naturally. The myth of the “starving artist” was so ingrained in me that for many years I had art-related jobs, but hadn’t really jumped into my personal dream with both feet. Some of these jobs were: art teacher, graphic designer for clothing and residential muralist & faux finish painter. Read more>>