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.

Jillia English

As of 2022 I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work as a ceramic artist. Since I touched clay in high school in 2008, pottery has always been a part of my life. Read more>>

Miranda Strange

It is amazing to be able to say that I earn a full-time living from my boudoir photography business. I had a unique situation where I was able to take over an existing business that had already been well-established with a fantastic reputation and wonderful past clients. Read more>>

Gfire Mayo

Over time I have built up my capability of earning a full-time living from my music. My first milestone was when I got paid to sing in a wedding/cover band at age 19. Read more>>

Kastle Waserman

Many people will tell you that can’t make a living as a creative. The arts are shamefully underpaid. When I went to college to study journalism, they told me I would have to start at a tiny local paper in some small town. I didn’t accept that. Read more>>

Michele Van Maurik

Making a living as a full time artist is not always an easy path to follow, but a very rewarding one if you can endure the many ups and downs of a feast or famine profession. Read more>>

Brion Dillard

Making a full-time living from my creative work is something that has come in waves for me. Finding that consistent stride in creating a income solely from all of my creative talents has been challenging. Read more>>

Candy Keane

Though my creative focus has shifted over the years, I have always earned a living from my creative work. I started in custom costume design and moved into writing and digital content creation about 9 years ago. Read more>>

Jazmin Garcia

After 3 years of pursuing photography as a “side gig”/hobby I now, in year 5 have established my career in a way that I am able to do photography full time. Read more>>

Carol Hood

The best way I can explain earning a full-time living from creative work is that I’ve capitalized on what makes me invaluable to clients. It’s not writing or filmmaking; it’s the way I think. Read more>>

Nick Kayea

I am blessed to say that I am at a place to where I am able to pay our bills through my business. I wouldn’t say that I’m making a full time living, but I can say that I’m doing a lot better now then when I started. Read more>>

Josephine Rice

I’ve been fulltime Artist for 4 years now. For me it took 10+years to earn any money with my paintings. At the beginning/I had not developed my style and couldn’t have really sped it up because it required the trial and error. Read more>>

Brian Glanville

I have been so blessed to be able to earn a full-time living with my creative work. My journey started in 2014 when I made the move out to L.A. Read more>>

Monti Washington

It’s an amazing feeling to make a full time living doing what you love. But you must be willing to PAY THE PRICE. It took me 8 years of constant pursuit and failure to arrive at this point. You have to be all in to make it. Read more>>

Thayer Gowdy

I have been a full time creative my whole life, when the pandemic happened photography came to a halt since I photograph people. I have always been enamored with ceramics but never tried it, I was obsessed with photography and focused on that both artistically and professionally. Read more>>

Mick Lauer

I graduated from NYU in 2003 with a BFA in Performance Arts. While I was honored to be a part of the NYU graduate showcase, it unfortunately coincided with an actors’ strike (which was later followed by the writers’ strike). Read more>>

Spencer Carney

A “full-time living” is relative to the creative individual, especially to the professional actor. I lived for 8 years in Los Angeles being able to say as much, however, it was a simple life of multiple roommates, public transportation, Read more>>

Alana McCallion

I am incredibly fortunate that I what I love to do also happens to be my full time job. I’ve always had an interest in photography, but I started to really take it seriously in college. Read more>>

CJ Baker

Yes, I’ve been a full-time musician since February 2012. At the start of my career, I always had a job. Mostly retail stuff. I would go to class (I was in college at the time) then go to work or a rehearsal. Read more>>

Melissa Bollero-Ray

This year has been the first year that I’ve been able to support myself with my creative work full-time! When I began rug tufting in 2021 I was a manager/bartender/server in a fine dining restaurant full time. Read more>>

Gabrielle (Gabie) Walberg

I am very fortunate to be in my second year of working full-time as a tattoo artist. When I first started my apprenticeship, I was also a stay-at-home mom/nanny during the day. Read more>>

Aayushi A. Shah

Yes, I’ve been very lucky to earn a full-time living from my filmmaking work since I graduated from film school in New York 4 years ago. My producing teacher got me a job on the set of Mr. Jon Keeyes’s ‘The Survivalist’ right after film school, Read more>>

Charlie Steeds

Initially, while working day jobs, I saved up and then quit to make two self-funded films (one in 2015, the other in 2016). Thankfully they were both picked up by a sales company in LA and found distribution worldwide, Read more>>

Samuele Gallorini

Yes, I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. It certainly wasn’t like that from day one. I started from scratch, working tirelessly and striving to be as flexible and creative as possible, even in managing the business side of things. Read more>>

Fazil Ahmad

The last three years straight, I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. That sounds a little bit too good to be true, it’s not like I am just going out and taking photos of whatever I want and then selling them for thousands of dollars, Read more>>

Miko Kovacevic

Starting out as a makeup artist wasn’t easy— When I first started as a makeup artist I often worked for free to build my portfolio. It was challenging, costly and back then it was time consuming. Read more>>

Qianqian Zhao

It has been a privilege to discover my passion and turn it into a fulfilling career. As a producer and cinematographer for Production House 8, I have had the opportunity to work on numerous projects that have enhanced the company’s esteemed reputation. Read more>>

Gabriel Feldman-Franden

So I’ve been making music full time since 2017. The thing that I’ve learned is that in order to make this dream happen one must do many jobs within the music realm. Read more>>

Akiko Liu

I definitely had to juggle a full time job while running my “side small business”. After a bit of doing free/cheaper work in exchange of experience I was able to create some sort of grounding for my business. Read more>>

Coach Ablaza

Yes, I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work, but it certainly wasn’t like that from day one. My journey began during the pandemic when I lost my job. Read more>>

Keenan Cooks

Yes, I have been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. The process was not easy, but I am a firm believer is telling people what you want. Read more>>