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.

Jud Bergeron

I have been a full time sculptor for 20 years. Prior to that I have always worked in the industry, primarily at bronze casting foundries across the country. I did not attend a typical art school and as a result I was forced to figure it out on my own. As a teen it made sense to me to work in an industry that would fit my interests as well as afford me the knowledge and training to hone my craft while still taking home a paycheck every week. Read more>>

Tasty Vibrations

Yes! Tasty has become a full time living for us for the most part. Tasty started as an acoustic duo mainly playing covers between Sean and Max. As we gigged more Tasty started to grow in members adding the other member Bobby, Booey, and Nik. Big milestones in the beginning us were opening for bands like The Movement and opening for for Badfish at Revolution Live on NYE while we were only a band for one year. Read more>>

Celia Rogge

Yes, I am incredibly lucky and tremendously grateful that I have managed to actually make my creative work – photography – a full time job, but it is by no means always an easy task. And it certainly has been a slow process to get to where I am today. When I first started off many moons ago, I took any photography jobs I could get. Read more>>

Jonah Wisneski

I’ve been working as a “full-time” musician with no outside sources of income for nearly 15 years, but it was a gradual process getting here. When I graduated college I was interested in figuring out how to make music a career, but I recall going to a corporate job interview, being offered that job, and sitting there only to realize that it wasn’t the right path for me, so I declined the offer. Following that moment, I had some friends in Denver who urged me to move here if I wanted to pursue music, and I’ve been here ever since. Read more>>

Erin Sweed

I have been “unemployed” since 2020, and even then I was working a 1099 job so Im still accountable. Long story short, it took a lot of balls to go full time self employed. I have always managed to have a “hustle” that helped me earn money. First it was doing raking yards, doing hair, washing cars, baby-sitting, anything the “people” needed, that I was capable of, I was doing it. Even volunteer jobs, Read more>>

Alfred Minnaar

My philosophy in brand photography is connecting the brand to real people to tell real stories. I do this by connecting brands to extraordinary stories with unique individuals. I believe storytelling is everything in today’s world of marketing, and I aim to capture that in a single image. I did not start my photography career working with brands. My first job in the industry was working with tourists in Bali, Indonesia. I would follow people out on their dives capturing the experience. Read more>>

Felipe Gomez

Being a full-time artist has been incredible, but I didn’t always do it full-time, it wasn’t like this from day one. I was working in finance at a tech company for a year when I realized that I was not doing what fulfilled me—this was the fuel for making it all happen. I was already working on my pieces through college, and once I decided to quit—I saved enough money to spend three months working on strictly art. Read more>>

Kelly Taylor

If you would have asked me a few years ago if I thought I could make a living solely from creative work, I would have laughed and assured you that it was just not in the cards for me. I have been a licensed tattoo artist for almost 5 years, but I have only been tattooing full-time for one year, and have been a business owner for even less. Building a clientele is a very slow process, or at least that was my experience with it, Read more>>

Blair Vaughn-Gruler

It’s been a life long process to step into the confidence and commitment required to become a full time painter. I had tremendous support as an artist from a very young age, starting with the opportunity to attend an elementary school that focused on the arts every day. I had mentors in fine arts at every level as I pursued educational opportunities all the way through my MFA in visual art, and I always kept painting and learning. Read more>>

Amelia McLean

I have worked as a performing musician for 6 years now. As anyone working in the creative/entrepreneurship field would know, getting started is not easy and often requires stringing together a couple of part-time jobs in order to provide for yourself while you work towards the full-time piece. When I first began to pursue performing as a career, I started by playing a couple hours at a local sandwich shop for $80+tips. Outside of those two glorious hours of singing and playing my heart out, Read more>>

Lauren Mcdowell

I do believe that you have to invest 100% of your time and energy into your creative business. Even if it starts out as a “side” hustle for you, once you eventually leave your so called 9-5 and take that leap of faith and put your focus on what drives your passion to create your reality within your brand you absolutely can manifest all you want with purpose focus dedication and patience. Patience is key for growing your own brand. You will have to initially put money into your brand with the proper resources of networking and online presence of web design / website an agent or someone who can design and help build your brand and guide you in the right direction for your brand and to attract the clients and abundance that you are looking to achieve. Read more>>