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.

Desmond Kakulu

Q2. Being a full time visual artist is like a gambling addiction, sometimes you win and most times the lost comes in form of a dry season of no commissions and no sales, but if you are truly called to it, you can’t quit. You can try but you will be miserable. Read more>>

Laurel Thomsen

As a young teen at my uncle’s wedding reception, my mom saw an opening and pulled me over to my new aunt’s brother, Steve Seskin, a successful songwriter in Nashville. Garth Brooks had recently covered one of his songs and he was supporting himself and his family with his music, as I also hoped to do one day. Read more>>

Kaan Ozdemir

Yes, today I’m fortunate to make a full-time living through my creative work but getting here has been a long, challenging, and deeply educational journey.
My creative path began at just 8 years old, inspired by the time I spent around my family’s business. Even at that young age, being involved made me feel part of something meaningful. Over time, what started as a responsibility turned into a true passion. When I was 14, I discovered design software like AutoCAD and 3ds Max, and that completely transformed my relationship with design. I became fascinated with the idea of creating something digitally and watching it come to life in the physical world. Seeing my work go from screen to reality revealed to me the true power of design. Read more>>

Alicia Ferreira

Yes I have been able to earn a living through creative work, but mostly through teaching art for the last 21 years and selling my own creations along the way, I always like to say as an art teacher that I’m mostly a creative guide who helps individuals express their ideas visually! For the first 16 years I taught Art to grades K-12 in a small private school. This was a great opportunity for me because I was able to develop an art program, learn the skills of becoming a teacher, get my CA credential, and continue to pursue some of my own creative interest along the way. I will say that teaching art really takes so much creativity and 20 years ago there was by no means the resources we have today through the Internet, so many projects were trial and error, I kept what worked and kept going! Read more>>

Andrian Hawkins

I’ve been blessed to make a living doing what I genuinely love. My mother was always fashion forward so I developed my love for fashion at a young age. I was fascinated with arranging colors and patterns and making them all come together. In my opinion my representation and promotion of myself played a major role in opportunities finding their way to me. To date I have styled for a variety of people and events. I am grateful to have built a relationship with a great business in the fashion industry such as Men’s Collection located in Fort Worth, TX where I have had the opportunity to utilize my talents. Read more>>

T Cozy

My name is TCOZY . I’m a hand painted , clothing designer / fashion designer from North Plainfield Nj . Growing my artistry and business for the last 10 years . Currently have been working for myself since 2023 , when I quit my job to pursue a full time career as an artist. Read more>> 

Steven McClintock

I was born and raised in Texas and lived in the town of Beaumont where I had a ton of different musical influences. I started as a singer-artist and morphed into a singer-songwriter. During that time, I also got interested in the business side as a Publisher and Producer. Read more>>

Laura

I opted to become an art professor, so arguably I do earn a full-time living from my creative work. But of course in reality much of my time goes to other tasks beyond my art practice. Having this professorship provides a middle ground where my creative work is still a priority and is supported by my institution but I am not dependent on selling art to make a living. I have the opportunity to facilitate students’ creative practice and to support arts culture more broadly. Read more>>

Eyllah Babbitt

As a dancer, I have been able to find a sustainable career that keeps me fulfilled with both my artistry and my teaching. In my final year of undergraduate studies, I decided to apply for a teaching position through AmeriCorps. ArtistYear is a service program that places resident teaching artists in Title I funded schools to provide arts education. As such, this year I was placed in a school called I.S 235 School for New Americans. It’s located in Astoria, Queens. Read more>>

Isabel Clancy

I greatly dislike the capitalistic lens that everything is looked through today. I believe art doesn’t deserve to be looked at through it. It is too special and much more meaningful than money ever will be. However, in today’s world we do not really have a choice. For me, I learned pretty early on that I wanted to protect my art from the bounds of profiting from it. It is a hard decision, and I still debate it constantly. I support myself with a full time job as an architectural designer. Read more>>

Cheri Renee

I started sharing my recipes at CooksWellWithOthers.com as a hobby while working as a second-grade teacher. At the time, I had no clue you could actually make a living as a recipe content creator. Once I learned more about how to monetize my website it just grew from there. As thousands of website views turned into millions, I was able to transition from teaching to working from home as a full-time recipe content creator. Read more>>

Chris Humphrey

One of the most challenging parts of being a creative person is taking that passion of yours (photography, music, art) and turning it into profit and ultimately a profession. The way I took my hobby of photography and turned it into a wedding photography career that lasted over two decades comes down to one simple thing – I wasn’t going to quit. Read more>>

Eric Milliano

Ummm…to be completely honest with you…monthly I’d probably bring in 100$ – 500$ off music depending on how long ago my last release was. Im just now tapping fully into being a full-time artist; recently i been fully active in the marketing / business side of things and really the hardest part about that is finding time to manage every aspect taking on all the roles bigger artist have other people for and self funding my projects. Read more>>

Janel Koloski

I first moved to NYC at 18 to pursue modeling, but it didn’t go the way I hoped. After struggling to gain traction, I moved back to Pittsburgh to finish my teaching degree. I still loved New York, though—so I returned to teach, planning to enjoy the city without touching fashion or entertainment again. Read more>>

Chris Reed

Yes! I am a full time musician and have been since August, 2021. The first week of going full time, I lost every gig I had booked. Double bookings with other musicians, weather affecting outside work, and also just having bad luck- but I kept going and continued to navigate through the music scene of Columbia. I found out that many musicians in the scene share gigs and help each other out quite often. I honestly would not have changed the way I learned to book myself because going through the more difficult times has helped me coach other musicians who are starting off and going through similar scenarios. I appreciate being able to help others as well as pushing myself to be a better human being in the process. Read more>>

Jeff Green

I have been earning a full-time living from my creative work for close to 30 years.
There have been certain times when there was not enough work coming in and I had to rely on savings to pay the bills.
You have to get used to the way that the business works and roll with it. It’s good to keep at least six months to a year worth of bills in creative industries. Read more>> 

Kat Altman

I’ve been able to earn a full-time living from my creative work. It’s been a journey of evolution, persistence, and strategic growth. I began my career as a motion designer for a tech startup, which gave me a strong foundation in both UX and visual storytelling. From there, I made the leap to New York City and began my freelance career. Early on, I balanced contract roles with agency work to build my network, sharpen my skills, and stabilize my income. One pivotal moment was working with Mustache, a Brooklyn-based agency, where I collaborated on high-profile campaigns for brands like Netflix and Hulu. That experience helped me land additional freelance opportunities with companies like Barilla and Google. Read more>>

Hayk Zakoyan

Yes, I absolutely earn a full-time living through my art. It’s a journey I’ve navigated with dedication. The path isn’t always straightforward; it’s more like ascending a ladder, rung by rung, with its own unique set of challenges and nuances. The key has been relentless self-improvement – a commitment to continuous learning through reading, observation, and deep study. There have been periods of intense focus, almost like a retreat from the world, to hone my craft. Read more>>