We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alison Kenyon a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Alison thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I have been so fortunate to be able to make a full time living from my creative work since the 1990s.
The key has been to wear many hats… my primary source of income for 28 years was entertaining at corporate events, but this took many forms.
I was a face painter for family events at the likes of Facebook, ETrade, Google, SF Giants, Salesforce, and many others, as well as a clown at birthday parties. I did body painting for upscale corporate parties, wineries and trade shows.
I was the in-house makeup artist for a circus troupe, as well as their fire swallower.
One of my primary jobs was strolling in character, greeting and interacting with guests at these events- but each party had its own theme, so I was constantly making new costumes to fit each theme- another facet of my creative skill set.
My dance, circus, acrobatic, and vocal training all got put to full use in my vocation, as well as my skills as a visual artist and fabricator.
Early on in my journey I had a mentor- a professional magician- who took me under his wing and taught me how to promote myself to event producers and develop sellable acts and skills. He brought me to his jobs and let me learn “hands on”, as well as make the connections that allowed me to have such a long and sustainable career. Without him, who knows how much longer my path to success would have been!
Through the process I had to learn EVEN MORE skills– “soft skills” that aren’t talked about as much in the realm of “making it” as an artist. Promotion, web design, networking, graphic design, writing contracts, proposals, and invoices, delegating, bringing on subcontractors, and later on social media.
After Covid, when I couldn’t do those events any more, I started transitioning to being primarily a visual artist. I learned Procreate and started studying digital illustration. From that I’ve been able to create artwork for product packaging, games, book covers, logos, album covers, and a graphic novel. And I use it to create digital mock-ups of my murals and fine art paintings.
While my fine art paintings haven’t taken off as far as sales- they ARE popular, and everyone in my area recognizes my iconic style- it’s my mural work and window painting that is paying the bills these days. It’s been a pretty cool transition- a little rocky at times getting a steady flow of jobs lined up, but things are gaining momentum as I gain visibility in my new role. The soft skills I learned in my “old life” have definitely served me well in this new capacity!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I’ve been a visual and performing artist my whole life, and made my primary living as an entertainer, face painter, and body painter until Covid shut down large events… that’s when I started to pivot more heavily to fine art, interior decorative painting, and murals.
Not all of my work for clients is representational- I know when people hear about what I do, they automatically think “big mural with clear literal imagery”. Yes, I do this… but I also create faux finishes, apply gold leaf, create textures and patterns… I’ve blended people’s fixtures into stone and marble walls, and matched them to their fancy wall paper. I’ve created clouds, moons, and stars on ceilings, and made a waterfall in a bedroom that’s only visible in the dark or in blacklight.
And it’s not just walls I paint… I live in the Sierra Foothills, where many people have propane tanks, garden walls, out buildings, and water tanks that they want beautified– which I LOVE to do. I also paint shop windows that entice walk-up customers, and eye-catching activations at businesses that encourage visitors to take selfies and post them to their social media; boosting the location’s online reach and engagement.
My fine art paintings on canvas are the centerpiece of my arts practice. They are primarily large scale portraits of women; vibrantly colorful, glowing with gold leaf details, and radiating divine feminine energy. Many of my pieces came to me in visions or meditations. One of my favorite things is creating custom “modern goddess” portraits for women who want to embrace, embody, or re-discover their powerful radiance.
What sets me apart is my ability to listen and understand the client’s vision, personal story, aesthetic, and/or branding goals… and translate that into a visual piece that is truly unique to them and brings joy every time they look at it. My work is never cookie cutter.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
My biggest pivot in life was when Covid hit. For 28 years I had made my living as an entertainer for events- as a clown, body painter, face painter, fire swallower, and interactive character. It’s all I had ever really done for my entire adult life… and I was supporting my family with that income.
Thankfully I was able to get self employed unemployment benefits during that time while I figured out what the heck I was going to do next… because during that time I realized that I was ready to retire my clown shoes.
As things started to open back up, events slowly came back; but I just wasn’t getting calls for body painting any more for some reason. Doing more body painting was what I *thought* my Plan B was going to be as I transitioned away from the clown parties (which had been my primary bread-and-butter).
To make ends meet, I spent a couple years working for a small business doing graphic design and social media management… it was somewhat creative, but not feeding my soul. Around that time I got commissioned to create a few paintings for a live painting activation at a company party. They wanted me to create 4 pieces, and be working on a 5th piece over the course of the event.
After finishing the first painting, I got so fired up that I was finishing a new piece every other day! This was shortly after separating from my husband (another giant pivot), and my son was spending the summer with him. I had the house to myself- and didn’t have anyone else to take care of- for the first time in over a decade. So I was regularly staying up to paint until 5 or 6am, sleeping for a few hours, then popping back up feeling inspired and more alive than I ever had. One giant cup of coffee later, and I was back at the easel.
Since then I haven’t slowed down, and I’ve slowly made a name for myself as a fine art painter, illustrator, and muralist.- reborn in my new identity!
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
When I was in my late 20s, I had a seemingly mundane experience that revealed to me my true purpose in life.
I lived in San Francisco; and anyone who has spent time in SF with a car knows the agony of parking in The City. It’s always hard to find parking anyway, but the pain is exacerbated by 2 hour parking limits and street cleaning days. On my street, street cleaning happened at 7am. Everyone in the neighborhood was up at dawn, cranky, and circling around in vain looking for a new parking spot on a different street.
I saw a spot and swerved over to nab it. Another lady had her eye on the same spot. I was trying to nose in. She was trying to back in. It was a slow motion game of chicken. We were both cursing and flashing rude gestures from our open windows. It was obvious neither of us was going to back down, so we both put our cars in park and GOT OUT. We were ready to go to blows over a parking space.
That’s when it happened. Like a scene from a movie, my mind’s view zoomed out, revealing how infinitesimally small we were. I saw a fast forward of the rest of the day play out behind my eyes; I prevailed and got the parking space… the other lady drove away in a dark cloud of anger… she got coffee in a huff and was pissy to the barista… she went to work and snapped at her coworkers… she got home and yelled at her partner… and in my vision, each of the people she interacted with ALSO contracted the dark cloud, like a nasty virus. And each of THEM spread it to more people throughout the day, and this hideous vapour of anger and resentment propagated exponentially through the city and beyond.
It was epic, but only lasted a split second in real time. Then I snapped back into myself, stopped in my tracks, and with wide eyes told the other lady to take the parking spot and have a blessed day. I put my hands to my heart, said I was deeply sorry, and backed away while she stared at me in utter disbelief.
In that moment I made a promise to myself and the universe that I would always strive to do the OPPOSITE of what I saw in that vision. I realized that it is my purpose in this life to spread joy and light to every person I interact with, and in every space that I enter. Later, it sank in that this purpose could be actualized through my artwork, as well; that through my art, I can bring joy and light to rooms I’m not physically in, and to people I’ve never met.
That is what drives my creative journey every moment of every day.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.AlisonKenyonArt.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alison_kenyon_art/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AlisonKenyonArt
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alisonkenyonart/
- Other: https://share.google/i2JKRoYOtpCbSs7Wp
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