We recently connected with Andrea Miralles and have shared our conversation below.

Andrea, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Even though I’ve taken physical risks like: swimming with sharks, backpacking in Patagonia, solo traveling in foreign countries, those never felt like true “risks” to me. Our idea of what’s scary is based on conditioning and upbringing. For me, it was truly risky business going against the grain career-wise for my culture and starting an art business to become a self-employed artist.

I had no role models in my personal life running their own creative business. I had to go out and find artists and businesspeople that inspired and motivated me (it turned out I did have some family running their own businesses but back in the Philippines, and I didn’t realize it until I already began my journey).

I worked as a software engineer at a finance tech company when I felt the push to start my own business and work for myself. I was influenced by the startup lifestyle of moving fast, betting on yourself, taking risks, and having a growth mindset about everything. It was a great place to gain the confidence I needed and learn how to problem solve and work with others in a professional capacity.

Running my own business, in art no less, felt like a delusional thought—but one backed by love and passion. I’ve been painting, drawing, and making things since I was young but have been self-taught since high school. So, while I continued practicing and making art and nursing my seedling of an idea that I could run my own business, I clung to my tech job and the security and money it offered me. That proved pivotal in my career transition because you definitely need a comfortable financial runway when taking big life risks.

I started my art business in January 2022. In November 2022, I quit my tech job and took a gap year solo traveling in the Philippines, learning the language, spending time with family and nature, blogging, and building technical art skills with online classes. This break was everything I needed before a big pivot into a new career, new lifestyle, and new way of thinking and calling in opportunities. It changed me in indescribable ways and made me feel more sure of my calling. In October 2023 when I settled down in New Jersey, I started working on my business full time. Selling original art at pop ups, markets, and fairs, cold emailing businesses and art directors, and networking endlessly.

Within four months, in the spring of this year, I landed my first two freelance clients. My co-founded, all-female, Filipina art collective Tsismosas had our debut art show in Chinatown, NYC in May. Over the summer, I lined up over ten markets where I would sell original art and prints. Sales from the show and pop ups kept me afloat along with my savings from tech during this time.

Now, nearing the end of summer, I’m focusing on larger end-end design projects like branding, web design, and promotional graphic art for businesses. I love balancing working traditionally on fine art with digital work and working with business owners, creators, and brands, helping them stand out with an in-depth, custom-tailored art/design suite.

I’ve learned to really see and use my strengths—strategy and intuition, creativity, taking action, and energy—in order to optimize my work and offerings and make running a business as enjoyable as possible. My goal is to work sustainably and focus on doing what makes me feel good. That’s the reason I took this risk to begin with, because I realized I deserve to feel good and enjoy the work I do every single day. This will surely lead me to where I’m supposed to be and where I can make the most impact.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

The culture clash of biculturalism and fierce feminine energy in a traditional household and my tendency to escape to the great California outdoors informed much of my art, personality, and compassionate world-view. I am a second-generation Filipina American multidisciplinary artist and solopreneur. My parents immigrated to San Francisco from Manila, and I grew up in the Bay Area, California with my three sisters until my mid 20’s when I moved to NYC.

I did the safe and traditional professional thing as a software engineer until I knew I was meant for something else. I wasted no time, once you know you should be spending your time elsewhere, you have to let that guide your decisions. That was my intuition telling me I needed to express and fully unleash my creativity.

There are two sides of my business: graphic art under Andrea Miralles Studio and fine art. The two reflect my interests and love for both digital and traditional mediums.

Andrea Miralles Studio is a full-service creative studio specializing in illustration, graphic design, branding, and web design. Using comprehensive, bold, and natural design tailored to unique brand stories, I help expanding businesses and brands stand out, broaden their impact, and build connections. I create an immersive visual experience that clients can use at every touch point with their audience, from branding to promotional collateral and printed merchandise. I also take on surface pattern design and editorial and book illustration projects.

In my fine art business, I paint, create prints of digital and traditional work, and make small-batch, eco-friendly products like hand-painted wooden trays, reusable dishcloths, and tshirts. Everything is handmade and inspired by a deep reverence for Mother Earth and feminine power and wisdom. I love to highlight diversity, share positivity and healing, and deepen our connection and responsibility to nature. You’ll find these central themes in my freelance graphic work too, but it’s up to the client.

I describe my style as organic retro, psychedelic maximalist, and modern. It shifts depending on my mood and client needs. I paint and illustrate with bold, vibrant, and natural colors, incorporating organic textures, natural forms, flowing lines and abstract shapes. I draw inspiration from the 50s-80s, Japanese woodblock paintings, Impressionism, Expressionism, and Surrealism. I love to play with colors, movement, and symbols. Overall, I want my art to communicate a sense of wonder, joy, and rest, a moment of relaxation to remind people to chill out and be present. My business mantra is “good vibes and the happiest customers.” Another one that reflects the themes in my work is “mental health, Mother Nature, good vibes, and gratitude.”
I just want good vibes everywhere, all the time!
The main thing I want potential clients to know is that I deliver. I listen and learn exactly what’s needed to get the job done and provide a magical experience for you and your audience. I have built trust and expertise and learned to deliver at a corporate level, with non-profits, creators, and businesses. New projects with new people energize me. Mixing strategy, intuition, art, and design, we can build immersive and fun worlds that create a massive impact. Usually, people—including business owners—want connection and resonance. This is second nature to me. Art and design elevates and enhances this connection. It also makes it so much more enjoyable!

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I’m still working on it! When I started my business account, it was just a separate account from my personal feed dedicated to nature shots I took on trips with poetry in the captions inspired by the place and image. I didn’t look at it as me trying to grow an audience then. In retrospect, I still shouldn’t now.

After I moved to NYC, I had more free time to make art because I lived on my own and closer to work. The nature account converted into an art account, with less poetry unfortunately. Back then, I was sharing nearly everything I created. Now, I share the “good” artwork only. My, how the social media scene has matured and lost much of its unfiltered charm—I miss how it used to be on Myspace and Facebook when you would write whatever the hell you wanted on your status.

Now, because social media can get toxic real quick, I focus on using it for a few things and cut out the rest of the bullsh**. I need to for my mental health and well being. On my personal account I keep up with friends and watch memes, no more than 30min/day. On my business account, I focus on connecting with my audience, building trust and excitement by sharing about my life and art, and customer conversion. I run a business after all!

I’ve done a lot of personal work and research about this too. Social media is meant to be social. I don’t just share something anymore and close the app, or like and move on. I digitally spend time with people and engage with a few people a day. This means I’m doom scrolling less and having deeper interactions with fewer people/accounts.

Growth happens slowly. I’m still under 1k and that’s cool with me. I’m not trying to go viral. I want a “sticky” audience that actually cares about my work and impact and follows what I do. They should be aligned with my brand and my focus—art and design, encouraging others to be creative and build business of their own, mental health awareness, and connection to Mother Nature.

The most valuable mental shift with social media for your business is to think of it as a tool that works FOR you, that you should ENJOY using. There IS a way to do that. Like anything else in life, it takes knowing yourself, your special mix of content pillars, copywriting, and sharing your personality that you’re comfortable and confident with. People feel into the energy behind your posts/stories. People want to feel happy and good and excited about what they’re seeing, that’s why memes do so well—they entertain. I focus on entertainment and education, moreso on education. You’ll see the occasional dance video because, like I said, I gotta have my fun too.

Another helpful thing to grow my following has been promoting following my account at pop ups with a QR code and promotional sales where you get a discount if you follow me. If people see that and they like my art, they might not even buy anything but they’ll follow me. So, my advice would be to get out into the real world and promote yourself in your own way. I’ve gotten the most followers doing events and pop ups than any other time.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Right now I need to have multiple streams of income and do everything as a generalist to see what sticks and takes off. As far as active income where I’m out there doing the work physically, I sell fine art and handmade goods at pop ups (hopefully wholesale with local businesses soon) and do freelance graphic art for various clients.

I just released my first digital product (I guess second if we count my tattoo tokens that nobody has purchased lol) and it’s an 11-page business guide called “Get That Biz Up & Runnin!” I plan to make more digital products and create more passive income streams. For a long time, I’ve had the goal of monetizing my YouTube channel, but it takes a hell of a lot of time to create and edit videos on top of everything else, so I’ve deprioritized that. I’ll probably create more templates to streamline other creator’s processes, licensable icon/art packs, video courses, some type of subscription, and whatever else calls my name.

It’s fun doing all the things, but it’s also tiring. In the early stages of my business, I’m ready to do what I need to and hustle until I get more clarity on what works for me. You don’t arrive at clarity without action, so we out here! I can’t say something like that without also saying: prioritize rest lol. I need a lot of down time to fill my cup too, and I get that by going on walks in the park, communing with nature, working out (yes, I’m that kind of person), reading fantasy/sci-fi, and TV, lots and lots of couch time.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andreamiralles.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andreamiralles.studio
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/andreamiralles.studio
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreamiralles686/
• Twitter: https://www.threads.net/@andreamiralles.studio
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@andreamiralles.studio
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/andreamirallesstudio/

Image Credits

Andrea Miralles IG @andreamiralles.studio
Joe Esguerra IG @stephenesguerra