We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Anthony Moreno a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Anthony, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

balancing, family, full time job and time for myself (which is a must) feels sometimes that one has to neglect a part of themselves to earn a living entirely on creating art and I know many artists that sacrifice one or the other to reach that goal only to find that something has been lost or something is missing and I believe that something is the part of them that ignited thru every struggle. I know there’s a happy median where you can keep all personas that helped create the artist that brought you this far.
the majority of my art is about the strength, importance and visually showing that the definition of love is woman,
a woman has the strength and power to balance being a wife, mother, lover and nurturer and still keeps herself, therefore I know it’s possible to fully keep yourself and all the personas that created the artist you are, it’s been a slow but happy process for me, and I can see everything coming together as I want it to be, a full-time artist is very possible when i chose it to be.

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 create artworks about love and illusion in 2-d using thin black sheets of vinyl type plastic that is drawn on and hand cut and adhere to glass, the back side of the glass is painted to add to the artwork which in all tells a story and sometimes tells a totally different story depending on the viewer. I also create the same type of art but in wood carvings. I create each piece of art using one song as an inspirational backstory from start to finish, listening to the song over and over until the piece is completed.
I’m a romantic and was raised by very strong-willed women.
I’m very happy that my art has influenced males and in times caused deep feelings of self of the past or present in females.
what I think separates me apart from other artists is my art will always be for the sake of love for all.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I decided long ago to have only my interests, artists friends, potential buyers and past customers in order to keep true followers and not to play the “you follow me and ill follow you” game.
my advice on social media is keep it true and uncluttered.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’ve learned that you have to be true to yourself, create art that is visually and is a tangible part of you that you can offer your clients and feel happy knowing that they truly have a part of you that makes them and you happy.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.facebook.com/customtexturedwoodworkshop/
• Instagram: ctwworkshop
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/customtexturedwoodworkshop/