Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Barrett Biggers. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Barrett, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Being happy as a creative professional is not as simple as flipping a “make art” switch on inside your head. Many people believe that pursuing a career in creative arts is “living the dream” and endless fun but that is not usually the reality. As with any small business owner being an artist is essentially becoming every position in one – a public persona, an extroverted and charismatic salesperson, a financial expert, customer service representative, marketing and social media manager, videographer, researcher, project manager, tax advisor and ALSO a skilled creative. I began my career in corporate graphic design and worked my way up to senior level over several years without any art schooling/prior training. The only way to learn anything in life well is not something books and lessons can completely prepare you for (although they have merit). The same goes for owning a business – I started by taking a leap and working very hard at making my art a product. However this started to erode my happiness and joy in creating. In my opinion very few people can make their hobby their full time job and maintain/succeed long term. For instance you can never really clock out. This is one thing I do miss from my prior “normal” jobs. Another challenge for me was resisting the urge to always “people please” or trend follow. It burned me out over the years. Every time I said “no” to someone a horrible guilt of potential money lost welled up inside me and I ended up taking on jobs I didn’t always want to do or I started making art that catered to the masses rather than what I wanted or felt like making. Coming back full circle I am now a freelance graphic designer almost entirely and decided to let my art become my passion and hobby again in order to rekindle the fire I lost. The true happiness in art is wanting to make art for yourself and not always having the monetary demand/fear of loss attached to it (and by extension) your self worth.

Barrett, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I started as a hobbyist in graphics/art. I have a degree in Biology and was a wetland environmental biologist out of college for several years. Housing market crash in 2008 caused my job to decline in quantity and quality so I decided to finally take a big chance and become a graphic designer for a large supplement health company. First of all I was tenacious and had no schooling nor portfolio but created my own pieces by literally downloading assets off the company website and making my own brochures/fliers and ads which I brought to my first interview. Luck was in my corner and my first job of trial by fire taught me so much more than any expensive school could have taught me. It was the real world of fast deadlines, technical skills, color theory, print limitations, coworker drama, office ethics and learning by tutorials, googling and staying up late. I did not ask for any hand-outs from others but I did watch and learn as much as I could from my superiors. After several years of growing my skills and contacts I went out on my own as a freelancer. Again luck was a huge part in all this. I had many opportunities to get good paying work early on. Because of this I also decided I could finally try to make my personal hobby of digital fine art my career. Start selling my artwork as digital print on demand arts and my own prints and canvases on my own shop or at shows. At first it was fast and furious work with some pretty nice successes along the way. But by my nature I am not a social and charismatic person – I am a strong introvert and a highly sensitive person (HSP) with waxing and waning energy around people. I soon learned in order to be a truly marketable successful artist you have to be both entertainer (as you are selling yourself as a brand) as well as great and authentic at art. So my art is not hiding the fact of my mental health and social issues because much of my darker surrealism pieces tend to show my emotions and struggles or my desire to be free of all the stresses of my art forced into a commodity. I feel my collectors and fans feel that connection too and find meaningful stories in my art.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I have always been naturally creative and I don’t like the term “non-creative” because to be honest anyone can be creative if they practice and find passion in something. You can landscape your yard very creatively or buy a set of legos and not follow the instruction manual and build something new for example. However for those who are not working in a creative career I think there is a bit of a misconception on how a professional artist works. I do not believe people realize how much stress and how much inspiration/timing has to play in the creative process. Sure there are times when a client asks for something very straight forward (like make a logo for my new company or design a brochure for my new product, etc.) but for my personal art my process is more guttural and chaotic. One reason I struggle to be interactive and consistent on my social media. I don’t post videos much of myself or my process. It is long and boring or chaotic / undisciplined.  I also don’t care as much about having followers and likes anymore as I used to. Let’s be real – all social is turning into a giant advertisement anyway. Being able to be creative on demand or take on commissions from clients on subjects that I have zero or even negative interest in my life is an incredible challenge. How do you make a movie poster about sports cars if you don’t understand nor care about sports cars? Or how do you get more sales on your art if your art is darker heavy surrealism or emotional art (think mental health, skulls and spiders). You limit your audience by half instantly. My kudos to artists who can ignore these and just power through and consistently make gold. But I have found I am not good at making my best work when being shoved into a box. So I decided early on to not take on small commissions and just try my best to sell what I wanted to make. In other words create my own brand in my own style and try (my best) to long term create a collective and community.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I know as a professional creative I can sometimes come across as pessimistic, realistic and blunt. But I feel like creatives need to be more transparent and honest in how hard it is to make their passion their career – which applies to all creative professions not just artists. I want to see the raw, true nature more from professionals. I think others would feel more inspired and less intimidated if successful artists shared their many failures it took to get there. As for my collectors and buyers I get a huge sense of gratefulness and joy when they can truly connect with me. I love to hear their stories and emotions from viewing my art. I truly am so thankful for everyone who has purchased art or hired me for professional creative services. Because I know how many artists are struggling (especially how AI art is looking in the future) to make ends meet or having a burn out or living with mental health issues. I know it all too well. So for me the interaction with buyers and hearing how they feel is really what is so rewarding about opening up my personal raw emotions to the world through my art.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://barrettbiggers.com
• Instagram: http://instagram.com/barrettbiggers
• Facebook: http://facebook.com/barrettbiggersartist
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/barrettbiggers/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdFCgTzXKGh0d9c6RzY1-mQ