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

Chandler, appreciate you joining us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I have been a sculpture artist for 4 years now, the last two have been a full time job. From day one I understood that to make it as an artist today, with the saturation of instagram and the internet, I needed to stand out and fill a need or a gap in the art and design market. I was originally drawn to Scandinavian design and so immediately on the outset of my career I began reaching out to designers in Europe who regularly purchased sculptures and objects that were similar to the things I was coming up with in my creative time. I saw a ton of ceramics but as a carpenter and wood worker I only knew wood and so as soon as I was completing my wood abstracts I was sending them to designers for free just to get my name out there. After a handful of times giving away pieces I started getting sales. I firmly believe that creating a name for yourself is the most efficient way to launch yourself into a self sustained career. For me it was working for free and hoping that once my pieces ended up in the hands of highly trained eyes that I would be embraced by the design community. I discourage artists and designers from entering their careers with inflated egos, there is talent everywhere, but hard work and sacrifice has to precede what you are capable of creatively.

Chandler, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I started my adult life as a carpenter and wood worker. I was working on historical restorations, building new houses, cabinets and domestic goods for homes. I worked for a handful of small builders and shops. Eventually I became bored with the traditional applications of wood and in my free time started drawing and sculpting abstract forms.

My client base range from a small number of celebrities, tv studios like HBO and Amazon, interior designers, private collectors, and design retailers. The majority of my business is done with private buyers and collectors.

The most enjoyable part of the job is working with interesting people on commissioned work. Right now at this stage in my career I work almost exclusively on a commission basis and so that means everything starts on paper and its always a back and forth process with the client. There is a huge amount of satisfaction in coming up with just the right thing to fit the buyers vision. For me its a challenge and a game and I find myself constantly being pushed by these lovely strangers that find their way into my life.

I think what sets me apart from my peers or contemporaries is the size and variation in my body of work. I am totally uninterested in being known for one style or genre of work. Im sure it will be unavoidable as there is always something that ties each piece to the next but for the most part there is not a lot of cohesion in my work and that is something that I love. It keeps me interested and it makes me feel like I am free to change direction at any point. One of my favorite things to hear or read is “I’m loving the new direction!” or “Never afraid to try something new!”. I think aways allowing yourself to explore new directions is how you build a lasting career.

I struggle to see myself as a traditional artist. While there is emotion and thought behind my work, most of my creativity comes from recognizing a need or solving a problem. I think why is there nothing just right for this space. Or, how can I make something with the stature of A, the softness of B, and the intensity of C. For me art is about putting the pieces together and finding ways to bring out something beautiful with whatever you have. I am always trying to understand “why” something looks good or makes sense visually. It’s about the smallest details in the biggest picture and understanding the relationship between them all.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

At the very beginning of my exploration of sculpture I was working in a small wood shop making corbels and other small necessities. I was also working and living on an animal farm. My wife and I were young and absolutely broke and in our early twenties and so spending money to pursue “interests” was not really something we even considered. There was a milling shop in town near one of the breweries I would pick up spent grains from that we would feed the pigs. I noticed a ridiculous amount of walnut scraps that would pile up outside of their shop in the dumpsters and given the price of walnut I knew that I need to start taking it. So in the evenings I would drive back and dumpster dive for wood to carve. Eventually I discovered another milling factory in the same industrial park and added that to my nightly dumpster diving circuit. I had no tools at the time so I was chipping away at this wood with the same Leatherman I was using to repair pig fence. I eventually asked the owner of the farm if he could lend me $300 to buy a saw that would make things so much easier. I remember telling him and my wife “I swear to god I can make this work, just watch”. It sounds like a corny stupid thing to say but I remember it vividly because I was never more sure of anything and I couldn’t take the fact that people thought it was silly. The point of the story is that I had nothing given to me, I had no art school, no money, no idea what I was doing but I had the belief in myself that I could make something beautiful and I wanted to surprise everyone. Artists rarely have the whimsical dreamy evolution that many people imagine. I learned to pay attention, learned to look around, learned to ask why, and learned to make something from nothing. Most of us have had nothing and found ways to make something beautiful from that nothing and to me thats art.

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

Firstly, there is a group of people of a certain size that include artists and non artists who see social media as some kind of demonic presence that stands to destroy us all. To some extent I wouldn’t even necessarily disagree with them but like anything in life it can be used in a wonderful way for learning and growing and exploring and it can be used in a way that makes us hate ourselves and the people around us. I think that however you view social media directly reflects you and how you spend your time and use the freedom of the internet.

So with that said, if you are in business, any business, there will be tools that you can use to optimize blank business. There are tasteful and intelligent ways to use that tool that will bring joy to you and the people you encounter along the way. Put most simply, if you are on instagram, your main objective should be to spread goodness in a way that does not make other people feel bad about themselves and to do that I’m pretty sure you just need to be genuine. It’s typically something most people can pickup on even through a screen.

As an artist you should view Instagram as a community of people that, at most stand to benefit you, and at worst stand to be completely neutral to you. From the outset, as I mentioned earlier my first goal was to get my stuff out there into the hands of the people that I knew would benefit me. I wanted feedback from them and I wanted community from them. In pursuing those things I felt that I was also bringing something of value to their life. It gives each of us the opportunity to foster creative community and help inspire beauty. I am not a social media expert and so I cant really say that all you need to do is X Y or Z but I do feel confident that if you approach social media in a non selfish way and with something meaningful to contribute then you will find yourself some kind of digital success. Ask for feedback, encourage your peers, share the work of others who inspire you, and most importantly sacrifice your time to get your stuff out there and make a name for yourself.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.chandlermclellan.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chandlermclellan/?hl=en