We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Chera Creative. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Chera below.
Hi Chera, thanks for 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?
In March of 2022 I took the leap to pursue Chera Creative full-time. Since you now know the happy ending, let me back track and give you the journey as to how I got there. I majored in Graphic Design at Abilene Christian University because although painting was my biggest passion I thought it valuable to learn a new skill set that would only expand my artistic expertise and allow me to create artwork digitally and physically. There were also many painting classes within that degree so I got the best of both worlds. After college, I got an internship that turned into a full-time job at Mary Kay Corporate in Dallas working as an Art Director. I knew I had to have a full-time job to pay the bills while I pursued Chera Creative as my side hustle. I spent a lot of late nights and weekends outside of my 9-5 to keep pushing Chera Creative forward. I tried a multitude of different painting avenues to see what I loved doing and could see myself growing into a full-time business. I tried live performance painting, painting graduation caps, champagne bottles, invitation/stationery design, live wedding painting, etc. I enjoyed all of these things but knew they weren’t profitable enough and I didn’t enjoy it enough to do long term. After visiting the mural scene in Nashville, TN at the end of 2019, I was inspired to paint a mural myself. I contacted my friend Connie who was soon opening her own restaurant, Krio Dallas, in Bishop Arts. Thankfully, she needed a mural for her restaurant and trusted me enough to paint it. After painting that first mural, I knew this was something I could do forever and be SO happy doing. I then pursued one mural after the next, posting the finished work to social media, being creative in how I marketed myself and my work, and after 1 ½ years I was getting mural inquires daily, had gained almost 20k followers on social media, and couldn’t keep up working my full-time corporate job and my side hustle. So I knew after 5 ½ years of persistence and consistency in pursuing my dream of working for myself full-time, it was time to take the leap. I am happy to say that since March 1, 2022, the last day at Mary Kay Corporate, Chera Creative has only flourished and the momentum I felt at the beginning of the year has only continued. Working for exciting clients like Omni Hotels, UTSouthwestern Medical Center, ItCosmetics, Flea Style, The Shops at Park Lane, and many more. I have already learned a lot in the short 10 months since going full-time including time management, insurance, taxes, project management and all the un-glamourous parts of running a business but I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Getting to wake up every morning and know I get to paint and solely pursue my passion is the dream I’ve had forever. 15 year old Chera would be so happy to see where we are today! I can’t wait to see what 2023 and the future years have in store for Chera Creative.
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?
My name is Chera, I am a painter and muralist for Chera Creative. Although my account features all things creative, I have lately been pursuing mural painting the most. My favorite subjects are natural, floral and botanical paintings featuring bright and bold colors to bring a feeling of joy to everyone who encounters my paintings. My favorite part about painting murals is that they are more public and open to more viewers who pass by, with a larger opportunity to inspire someone and bring someone joy. My career would not be what it is today without my family. My family has been a constant support and encouragement to me, as well as literally being a part of mural jobs. My dad retired from the military a little over a year ago when I just started painting murals and I have since hired him for big jobs to be my muralist assistant. My mom comes along too as my “snack-engineer” and “people-manager”. My sister brands all of my coveralls/merch and she and my brother-in-law are the best promoters of my work. My husband supported me in the decision to leave my corporate job 1 month before our wedding to pursue my passion of being a full-time artist. I could not do it without his love, support, listening ear, advice, and caption-writing (haha). My family is at the center of me being able to do what I do today and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
How did you build your audience on social media?
My audience on social media has grown the most over the last two years gaining around 20k followers. My biggest advice is that creating a painting is one thing, but the way you market that painting is a key element to growing your audience. It’s important to think through the best way to capture the process of your work and promote it on social media. Once I started time lapsing and videoing my paintings, I saw my audience naturally grow. This thought process also started to become a habit and natural on how to capture each mural I paint and what posts I will create. One of the most beneficial features on instagram for me has been Reels. I learned quickly how to capitalize on the trends and create videos in a way that showed off my work well. My advice to those who are trying to grow their audience is to focus on quality posts, not quantity. There are a lot of opinions on this topic and some think it’s important to post every single day, but if there’s no quality behind the posts, then it’s just white noise in the sea of other posts. From my perspective, it’s more important to spend a few days creating a post that shows your work in a way that is captivating, eye-catching and entertaining that will have the chance to attract new viewers to your page and get shared more. This will increase your view numbers, likes, algorithm, etc. which is only positive for growth. My last piece of advice which isn’t new but good to reiterate is to try not to scroll and consume social media more than you create and produce it. Comparison can halt creativity and make you question what you’re doing or not doing. Try to just focus on yourself and create content that represents your brand and yourself well. Only scroll social media when you’re in a good headspace and can use posts as positive inspiration.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
1. This year I had the opportunity to paint a mural for the art department of my alma mater, Abilene Christian University, during Homecoming weekend. There were hundreds of people who stopped by and watched me paint. Some would stop and say hi and talk to me about my career and mural painting. One mother stopped by multiple times with her daughter who was in high school and thinking about pursuing an art major. The mother said to me “You being here has been the most beneficial part of her college visit because it shows her and shows us that you can make a living at being an artist”. That stuck with me because I am so thankful that my parents and my family always encouraged and supported me in my art passions but I know that is a luxury and many parents hear the “starving artist” stereotype and do not support their children’s artistic passions. So, just being able to share my story and my journey with parents and other artistic kids makes this career even more worth it.
2. The second rewarding aspect I’ve mentioned before is to spend time with family through this career. I have had the opportunity to paint four murals back in my hometown where my granddad (the original artist of the family) and my dad help me paint, and the rest of my family pull up lawn chairs and cheer us on. It is the most fulfilling and rewarding part of being an artist, creating memories I will cherish forever.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cheracreative.com
- Instagram: @cheracreative