We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Christian Green. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Christian below.

Alright, Christian thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. We love asking folks what they would do differently if they were starting today – how they would speed up the process, etc. We’d love to hear how you would set everything up if you were to start from step 1 today.

If I were starting over I would tell myself to not be scared and to jump out there with confidence. For a while I did not believe in my talents as a creator and missed out on great opportunities that could have helped my career as an artist early on in the beginning. I look back and wish I would have said yes to certain projects and figured things out along the way. I wish I traveled more for art events and shows to experience different things and network. It’s not always about how fast we get there because I believe God puts us where we need to be at the time.

Christian, 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 am Christian Green and my artist name is C3. I am artist, creator, muralist, an graphic designer who is inspired by many things. I graduated from Tennessee State University with a bachelors degree in Art with a concentration in Graphic Design. It was at TSU where my career began as an artist. I started in Computer Science but knew immediately that it was not for me. I knew that I wanted to create but wasn’t exactly sure in what ways but I knew Art was where I needed to be. After a conversation with my father I switched my major and began my Level 2 Art classes my sophomore year. My first project was for a friend of mines who was running for SGA president and he needed flyers and posters designed and I had Photoshop. He trusted my vision and creativity for his campaign, from there I began designing for my peers and organizations on campus all while still learning the skills I needed to become a graphic artist. Throughout my college years I began doing custom pieces and commissioned artwork for many others, it was then that I knew I could do art full time. After graduating in 2010 I did not jump straight into my art career full time but I continued to paint and design while building my name and clientele.

While working a full time job and raising my son I would get frustrated thinking about being at home finishing a painting or a design for someone and it bothered me everyday because I knew it was not what I wanted to do. I started bringing my laptop and paintings with me and on my down time or lunch break I would work on my artwork. Everyone at my job knew I was an artist, it would sometimes get me in trouble but I didn’t care. Later I started getting bigger projects that required my full attention and I started to take off and leave early because I wanted it that bad.

Between 2013 and 2017 I thought I had found my niche and got comfortable with the level of work I was doing but then started to feel like no I have to go bigger and started working on my solo art show. I wanted to get my paintings out there for people to see because I was more so known for my graphic design work. After my show I then started to get more projects that I really wanted to do like commissioned paintings, custom pieces for celebrities, and more.

In 2018 I began to move into other areas of art involving community projects and events such as live painting at art crawls and demonstration appearances for Microsoft. In 2019 I was invited to do the MHCF charity event at the New York Stock Exchange where my artwork along with many others was on display.

In 2020 I went full time as an artist, I felt that it was time to pursue my dream and doing what I loved. Since then I have been granted the opportunity do many great projects, work with amazing clients, network and meet new people.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

To me the most rewarding aspect of being an artist and creative is the joy you feel when finishing a project and the response it receives from the client or audience. When I am working on a mural I like to show the process and all the preparation it takes start to finish.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Art was my side hustle but I always wanted to do it full time just didn’t know when would be the right time to start. In 2019 I was working at call center like job and I was cool because it was a consistent pay check and I had bills like everyone else but it was boring and repetitive. I then left there and became a art teacher at a school but was doing everything else but teaching art. I was frustrated and kept saying Im going to do my art full time but doubted myself because I didn’t have enough money saved, I didn’t have a plan, I wasn’t sure if I could sustain and grow, and most of all I didn’t believe in myself. Once Covid hit in 2020 I said to myself what better time then now? You have to go for it and don’t look back, be confident work hard for what you want and I did.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://c3art.carbonmade.com
• Instagram: @c3.art