We were lucky to catch up with Daisy Faith recently and have shared our conversation below.

Daisy , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you 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?

It’s definitely very difficult to create full time income from being an artist. I don’t know if I have the answer to that. I tried to study and read books and figure out what other artists were doing and ultimately what works for others didn’t really work for me. I tried and tried for 2 solid years to really grow my IG following because it seemed like one other artist reached over 10k their careers online really took off but no matter how hard I tried to be consistent and have great content it just wasn’t happening for me. Instagram was changing rapidly and I think it’s such an unpredictable tool that I had a really hard time with it. Once I let go of the FOMO of doing things “right” like I’d been told in various books, classes and podcasts I ended up finding other ways to bring in income with my art like my husband and I’s art printing business called Studio Giclée. You hear a lot about “diversifying” and having multiple income sources or “passive income” and I really thought that I’d make money doing art licensing deals, wholesale deals or collaboration with large companies but none of those avenues seemed to work out nor did I enjoy pursuing them. I think you just have to listen to where your strengths will take you. For me, like I mentioned before, I like to help people, problem solve and create and that is what organically has happened with my art by spreading my happy art into society and cheering people up. I also really enjoy cheering other artists on and helping them create the careers they want by printing beautiful art prints so they can make more money and spread their art at more affordable prices out into the world. The two paths really do go hand in hand.

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’ve been creating my whole life. From scribbling on any piece of available paper as a child, to creating characters in theater productions to problem solving… I’m always creating. I’ve been painting since a teen and studied Interior Design and Art in college while always being involved in acting pursuits. In college is where I actually learned painting techniques which was very important within my growth as an artist. As my painting professor in college said, “You have to learn the rules before you break them.” And she was right. When I moved back to North Carolina 4 years ago I decided I needed to take my art full time. I’d had some success owning and operating a painting studio in Los Angeles which gave me the business confidence to take my painting full time. If I could make a brick and mortar art studio successful then why couldn’t I use that to create a successful painting career for myself? I’ve been painting and selling my work ever since but I did find that I was noticing that there wasn’t a good “art printer” in my area so again, using my problem solving skills I realized I could create a solution to a problem in my area and my husband and I created an art printing business called, Studio Giclée, where we help other artists create archival art prints of their work. Selling my happy paintings to collectors and creating Studio Giclée are my two greatest achievements and I really enjoy helping other artists spread their work out into the world. Many of my art fans and collectors message me to say how “happy” my artwork is and how it’s helped them through tough times and that truly makes me proud.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Pivot! This reminds me of that Friends episode when they’re moving the couch up the stairs but that visual really is synonymous with having to make little adjustments in life and listening to the universe for where you should be headed. I’ve had to pivot many times in my adult career. As I mentioned I’ve always been creative and wanted to be a successful working comedic actress. I moved to Hollywood and struggled but finally made it on a few TV Shows (How I Met Your Mother, Pretty Little Liars, Nashville, Days of Our Lives, Conan) and then nothing much happened and I was still really struggling and I was entering my mid-thirties and I thought there must be more to life? A friend asked me for painting lessons and that opened the door… maybe I could teach painting? I pivoted and became a painting instructor and eventually bought and took over an art studio in LA. While I still continued to act through improv in my spare time this pivot gave me confidence that I was good at something else which didn’t depend on an outside force “casting” me in a role. It was very freeing. Then I pivoted again when I decided to move back to NC from LA and since I sold the art studio I pivoted to painting full time. I didn’t have enough income coming in as a full time artist yet but as they say, “leap and the net will appear.” My husband, who is also an artist, and at the time was working in the art department in the film industry then realized that the film industry was really not the best fit for him (or I) because the hours are super long, there’s a lot of social politics that go into it and the jobs are very inconsistent (you can be on a show for 6 months and then nothing for 3 months and never know when your next show is going to start) and that’s when I had been noticing that many artists I knew were having a hard time sourcing a great giclée art printer in our town of Wilmington, NC and surrounding areas. That’s when the lightbulb went off in my head and I realized that my husband’s skills of A. he’d grown up in his family’s print business in Nebraska B. He’s a graphic designer and tech wiz C. He understand artists was the perfect foundation to create an art printing business for artists by artists. So I again pivoted to create Studio Giclée. I run the business side of things and my husband does all the production. We love helping artists and I also still have time to paint.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think valuing original artwork and high quality prints is very important. Instead of people going out to chain stores and buying art for their homes it’s very important to find a local artist or artist you follow online and buy directly from them. Also, don’t devalue the price of a painting… an original piece is priced the way it is because it’s a one of a kind piece that probably took 10,000 hours or practice before that particular piece was created. One of the biggest things you can do to help an artist is share your favorite artists and makers with your friends and family. Help spread the word of their talent and offerings. When shopping this holiday season remember to shop for bespoke items made by artists. As far as society goes as a whole that’s a really big question but I think one thing colleges and universities could do is make business classes part of the curriculum for artists to get their degree. I know that seems crazy but artists need classes about how to create an art business if they have any hope of making money and bucking the stereotype of the “starving artist.” Classes in website design, accounting, economics, how to pay sales and use tax, marketing practices, photographing your artwork and more are all skills that you’ll need to be a successful artist and essentially business owner.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.daisyfaithart.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daisyfaithart/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/daisyfaithart/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7bx93K4ECw3ICPdoal_ptw

Image Credits
Chad Fogland