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

Daisy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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 able to earn a full time living from my creative work, mostly because I have been able to reduce my living expenses dramatically. This gave me room to experiment with both visual art and building a business. Day One to Now has changed quite a bit. Day One I think I was somewhere in Chile, Covid vacation gone wonderfully wrong, I had just put my portfolio together online and I wondered what people thought of my work.
Now is more like I have work lined up and I think more about things like optimizing my workflow through automation and working with dream clients and less about what people think of my work.

I have a creative friend that I meet with twice a month to talk about goals, fears, dreadful tasks, inspiring moments.. we talk all the other days about nonsense too, but we serve as accountability partners. We record everything in Google sheets and feed off of each other’s creative energy. We also help each other deal with problems that come up, because other peoples’ problems are always easier. It is so helpful to have her to talk to and build ideas with. Crucial, probably.

The process could have definitely been sped up, but a lot of the lessons I have learned are just from time and experimentation. I know my process well now, and I wouldn’t if I hadn’t failed so many times in the past. Creating is winning, selling is creative, failure is part of the process, and it all comes together.

Daisy, 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 am a creative that brings life to spaces with visual arts. My mediums are mainly oil paintings and murals, but I am also passionate about gardening, rivers, buildings, and gathering. My clients come to me with a desire to create an experience. They want to celebrate beauty, joy, discovery, creativity, play! They have a space that they want to feel good in, and I help them by painting their favorite things to celebrate. Additionally, I have a background in engineering which really comes in handy on projects that include systems like power, lighting, or irrigation.
I love painting and I love helping cool people make cool spaces.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

The first thing society can do to support creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem is to accept that everyone is a creative, especially you! Secondly, get to know yourself! Who are you and what is your story? Creative ecosystems are all about connection. The more you know yourself, the more I’ll know you, the better our art will be for it. The more time we all get to spend doing what we love.

Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?

I have been a full time artist for about two years now, and I recently discovered a podcast called 6 Figure Creative. They have over 200 episodes of golden content that helps creatives wrap their beautiful, busy minds around business.
They do a marvelous job of showing you that business isn’t that boring and horrible thing that you don’t want to be bothered with, which is kind of how I felt about sales in the beginning. Instead, business can be art! You get to build a system that allows you do do your craft of choice most of the time. You get to decide how things work. Now that’s exciting to think about.

Contact Info:

• Website: daisyralston.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/daisyralstonart/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/daisyralston

Image Credits
MJ Lee Sabrina Osment