We recently connected with Dakota G. Thompson and have shared our conversation below.

Dakota G., thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

Taking on meaningful projects has become increasingly relevant to me in the past few years. Before then, I’ve always felt as though I was in “practice” mode, starting art that’s meant to push my technical skills, even if it doesn’t have a lot of deeper meaning or interest me. But as I establish myself as an artist, I’ve been trying to push myself to take on more meaningful pursuits, not simply difficult ones.
As a Christian Artist, God is always on my mind when I’m creating and I want to share his glory in my art. This initially started with me putting small Bible verses underneath paintings that related to the subject or simply about how I was feeling at the time. This culminated in a project I started about a year ago where I sought to explore the 7 deadly sins contrasted with the 7 heavenly virtues.
I just finished the first drawing in the series where I opposed the chief virtue, “Humility,” with the chief sin, “Pride.” This drawing was not only the largest that I’ve ever done, but also the most time-consuming. Taking months to complete each side, I really wanted to capture every detail and do these topics justice. I was surprised at how much something as simple as having this meaningful project behind me pushed me forward. Even when I wasn’t working on it, I was always thinking about it.
Finally, when I had finished it, it was as if a great weight was lifted from my shoulders and I was filled with so much joy from not only the finished piece but also the process in general. To me, it is the best piece I’ve ever made, and I am so excited to pursue more things like it. It was almost as if I had finally found my wings as an artist.

Dakota G., 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?

My name is Dakota, and I am a lifelong artist born and raised in Michigan. I started taking art lessons when I was just 7 years old when my parents noticed my passion and talent. There, I developed a skill for both drawing and painting, learning all the fundamentals both in and out of the classroom, watching every YouTube tutorial I could, and amassing countless books on how to draw.
As a kid, the margins of my notebooks were bursting at the seams with sketches and doodles as I carried a sketchbook with me everywhere I went. Even today, you can still find me dragging a similar drawing book around from time to time. But it wasn’t until recently that I decided to pursue my dream of becoming a professional artist.
Recently, I’ve taken a massive leap and have decided to start a business selling both art prints and original pieces, something that younger me would have thought to be completely unthinkable. I’ve always dreamed of starting a business, I even went to school for it, but all the studying in the world doesn’t compare to even just 1 year of hands-on experience running one. This dream and the passion for creating art keep pushing forward to make bigger and better things.
Through this process, I am continuing to discover the kind of art that I love and want to make. For the first time in my artistic career, I feel like I am starting to explore, experiment, and examine the art I’ve always made, and begin to pursue that which I’ve always wanted to, choosing to take on projects that I am passionate about. With each new project, I feel like I have discovered so much about myself and my art. As stressful as it is to run a business and share my art, I know it is far more rewarding.
I’m very grateful and fortunate to have found an audience who enjoys and supports me as I continue experimenting and exploring. It has been a great joy to come up with new pieces just to see the reactions from everyone. People are so supportive, and I’m very glad I have found those who enjoy my art for what it is, and I hope I can continue to make art for them for many years to come.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is also the most challenging part: freedom.
As an artist, you have complete freedom in what you create, the only limiting factor is yourself, whether it be your talent or imagination. This can be incredibly rewarding, not being beholden to anything or anyone that you don’t choose. However, that freedom is one of the biggest things I have to wrestle with. Nothing is so challenging as staring down a completely free, blank canvas with infinite possibilities of what I could turn it into. Nothing is as stressful as having everything in a project be up to your final decision and drive to create.
Freedom is a double-edged sword, giving life to many pieces, yet sacrificing security when trying something new. This interplay between what I know and what I don’t is where I do my best work. This dichotomy is where I find my most meaningful work.
If there is one thing I have learned when making art, it is that I need to limit myself, or else my art will quickly become too messy, too much, too fast. However, my mind requires that I have the freedom to place those limits myself. Otherwise, I feel as though I am constrained by someone else and that is not a feeling I care for.
Surprisingly, however, the more limits I place, the freer I feel. If I limit myself to 3 colors, I operate with complete freedom within the choices I have, not wasting time on other things. If I want to focus on the lighting of a piece, I know everything else is secondary which frees me to study, learn, and try the things that really matter. If I have a deadline I need to hit, that gives me the exact amount of work I need to hit each day to reach it. Surprisingly, limits are the thing that help me to be the most free and feel the most rewarded in almost anything I do.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I started posting on social media back in August of 2023 with no clue what to do or how to do it. I just knew I wanted to be an artist, and that was the best way to reach people. So I posted my first video on TikTok, and, to no one’s surprise, it didn’t do very well. Then I made another, and it flopped too. But it did a little better. I kept posting, off and on for about a month when I decided I needed a schedule. From there I made it a goal to post twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays, just to get something out there for people to see and build a back catalogue of content. Eventually, one took off and I still remember when I saw it go over 5000 views and I thought that I had made it big.
After I had decided to continue posting, I recycled my old TikTok content and posted it to Instagram, and eventually Youtube. I figured I could maximize my audience reach by posting in three places instead of one, and I was right. I started getting connections, reaching out to other artists that I admired, and asking for advice or words of encouragement. Many did not answer, but many did, and I’ve made some great friends from doing it, even before I had a following.
From there, I started to branch out with what I posted, trying new things until I found a strategy that started to work for audience capture. People saw my finished art and liked what they saw, following me because of it. This felt amazing, like people loved my art for what it was. Like I had made something good in this world. Eventually, one post took off and catapulted me a hundred times over where I was before, and the rest is history.
I still make mistakes, and some videos still flop, but having experienced highs and lows, I know that each post is like playing the lottery. You can do your research, learn how to make a great video or research the numbers, but at the end of the day, you have to spin the wheel and play the game. Yeah, most of the time it’s going to result in nothing, and the work you put into editing will feel like a waste, but it only takes one lucky spin of the algorithm to change your life as it did for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.dakotagthompson.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dakota.g.thompson/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Dakota.G.Thompson
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dakota.g.thompson