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

Daryl, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. 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?

I have been lucky to earn a full-time living for the past 20 years. My wife, Dana Shavin and I met an artist who was making a great living as from his paintings. He and his wife, who was his business manager/partner told us about art festivals, galleries and other avenues for artists. We were both working in the community mental health field and were both terribly burned out so we were both excited that we might be able to do something as unlikely as full-time art. Dana, who was pursuing ceramics as a hobby at the time, quit her job first to pursue art as a career. Wisely, she insisted that one of us keep a regular job so we would have a guaranteed income. Once she was earning an income I left my job as well. I broke even the first two years as an artist and after that steadily climbed in income for the next 20 years. ( not sure how much you want here, but the longer story…is that Dana did not want me to pursue art so I started an online used and rare book business. This area was dominated by traditional bookstores at the time and I was mostly selling to other bookstores and to collectors. I made a good living from this for almost 5 years then sold the business. That is when I started my art career.

I started my art career as an Americana photographer, taking photos of old buildings, signs, juke joints and roadside attractions. While made my living this way, my career and income really took off when I started showing photo-collage work. One of the earliest conversations that would later alter my career for the better was a conversation with a couple who were professional photographers. While they were still shooting film, they encouraged me to go with digital equipment because they knew this would be the future. This allowed me to make the transition into digital photo-collage and later mixed-media photo-collage. This would been unlikely to have happened had I been shooting film.

Getting a solo exhibit with my collage work at the Jung Center in Houston, Texas was a huge milestone disguised as a minor one. Two articles came from this as did my realization that I was now combining my history as a therapist and my psychological knowledge with my art. This also gave me credibility with collectors, corporations and other exhibit venues.

Accepting any commission offered was another milestone decision for me. While this really scared me, creating so much anxiety, I learned so much from the experience. I learned how to work with clients in a close professional relationship, how to keep my style while adding some elements that the client wanted and finding a way where we were both happy with the results.

Looking back, I assume like almost anyone would, I would have made many decisions earlier that it took me years to make. Maybe it takes this time, maybe I would not have been ready to do some of the things that I later did if I had tried them earlier. I try not to look back and second guess in my career or my life and this helps me stay sane ( or sane-ish )

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

I am a mixed-media digital collage artist. My work is heavily textured and has been described as graphic, modern, pop and contemporary. What to call my process can be even more confusing. I create large scale digital collage work at size. In other words, I do not enlarge them, so when I am creating a piece that is 7 1/2’ tall x 12’ wide, like a commission for a client in Sun Valley this year, I build it at full-size digitally which means it was as clear as something 8” x 8”. I print this digital file and combine handmade paper, paint and various artist media to create a one of a kind mixed media piece.

I sell at galleries ( currently in Tampa, Nashville, Aspen, La Quinta(Palm Springs area ) and Las Vegas, work with corporate art consultants and participate in 4-5 art festivals. I have had 19 solo exhibits at museums, universities and art centers with one upcoming at the Holter Museum of Art in Helena, Montana. I have also created large scale commissions for multiple corporations, organizations and homes including The City La Quinta, California ( 6’ x 13’ mural for the library ), the city of Loveland, Colorado ( 7’ x 18’ urban collage for city hall ), the Raymond James Corporate Collection, Sony Records and many others.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

I often think of my career as more of a journey consisting of multiple pivots than I do as a job or career that is linear. I believe the ability to pivot is the key to success and to our happiness. I did not start out with this as an underlying belief, but at some point I realized that in order to stay fresh and relevant in my career and my life, openness to change and adaptation is invaluable .

When I got a job in a community mental health system working initially to start a psychiatric vocational rehabilitation program and then as a mental health center manager supervising 3 facilities, it was a dream come true. My father had worked in a warehouse and my mother as a beautician, so for me, breaking into the professional job ranks required a large mental pivot in seeing myself as capable and competent enough to function in this environment.

I had been taught from childhood that if a person gets a job that is secure and has good benefits, one is to never leave this job because they have reached the ultimate goal. So when it came time to leave this job and start my own business, initially as an online bookseller and then as a full-time artist, it took all of my energy to leave.

Once I was a full-time artist, initially doing only outdoor festivals across much of the country, it was easy to see how artists, just like in any other profession get stuck. Some artists only did shows close to home, some only sold small items, others had success, but never changed their work leading them to feel stale and unexcited and in turn eventually hurting their sales. I had already moved from small photography to large 60” x 40” prints after realizing that I could sell small prints all day and still get home without much money given the show costs and the cost of travel. With photography becoming a more common hobby for the general population, I pivoted to photo-collage. I was doing well with this new medium when the big market crash of 2008 happened. Growing up in the lower middle-class bracket, I knew people who were even solidly middle class would not be likely to spend money on art during this time so I got rid of my prints and any mid-sized work and started showing and selling primarily large work ( 60” x 40” up to 10’ x 6’. This lead me where I am now, still primarily showing and selling large work. I had also realized that the top shows, which I was honored to be in for multiple years were becoming saturated with my work, so, as hard as it was to leave most of them, I began doing shows in the west such as Sausalito, Park City and La Quinta which brought a whole new audience to my work. I saw a number of artists with more talent than me leave art as a full-time career because, in part, the lack of ability to change and evolve.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being an artist or creative?

For me it is a combination of being able to do creative work as a career and working for myself. Like most artistic kids, I was always drawing, painting, creating something, even into high school to a limited degree, but since I had never met an artist or been to a gallery ( did I mention that I grew up in very rural Tennessee… look it up, Bradford, Tennessee ), becoming an artist as a profession was as likely as becoming a famous actor. I knew some existed, but I did not think normal people did such a thing and could not imagine how one would even go about it.

I had taken painting lessons as a 9 and 10 year old from an elderly woman who we later discovered was in some movies and Broadway plays when she was younger. My only other art education was when I took one art class in college. I was on the basketball team and the teacher seemed to believe I was taking the course for an easy grade. Realizing that he was going to fail me or at best give me a D, I made a deal with him. Give me a C and I will never take another art course. He agreed and that was the end of my formal art education.

With this background, my limited cultural and educational background, to be able to be a full-time artist and work independently, is better than I had dreamed possible.

Contact Info:

• Website: darylthetford.com
• Instagram: @darylthetford
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darylthetfordart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daryl-thetford-22902422

Image Credits
no names for photo credit