We recently connected with Emma Adams and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Emma thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us 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 am currently a full-time working artist. I started illustrating about 3 years ago and began sharing my work on social media. After receiving a lot of encouragement from my peers, I decided to create a brand called Fox & Fables. After a couple years of hustling on the side after my day job, I quit to pursue the dream! The biggest thing I learned that got me to where I was earning enough money, was to diversify my sources of income. I have several different ways that I earn money including direct online sales, customs/commissions, art licensing, book illustrations, wholesale, consignment, print on demand sites, and craft shows. All of these different forms of income allow me to work entirely for myself! Those first couple years were just like throwing spaghetti at the wall. I learned to try anything and everything that sounded interesting.. some things stuck, and others didn’t. It’s all about the journey and finding out what works best for you!

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 am an illustrator living in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I started painting to get myself out of a years-long creative rut and discovered passion and happiness through creating art. I like to paint things that put a smile on my face and being able to make a connection with others through my work is the greatest joy. My work is inspired by my interests of nature, travel, history and folk tales. Mainly working in the children’s industry, I like to create whimsical little worlds out of gouache paint that tell a story. My illustrations are hung up on walls, printed on home goods and stationery, and turned into patterns for fabric and paper products. I am proud to say that my work is nostalgic, timeless and not completely limited to any specific market or industry.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

For a lot of my life, I was making decisions based off of fear. I lived in a scarcity mindset and always jumped to the worst possible outcome first. Taking chances (especially when money was involved) meant gambling, it always felt like such a high risk. Unlearning fear was the biggest contributing factor to making art my career. Fear of failure, judgement, and instability. We all know about the expression of the “starving artist” and I definitely think that generalization subconsciously affected my confidence in my creative abilities. I had to overcome my fears of being vulnerable, of asking for more money, and investing in myself.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Sort of relative to my previous response, I think paying artists fairly for their work will be the best way to support a thriving creative ecosystem. Each individual artists’ work is extremely valuable, regardless of what another person may think it’s “worth”. I believe normalizing the cost of creative work will be very beneficial to society and working creatives alike. I’ve worked in product development my entire career and sincerely hope that as a society, we are moving away from the “faster, better, cheaper” business models and consumerism. Prioritizing ethics, small business and local services as a whole is so key creating a healthy, creative environment.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.foxandfables.co
• Instagram: @foxandfables
• Facebook: facebook.com/foxnfables
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/emma-adams-58a200165/
• Twitter: N/A
• Youtube: NA
• Yelp: NA
• Other: Etsy: foxandfables.etsy.com TikTok: @foxandfables Pinterest: pinterest.com/foxnfables

Image Credits
Image credits are myself, Emma Adams