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

Feda, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

It’s the dream no doubt to be able to earn a full-time living from my creative work, but for me I’m still hesitant to cross the line between being a hobby and enjoying what I do without the stress of maintaining a business and build my business. It is not easy to take this step I’m so afraid it will take from the creative process specially that I’m an emotional person and stress can affect my creative process. Don’t get me wrong I still consider my work a business I keep my budget, have a business plan, marketing plan and so on, but I keep my 8-5 job as my support. It felt very good when I made my first sale from my artwork, before that I never thought anyone is interested to buy my art, in 2016 I was invited to participate in a showcase with and agency called Raw Artist, I was so nervous I didn’t know what to expect. Participants in this showcase will have to sell 20 tickets before the event date or they will have to buy the remaining unsold ones, I was able to sell 35 tickets. This was my first surprise that people wanted to pay to come see my art. Fast forward to the event day, it was a very successful night I sold 4 originals and several prints of my art.
This event gave me the confidence to look for more events in San Antonio, over the years I got more organized and had better understanding of the culture and the audience, besides being commissioned to do portraits of love ones and pets.

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 started drawing when I was so young, I always loved to draw and color, I drew all my life and my family used to call me the little artist. My early beginnings were with my mom who was an artist and a crafter, she taught me knitting, embroidery, sewing and using unconventional materials to make art. Then right after I graduated high school, I went to college for fashion design and making clothes, I mastered drawing the human figure while learning how to design clothes. I had dreams about becoming a famous designer, but living in Jordan, Middle East, I realized early on that becoming a designer is not an option which was a turning point in my life, I re-evaluated my situation chose a different path other than fashion design. Needed to pay my bills so I took computer classes, English, and other administrative skills classes, so I can get an administrative job. I never forgot about my art, so after settling in my new job for a couple of years I went back to school studying Liberal Art, English Language and Literacy, at the same time I was going to another school for Fine Art and Ceramic. I juggled between my work and studies which took me 5 years to finish. During those years I had 2 art exhibits with my school, and I was so proud of myself.
The year 2008 was an amazing year for me because I graduated from both schools and I got engaged to the love of my life who is an American citizen. A year later we got married and we started my visa process. I moved to the United States on March 2010, it was hard leaving my family and the life I worked so hard to build for myself and now I had to start from scratch. My husband is very supportive, he helped me and kept encouraging me to start drawing again, I had stopped drawing for couple of years due to a neck injury. In 2011 I was inspired by a picture of Michaelangelo’s statue of David and decided to drew a sketch of it, then I posted a picture Facebook and got real good reviews which encouraged me to start an Etsy shop and post it there, soon I was contacted by a representative from Raw Artists agency, who presented an opportunity to showcase my art in their upcoming event in San Antonio.
In February 2016 at the Aztec Theater Downtown San Antonio, I had my first showcase in America with Raw Artists, the night was very successful, and I loved the interaction with people and talking to them explaining the ideas and the inspiration behind my art, it was one of my happiest and proudest times of my life. Ever since this event I started going out in markets around the city and meeting amazing artists. I have to say showing my art and hearing people’s comments and interpretation of how they feel when they see my art, is very rewarding.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

There is a lot to talk about here but I think one of the most important aspect of the creative process is the price of the material/art supplies. The profit margin is very small sometimes, after the cost of the supplies and the artists hours not much left for profit. Saying that, he piece price may go up so high that people may not able to afford it but they can help in social media by sharing, it is very important and if you share your artists friends posts and help spread the word about them and use your likes/shares, this will bring their algorithms up and their content will be more likely to show in front of more people and help with the their sales. All this is free, and it takes seconds to repost or share a post but the impact will be huge for this artist or crafter. Networking is very important for artists and creators in general.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For me I love how I’m able to make people happy when I drew portrait of a loved one. I do mu research if I’m drawing a celebrity to learn more about their life and build a connection, this will show in my work and this is one of my unique values. If I’m drawing a portrait of a loved one I will aske few questions to learn more about the person I’m drawing to give me those feelings which will be interpreted into my work. One of my favorite comments I hear about my work is: “You really captured this persons spirit” this is my goal and this is my passion and it makes me feel so good when people can see it.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artpal.com/FedaZ
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fedoo311/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fedoo311/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/feda-z/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@Fedoo311
• Other: https://feda.creator-spring.com/