We were lucky to catch up with Kari Smith recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kari, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
I’ve always been into creating art for as long as I can remember. However, it wasn’t always my dream. My whole childhood through the end of high school I wanted one dream and one dream only, to be a killer whale trainer. But once college started I realized how unrealistic that was given I didn’t like traditional school or science and I’d never taken a swimming class in my life. So I moved on to being an art teacher. That ended though because I didn’t feel like I was a strong enough artist, and yet again, the whole school thing. Dog trainer came up but I had no real experience with a variety of dogs and after being shot down by a trainer at a doggy day care, I lost momentum for that idea. Shame though because I do have a wicked instinct when it comes to dogs, which I found later in life as a pet sitter.
It wasn’t until 2018, at 27 years old did I get an idea to be an artist and make money for it. Artists on YouTube were all the craze (still are in my opinion). There were a couple who I really admired that were making sticker sheets and selling them. At this point I was married, working at a craft store and making minimum wage, with no idea what I wanted to do career wise. I loved to journal though and had built a small community of journalers on Instagram and thought, “Hmm, I’m an artist and I love to journal. Why not give this a try?” I was excited! But also terrified. I had flitted through so many other career possibilities and given up so quickly, I didn’t trust myself to follow through. And although I knew I could draw at this point, I had no drawing habit and barely picked up my sketchbook. So I made myself carry my sketchbook everywhere and drew a variety of things, sometimes many times over until I came up with an image I liked. The goal was 6 different sticker sheet designs. If I was going to open up shop, I’d need to have variety. I finally got that down and was proud that I’d followed through. Then it was time to buy and learn the sticker cutting machine. What a whirlwind that was! Lots of trial and error but I figured it out thanks to those YouTube artists. After a couple months, I was open for business! Ever since I’ve just had the bug for creating and selling art. And each year gets more and more exciting!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
Well, hello! My name is Kari Smith. I’m 33 years old and am the sole artist and CEO behind Myth and Milagro. Ha, CEO. Seems bizarre to give myself that name but it’s not wrong, right? Anyways, I was born and raised in Southern California and moved to Oregon in 2011. I come from a family of artists. Each of us has at least one talent, musical or in visual arts. My brother, James McClung is very talented and really inspired me to pursue art though.
According to my 23 and Me results, I’m pretty much half Mexican, a quarter Irish and a quarter British. Growing up I didn’t really know all of that info behind my heritage though. It was kind of a myth growing up as to what I was. I knew I was half Hispanic on my dad’s side but didn’t know anything specific. And turns out my mom was slightly wrong about her heritage. Thought I had a quarter French in me for a long time and really stuck to that! She was right about being Irish though.
The focus on my heritage and the unknown was how the “myth” in Myth and Milagro came to be. My aunt had done an Ancestory test a couple years ago so I knew we were Mexican but I still had a lot of questions about where our family came from and our culture. I felt a lot of heartache growing up in Southern California, being surrounded by so much Mexican culture but feeling like an outsider since I didn’t grow up with much of the culture. My grandma fell very ill in February 2022 and all my thoughts and feelings about our culture started bubbling up. She was the only person in our family that I knew was actually into our culture. But unfortunately she passed before I could ask questions. Luckily, I did get the confidence to ask my dad about my grandmother and a little about her life. But going in her house for the first time in about 15 years, I was reminded at how proud she was of who she was. It lit a fire under me to learn about my Mexican heritage. And as an artist, the best way for me to learn was through art. That’s when I learned about milagros. Milagro means “miracle” in Spanish. Milagros are also little charms, usually in Catholic culture, that you’d carry or hang in your home to bring good luck, fortune, health, etc. I was so instantly drawn to them and especially the Sacred Heart. Out of everything I’d seen, it screamed “Mexican” to me so I hung onto it.
That’s how Myth and Milagro came to be.
Not instantly, though. In 2018, I opened my sticker sheet business, Next Imaginer. I honestly couldn’t tell you what the name meant, it just sounded cool at the time? But quickly sounded very uncool though, haha. It slowly grew from sticker sheets to vinyl stickers, then prints and a pin. It made me realize I loved selling my art. I loved making what I wanted to make, when I wanted to make it and loved that other people were so receptive to it. But I had poor business habits. I did my taxes of course, but I’d never had a good habit with art. I could go months without making anything new. I sucked at social media (still do in my opinion haha) so my engagement was exceptionally poor. I wasn’t growing with my business. It took AGES to gain any new followers. I was losing as much as I was earning. I can’t afford to hire a social media person. And even if I did, what’re they going to post if I take so long to make something new? I also love traveling but there’s no way we could afford it with my income. I knew I needed a shift.
In Nov 2022, I finally signed up for my first in-person market. A cute little art market in St. John’s, Oregon. I made $500 that day and was SO PROUD. I’d never made that much during a shop update. And I did it all in one day!? I made enough to pay for all the supplies I bought for the market and a little extra. I had the bug! It gave me the push I needed to keep going and made me crave more. It was also nice because it gave me the drive to offer more products, so I was creating more than usual. Started building up my art habit, the creative juices were flowing. And I’ve kicked off from there! By the end of 2023 I will have done over 30 markets this year. I’ve lived in Oregon for 12 years now but I never felt community until I started doing these markets and putting myself out there. I’m so grateful for everyone that’s made me feel accepted and taken me under their wing as I grow my art and within this community.
We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.
So, I mentioned doing 30 markets this year. Markets are a lot of work. You have to be on top of your inventory, make sure you’re bringing enough product. Packing carefully and as lightly as possible because you’re going to have to carry everything into your booth space. Sometimes you can drive right up but a lot of times you have to drag it from blocks away. Sometimes it’s 40°F outside and sometimes it’s 95°F. I also mentioned making $500 at my first market. I didn’t see those kinds of numbers again for months. Since this was my first year doing markets and I didn’t know anyone in the community, it’s been a struggle all year. I had to hunt for markets on my own for most of the year. And when you don’t know anything or anyone, picking which ones to sign up for is difficult. You’d think paying more for a booth fee in a great area and a market with a decent social media following would mean great sales. Well I’m here to say that that’s not always the case. I ended up losing $70 that day. Just gave away product for nothing. I spent many moments this year crying my eyes out feeling lost and like a failure, like this wasn’t going to work. My art is cool, why am I not making any money at these markets?? But I never let it stop me. I’d made $500 at my very first market, surely I could do it again! So I kept at it. Kept trying different markets, finding out which ones worked and which ones didn’t. Kept track of what I was selling so I knew which items to let go of. Made a list of markets to try for next year and which ones I liked. I persevered.
I can’t say I have all the answers just yet but being in this business is a giant learning curve. If you’re passionate enough, you’ll problem solve and see what’s worth it and what’s worth changing. I’ve had a lot of really bad market sales days. But I’ve had a handful of really good days and I’m going to choose to hang onto those good days and let it shape how I go about things in the future.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect…there’s two. I’ve struggled with drive my whole life. I didn’t even trust myself at first to start a creative business because I was worried I’d drop it at the first sign of struggle. Somehow it clicked enough to get from Next Imaginer, my first business, to Myth and Milagro, who I am now. But part of why it clicked so well was travel. I have such a strong drive to see the world and experience new and beautiful things. It’s part of what got me into doing markets. I have a wonderful husband, Matt, who is such a hard worker with a great job that allows us life’s necessities. But traveling is expensive and the heart wants what the heart wants and it wants it now. I haven’t reaped the rewards of my hard work just yet but we have our first major international trip on the horizon and for the first time in my life I feel proud and excited that I’m the one contributing something to our lives instead of it all falling on my husband.
The second is arguably the MOST rewarding of the two and it’s seeing peoples’ faces light up at my art. I’d been selling online for years and I knew people liked it, I’d get some orders and every so often be tagged in posts where they’d used my stickers or something. But the more markets I did the more I saw how much people liked my art. At my second market, I met Nic and Lemon of Sonny’s House of Tattoos and Treasures and they wanted to carry my art in their store! I was so surprised and elated. I called all my favorite people on the way home to tell them that a really cool store in Portland wanted to carry my art.
I love when people come back and tell me which prints they have hanging in their home or if they’d seen my art in a store. It’s nice to see people care. My art and my business was so solitary before and now it feels like I’ve got a little community built around me and it just keeps growing.
Contact Info:
- Website: HTTPS://mythandmilagro.com
- Instagram: HTTPS://Instagram.com/mythandmilagro
