We recently connected with Kerry Walford and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Kerry, thanks for joining 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 earning a full-time living from my creative work, but it took several years to get to this stage. Since I was a little kid, I loved art, drawing and all things creative. In high-school it became clear that art was my passion, I didn’t honestly know how I would make a living off of it, but I knew I wanted to do something creative.
In 2002 I graduated high-school and set off for University, I took a 4 year fine arts program at York University where I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree. Post secondary education is definitely not required for an aspiring artist/creative, but for me, it marked a major point in my life where I chose to follow my dreams.
After graduating university I didn’t know what to do, the job market wasn’t great, so I decided to pursue more education in hopes to find a career that was in the creative field. I studied interior design at Sheridan College for 3 years. Looking back I realize that this step may have delayed my journey to become a full-time artist, but it did allow me time to practice and develop my painting skills and not give up on my dreams. After college, from 2009 to 2017 I worked in various design related jobs. Over the 8 years I learned a lot, my art improved steadily year after year, and I took any opportunity I could to show and sell my work. I attended local tent shows every summer, and applied to open call art shows. Eventually I was able to secure representation through a couple local galleries; the Art Gallery of Burlington and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, through their giftshop and rental programs. These were major milestones to me and encouraged me to continue on my journey. In 2012 and 2013 I invested in some larger art trade shows to sell my art in Toronto, the One of a Kind Show, and the Artist Project. These shows are expensive for artists, and a lot of work to set up but always have a great number of visitors. They were another major step along my journey. I learned a lot through these trade shows, including how to create a large body of work, marketing the show, displaying my artwork, and interacting with visitors.
I also started teaching part time, at first through paint night events for adults and than in an after-school art program for kids. I learned that I loved to teach, it was so rewarding and creative! I continued to work in the design industry but knew in my heart I wanted something more. At some point I remember being so unhappy, I knew I wasn’t doing what I wanted to be doing, but I just didn’t know how to make the jump. I started getting into self-help books, like the power of the now by Eckhart Tolle, and learning about manifestation. I started to realize I was the one holding myself back out of fear. I knew I had to take more chances. I saw a sign at a store, it said ‘Be Fearless’ and I felt drawn to buy it. Old me would have said don’t waste your money on that, but new me said that’s just what you need. I brought it home and put it up on display in a room where I would see it everyday. It was my new mantra. Be Fearless. I started to take more chances on myself. I began believing in myself and my dream. I still wasn’t exactly sure how or what to do, but I knew there was more to life than simply working 50 hours a week for someone else’s dream.
In 2015 my hubby and I moved out of the city and into a small rural town, we fell in love with a big old century home. On paper none of this made sense, it was just the two of us, it was too far from both of our current jobs, but we fell in love with the home and the quiet countryside. This is when I learned that sometimes things don’t have to make sense in order to be right. And sometimes you have to listen to the quiet whisper inside you. Even your friends and family don’t always know what’s best for you. This was another major milestone, I learned to trust my gut and take chances, life was rewarding me for believing in myself. My hubby and I continued to commute to our jobs in the city.
In 2017 my art journey really sped up. This was the year my daughter was born and I made the decision not to return to my full-time design job in the city. Instead I chose to raise my daughter at home, paint and open an art gallery in my home. It was a difficult under-taking but in my gut I knew I was doing the right thing. I also learned that I couldn’t do it all on my own, and reached out to a friend and business coach who helped me through the early stages of opening up our gallery. I started to figure out a plan of how I would make a living off my art and teaching and made vision boards of what I wanted my life to look like. My husband was laid off shortly after our gallery opened. Although it was a scary time, I see now that this was another major milestone. I could have gone back to the design industry for a more secure income, but I kept believing in the dream we were creating. The first couple of years in business our gallery didn’t generate much income. We tried many things, I hosted art shows, paint nights, kids art lessons, live music, and yoga! It was getting hard to keep believing in our dream, but we had no other choice at this point, we were all in.
In 2019 Covid hit, and our business was forced to shutdown along with everyone else. This actually helped me in many ways, As an artist, I’m used to isolation, and with less distractions I was able to really focus on painting. I was inspired to paint to give others hope in a very uncertain time. I was able to produce some great work, and my mediocre sales starting to grow. Once things opened back up again, I re-evaluated which parts of our gallery business were working and which weren’t. I realized I had taken on too many things in an attempt to generate income, but I was just burning myself out. I decided to just focus on painting and kids art lessons. Now in 2024 those two aspects are both thriving. I’m selling more paintings then ever before, through commissions and galleries. Our kids art classes are selling out almost every semester and we’re even looking to expand our space. I’ve hired teachers to help me, so that I can focus on my painting.
This major milestone taught me that less in more, and it’s ok to say no.
I do think that being an artist or entrepreneur is not always clear, and can take time. My advice for those looking to pursue such journeys would be to have patience, never give up, try to figure out how your road map might work, reach out to successful people in your industry for advice, and adjust as needed. It’s ok to change the plan, but never stop believing in your dream. Once I started to truly believe in myself, and give my art the time it needed, I started to see results, and this snowballed over time I’m sure I could have sped up my journey if I had more faith in myself early on, but I’m also appreciative that didn’t give up, as there were plenty of times where I could have. Learning to take good risks has been my biggest milestone. By good risks I mean when I believed in myself, and didn’t let fear our doubt guide my decisions. My hubby and I always ask ourselves, is this a decision based on fear? Because those decisions usually don’t help us. When we both started to practice manifesting good things, good things started to find us.
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’m a Canadian landscape painter and gallery owner. As a painter I love to create large-scale impressionistic landscapes, but I also dabble in smaller studies and I’m inspired by many things including florals and still life. I love to create commission paintings which allow me to work directly with my clients to determine just the right size, subject and colour palette for a painting.
I went to University for art and then college for Interior Design. I worked the the design field for about 8 years and painted part-time on the side. Having my daughter really pushed me to follow my dream of painting full-time.
I remember the art lessons I took as a child, and how much joy they brought me and how they impacted my life. I’m grateful to be on the other side now, giving a little back by offering art lessons to children in our community. It’s quite magical to see the look of excitement on our students faces. I always encourage the kids to experiment, and enjoy the process. It is so rewarding to watch our students grow and gain confidence through their art and creativity. It makes me wonder how this will shape their lives and how they will apply these skills in the future.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
As an artist the most rewarding aspect is to be able to do what I love for a living. This is also one of the hardest parts, as inspiration doesn’t always hang around, you do have to learn to just get started whether or not you’re inspired or feeling it. Another rewarding aspect is to be able to pass on the feelings to my viewers of joy and wonder that I have while getting inspiration and while painting.
As a teacher seeing how excited my students are to come to our art classes every week is the biggest reward off all. Kids have a wonderfully positive nature and appreciate the little things that adults often overlook. They are eager to learn and explore. My goal as a teacher is to encourage and support this energy in the students for as long as I can. As we grow up, self doubt and criticism start to creep into our minds and that is an artists worst enemy. Children really do make the best artists, and to try to put oneself in that state of pure joy is my goal as a teacher and artist.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
Society tends to favour traditional careers, with higher earnings. I believe we need to encourage people to also consider what makes them happy. I honestly didn’t know growing up whether there really were any artists that were able to make a good living on their own, without the help of wealthy family members. I think we need to show kids that this is possible, and share more stories of how artists and creatives from our time have built up their careers. In Canada the arts seem to be disappearing from the school system with a heavy emphasis on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math). I think there needs to be a push on our school system to bring back the arts. Not all people are meant to be doing the same thing. Todays’ fast paced and quickly evolving society needs the imagination of right-brain artists and creatives as well.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.KerryWalford.com & www.WildwoodCayuga.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kerrywalfordfineart/ & https://www.instagram.com/wildwoodcayuga/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KerryWalfordFineArt/ & https://www.facebook.com/WildwoodCayuga/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@kerrywalfordfineart
- Other: tiktok: KerryWalfordFineArt https://www.tiktok.com/@kerrywalfordfineart?gclid=Cj0KCQjwyN-DBhCDARIsAFOELTkd_t6NeWpmxpeb97GIk4_aEDYF0i3tUij503zYul_Ar086_234V1kaAv7vEALw_wcB&lang=en
Image Credits
photos by Janna Overend