We recently connected with Kierstin LaPatka and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Kierstin, thanks for joining us today. We’ve love to hear an interesting investment story – what was one of the best or worst investments you’ve made? (Note, these responses are only intended as entertainment and shouldn’t be construed as investment advice)

I’ll start with the worst and end in the best. This is a controversial and heavy topic. The times show it. The current generation is suffering it. The worst investment I have ever made was going to college.

Let me explain;
While learning things was certainly my goal, I have learned rather quickly that everything that I learned in college is EASILY accessible via youtube, a quick google search, talking to other artists, websites like skillshare, or Stan Winston’s School of Character arts. (I’ll be singing that website’s praises throughout this explanation).

I fell for the all too common “sunken cost fallacy”. In my mind, I had already invested an insane amount of money into my education. I felt that it would be most commendable for me to follow through. All in the name of getting a degree. I was convinced by outside forces that I needed a degree in order to be hired for work.
Little did I know, in the art field… there’s no such requirement. On top of that, in the future, I would not enjoy working for others very much, and would soon be in control of my own business.

The privately owned trade school I went to sunk me into a debt I do not have any hope of climbing out of. At least not until I am in my 50’s (at best).

Stan Winston School of character Arts opened a year and a half after I started my journey for my education. The website only charges $400 a year for all the access to forums, seminars, online courses, etc. All being headed by the leads in their field in the industry.
$400/year vs the nearly $40K/semester really puts into perspective how much “getting a degree” in art is a joke in this country (United States).

It’s criminal. And I was a child that fell for it. I’m an angry, bitter old woman about it, and will shout from the mountains to all younger creatives to forego college. Take online courses. Take business courses at your local community colleges if you must.

But I know that for myself, I am always open and willing to talk about business, promoting, creating, the process, and more. I want the next generation (and my own) to have free access to anything that would help them better themselves, their skills, and the world around them.

The Best investment I ever made is going to be pennies compared to my lifelong mistake, and that has been my credit card.
I HATE using credit, it frightens me to no end (as it should). However, depending on your business, a credit card can be an incredible boost to your operations.
I travel to conventions all across the United States, and the credit card that I use helps build points as I use it to purchase things for my business, before immediately paying it off.
These points essentially become free plane tickets. Free plane tickets take me a long ways as far as bringing an entire table of goodies to other states to share my wares.

It’s a cycle that continues to benefit me as I go forward, building my business, my skills, my merch, and materials, etcetera. A business costs money to operate, and I may as well find ways to benefit from it as I go.

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.

My name is Kierstin, I can be found online with the user “Smogteeth”. I got my education in Illustration, but I learned how many other people wanted to be concept artists as well, so my solution was to learn to do everything that had to do with bringing a creature/character to the real world.
I wanted to draw it, sculpt it, mold it, cast it, paint it, hair it, apply makeup, etc. I wanted to be able to be the person that was all of those jobs rolled into one. I thought that that sort of person would be most eligible for hire, because they would eliminate needing to hire multiple people for several jobs, because one person could do several.

That lead me to poking my nose into making makeup prosthetics, which (quite suddenly) landed me on the hit tv show on SyFy, “FaceOff”.

From there, I realized I wouldn’t be happy working for a shop. I recognized that not all jobs would be making cool monsters, and not all monsters are conceptualized equally. There would be jobs that I would have a hard time working on, simply because it was soulless work.

So, I now own a small business, running it on my own, making masks. I have other merch to offer for those who don’t have the ability to save up for such an investment as well, from wall art, prints, and other decor.

My work is often referred to as “Dark Art” as it often features horror and/or the macabre. I find there is a beauty in designing something frightening, or otherwise strange.
I love the most, creating something for people to wear, either on a convention floor, renaissance festival, theater, or even film.
My favorite part is when I put the final touches on to a makeup or mask/costume combo, and the actor feels like they have brought a creature to life! I love seeing something spooky up and walking around, after weeks or even months of toiling over details to build a monstrosity. It fills my heart to see it happen.

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

Oh gosh, yes. Twice I did this. And it was less of a “pivot” and more of a “start completely over from scratch. The first time, was that I wasn’t feeling great with the quality and subject matter of the art that I was putting out. I worked for a creature costume making company, and as such a lot of my designs were werewolves. There’s nothing wrong with werewolves! Werewolves are super cool! But it’s like eating nothing but macaroni and cheese all day every day for years.
You will get a little bored of it.
And because that was the only art that I was putting out there, that was the only commission work that I was getting!

I then heard the BEST bit of advice that I ever heard, and it absolutely changed my business entirely: “Dress your gallery for the work you want to do.”

Essentially “dress for the job that you want” but with your art.
So I deleted my ENTIRE gallery across ALL of my social media. I took down EVERYTHING. I even rebranded my name. It hurt, and it was absolutely TERRIFYING, as you can imagine. Even back in the day, (2013) when the internet was a wee bit smaller, it was frightening to know that I might be alienating my entire following.
But in order to make myself happier, my work better, hone my skills, and even learn new ones, I needed the room to grow.
I did art that I wanted to do, and posted ONLY that.

It was the best decision that I ever made.

The second time I did it, years later, it was a lapse in my judgement. I forgot to keep a hold on the website for the business name I was using, and a larger company swooped in a purchased the name when my subscription to the website ran out. Woops.

So I had to rebrand completely. That was equally frightening, however, I had already established my following, and I had recognizable work that people were able to recognize me for.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

TRUTH be told, I don’t think I did anything. I think people foudn me, liked my work, and followed, and on top of that, I rely HEAVILY on people reblogging, or leaving reviews about my work! So it feels mostly out of my hands!

But I CAN tell you what I try to stick to in order to get my name out there, and how to not drown under everyone’s algorithms;

C O N S I S T E N C Y.

It is really important to find a way to at least put your work out there often enough that it doesn’t get entirely forgotten, but not TOO often that you end up ONLY focusing on posting to social media and burn yourself out.
I believe artists have a lot of hats to wear, on top of making art, and being on top of our social media is an enormously new, and heavy one.

I like to make sure that I post at least twice a month to my subscription medias (Patreon/Kofi/Any other early access sites you may use like OnlyFans, etc.) Twice a month, to give my subscribers their money’s worth in behind the scenes/early access to items about to go live in the shop, process videos, how-to’s etc.

For social spaces like Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, tiktok, Bluesky, I like to try and make a post 2-3 days out of the week. They don’t have to be important, they don’t even have to be original posts. They can be re-posts of older artwork that I am still proud of, or simply talk about what’s being worked on as a teaser, or upcoming conventions I plan on attending, to let folks know where they might find me!

Lastly, streaming. I think streaming is really important for me, because it helps me figure out the time I clock on certain projects. Originally, I started streaming, just so I could record my process and make time lapse videos! But then people started to show up! Haha! So, with the added pressure of knowing there were people watching me, it kept my ADHD brain focused on work, to make sure that people who were watching, were attending.
I like to work on streams at least 4 days out of the week, however, a lot of my work takes place at my work bench outside, so I can’t always stream. But consistency is a very important key, and streaming has gotten a lot of new eyes on my work.

All of this being said;
It is also important to pay attention to what each website specializes in.

Twitter: Text posts/images/phots. (LINKS ARE A VERY BAD IDEA ON TWITTER- if you must add a link, do it in a reply to your original post!)

Instagram: Photos/Images (HOWEVER! Because of the tiktok fiasco, Instagram has been pushing in on it’s turf, and favoring video based content! If you want your work to be seen, even a video of your image will be seen more than a singular image!)

Tumblr: Images/Text/Prose/reblogs. (Don’t ONLY fill your tumblr account with your own art! reblog and share other folks’ art on your site, support your fellow artists and help them get seen! Create an art tag for yourself for those looking to see only your work, but the reblogs will help your own account to be seen! Use the hashtags! The fun thing about tumblr are their atrociously silly hashtags!)

Tiktok: Videos. Short videos. Videos under a minute long are best. (Tiktok may die in the US without a VPN, so also keep that in mind, but it is one of the most used apps, so I say take advantage!)

Bluesky: Bluesky is new, and looking to more or less replace Twitter, so the same rules apply for Twitter and Bluesky. Hashtags are now in operation, gifs and video will soon follow. I imagine video will be equally as important as far as content goes, so use accordingly!)

Using these tools as they were intended will help you grow, and using them all around is a great way to spread your reach!
Don’t forget to follow other artists, talk to other artists, ENGAGE on these sites as well! Social Media representation could and should be a full time job, but alas, as creators, we need to spare time for the actual creation process! I think it is equally important to limit your time on these sites and posting, so that you can also get things done with your own creations!
Not everyone will match my rate of activity.
Some folks will post less often.
Others will post more than twice as often.
The way I have set it for myself is the rate I know I can remain consistent, without absolutely ruining myself “trying to keep up” with the feed.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/smogteeth
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smogteeth/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/smogteeth
• Other: https://www.patreon.com/smogteeth https://bsky.app/profile/smogteeth.bsky.social https://ko-fi.com/smogteeth https://www.twitch.tv/smogteeth https://www.tumblr.com/smogteeth https://smogteeth-shop.fourthwall.com/?