We were lucky to catch up with Lucy Brownlee recently and have shared our conversation below.

Lucy, 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?

I think there is a difference in people’s vision of what being a successful artist is. I have been blessed to work in a creative capacity to earn my living for most of my life. I have worked in many different fields of art. For many years I was employed as a graphic artist, working for, and owning screen print shops, sign fabrication, and offset printing businesses. In some fashion, I have been drawing, painting, cutting or printing for over 40 years.

Right out of high school I knew I wanted to make art my work. I thought that I needed to pick one field to focus on, and I also thought I would starve as a fine artist. At least that’s what everyone told me, and I believed them. So, I chose commercial art, and graphic design, and put my box of oils away in the closet. I have not been disappointed. My varied career experiences have all been quite enjoyable! And along the way I kept creating for fun, sometimes selling a bit here or there. I dabbled in ceramics, and had a spot in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. I sold hand-painted clothing in Hawaii, and customized furniture for antique shops in the Midwest. For over twenty years, I had a very lucrative part-time business as an automotive airbrush artist.

The important key to any successful life employed as an artist is about the same as any other field of work. The more you put into it, the more you’ll get out. Here’s the best advice I can give. First, you have to make up your mind that you are going to work at it every day, and show up. No half-hearted effort is going to take you all the way. And be patient, it won’t happen overnight. Second, make sure you are earning a living and paying the bills. If this means sweeping floors, or being an accountant by day, so be it. And this is the MOST important thing you need; you must understand how business works. Take some classes, learn online, ask someone to teach you. At the end of it all, if you don’t understand the cost of creating, you will find success very hard.

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 moved to Las Vegas in 2021, right as we were coming out of the pandemic. Like many other people, my life had been turned upside down. I had sold a home and a business, and had a little bit of money. I wasn’t really sure what I was going to do next. So, I joined my kid here.

In just a few weeks of getting planted I was already getting restless to be doing something. I had a friend in Alabama who was having some success as a live wedding painter, and I thought, “Hey, Vegas has weddings, I could try that!” I have many decades of experience as both a fine artist and a graphic designer, and have had the pleasure of owning several businesses, so starting a new enterprise was a normal process for me. When I did a little investigating in the area I discovered, to my huge surprise, that no one else was live-painting here. And that’s when my business, Live Wedding Painting & Co. began.

I started by doing a few gigs for free. That gave me some photos and videos to use for marketing, and I got a little exposure and experience. I researched the local market and found that Las Vegas is the only place in the world that has a business chamber specifically for the wedding industry, so I joined. I painted at a friend’s wedding, and I paid for a booth at a wedding expo where I gave away a free painting service. Things just bloomed from there. Today I have another 4 artists who work with me and we provide live portrait services, guest portraits or fashion illustrations, along with other unique art such as crowd painting on a large canvas, or hand customizing small items like hats or luggage tags. We work quite a bit for corporate events, because Vegas, while being known as the “Wedding Capital of the World” with over 80k marriage licenses issued in a year on average, is also a top convention spot.

I’m proud to say my company has been nominated twice as “Top Wedding Entertainer of the Year” by the chamber. One of the reasons we are experiencing so much success is how I go about my business. Professionalism is my number one priority. I had heard when I started that in the past there had been a few artists who emerged on the scene as live painters only to disappoint customers and disappear. That meant I had to overcome that stigma left behind. Right away I established my business by getting licensed and insured. That is an important point if you are working with corporate clients. I also made sure that I attended every chamber event and expo I could. When we perform at any event we present ourselves with class. We dress well, behave professionally and our setup is very simple and sleek. It is most important in this work to communicate continuously with the client. An event planner who is not assured in every way that we can be relied on will not be back.

And the future is looking bright! Business has had steady growth these past 3 years, and I am adding new services all the time. Last year we began working with a licensed tattoo business and we now offer live tattoos at events. This year I am releasing a new system of guest portrait painting which could revolutionize our whole industry. We will be able to provide more services for even large audiences.

And all of this while I have a full-time job as a studio painter, working as an assistant for a famous artist!

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I realize that AI is coming at all of us like a freight train, and that many artists are very frightened of the consequences, but I do not feel this way. I see AI like the invention of the computer, which happened in my early career in the 90’s. Many people were afraid that the computer would eliminate us. But in fact the opposite happened. So much more work was created by the computer, that many more creative jobs emerged from it. The entire industry of graphics, software, video, sound, gaming, it’s such a long list! And yet the need for such skills as black-line illustrator ( I was one), film stripper (I was one), copy setter (ditto), was completely eliminated. Look at the invention of the smart phone camera, it put Kodak in bankruptcy, but we would not go back. There will be plenty of opportunity that will come out of AI for everyone, and a lot of good. Have faith.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

We all get knocked down. In the late 80’s I was a partner in a small surfwear company. We had designed a pair of pants that turned into shorts with hook and loop tear-away legs, they were pretty cool. We sold a couple million dollars worth of them to Macy’s department store at an Expo in San Diego. We were on cloud 9. In the next few months we moved to Mexico to open a manufacturing facility (days of the US/Mex free trade agreement) and the sewing machines started humming away. Just after we shipped our first big load across the border, Macy’s filed Chapter 11. We were left with nothing. Our financier ate the loss. We walked away from all that work with empty pockets and deflated egos.

Can I tell you that just months later all was saved by some miraculous event? No. That’s not how it goes most times. But, we got through it. And a few years later we were back in business, this time with a sign shop. And we sold a huge deal to a famous auto parts store in California. Our partner then embezzled the money. Sometimes you get up, just to get knocked down again. I’ve had many great successes since then.

Just keep getting up.

Contact Info:

• Website: paintmelive.com, lucybrownlee.com
• Instagram: @lucyblive
• Facebook: @lucy_b_live, @lucysairbrush
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucy-brownlee-45a332268