We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Maya Griffin. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Maya below.
Maya, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you 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?
I am currently a full-time artist and writer as of 2022 but the journey was not a quick one. I have always been creative since I was a child and my mom was highly encouraging of our creativity and imagination as children. I ended up studying Studio Art in college and graduated from UC Santa Cruz with a focus in painting in 2010. However, I felt like a tiny artist in an infinite pool of creatives and I assumed it would always be a hobby. After living in Europe for 2 years, I moved back to the Bay Area to go after an art career and managed 1AM Gallery for three years. It was an incredible experience working in the street/urban art world but being an artist in the Bay Area was highly competitive. In 2015, I decided to move to the Midwest and exit the overworking, hustling culture of trying to live as a creative in the Bay Area. Honestly, I was exhausted.
I began working at Revelry Boutique Gallery in Louisville, Kentucky, and that is really where my career started. Up until then I had accepted I would always be on the business side of the art world as opposed to going after my own art career but Revelry came with the opportunity of selling your own work in the space and I was mind-blown to have the opportunity to be represented. I started out selling origami crane earrings and through the supportive advice of my other artists and co-workers, I slowly refined my brand and explored different products. For about 4 years I explored illustration, different jewelry designs and started a collection of poetry books until I realized my artist check was surpassing my paycheck. That’s when I realized I could potentially make money just being an artist.
At that point, the gallery owner Mo Howe recommended I look into getting into similar handmade shops in other cities so I spent two more years going on day trips to surrounding cities, scouting for stores and reaching out. I also connected with other artists who graciously recommended stores in other cities and eventually by 2022 I was being represented in about 10 stores around the Midwest, making enough each month to cover my living expenses and reinvest into my business. In 2022, my partner Austin and I decided to make the leap to go after our dream of moving to the mountains and I decided to solely rely on my creative income. It was very stressful the first few months, mostly just the fear of “is this income sustainable? Is it stable?” But I knew from the last two years that I did have reliable, monthly income.
Looking back, the most major step was really working at Revelry and getting able to be represented. It allowed me to explore different product AND interact with the customers and viewers every day and get feedback. I also attribute a lot of my success to the art community there, my co-workers and boss were always encouraging me to try new products and mediums, helping me hone in on the presentation and professionality of my product and other artists in the community would share what stores represented them, give advice on design work, etc. But most importantly, I remember when I first began working there and I met a few artists who were full-time and who felt like me. Seeing examples of artists who had done it, who had found a way to make a steady income doing what they loved made me actually think it was something I could go after, too.
I don’t think there is any way I could speed up the process, it’s all life experience and everyone’s journey moves at it’s own pace. But, you do have to seize the opportunities when they arrive and I did. The only thing I would have done differently is been a little more confident in myself and a little less scared of taking the leap to go full-time as an artist. I think opportunities arrive in tempo with what you feel ready for and they always lined up with what I felt capable of achieving.
Maya, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My first opportunity to sell in a store/gallery was at Revelry Boutique Gallery in Louisville, KY, in 2015. It was an eclectic blend of studio art, prints, jewelry, books and home goods. I started with miniature origami crane earrings and grew my jewelry brand from there to include birthstone necklaces and chokers. Jewelry was an easy way for me to jump into being creative again after a long hiatus from college.
A few months after I started working there, I found out David Bowie died and drew an illustration of him on a slow day in January at the checkout desk. Although I had been drawing mountains since college, that was my first mountain portrait. I immediately got inspired to immortalize more musical icons in mountains and now I have a collection of 80+ mountain portraits. I love black and white, color would always overwhelm me when I painted in college and I loved being able to do quick sketches of so many wonderful people we’ve had on this planet. I now sell my illustrations as stickers, magnets, prints, mugs and other various products.
About five years later, in 2020, I had finally honed in my jewelry collection and illustrated product and then Covid hit. I found myself sending poems and letters to friends to stay connected and that inspired me to dig out my poetry from the last decade of my life. With the free time that summer, I created my first poetry compilation – “Reverence”. Poetry can be a hard sell but my boss was totally open to trying it in the boutique and within the first few months, I actually sold books. Poetry has always been the most personal creation and something I was scared to share publicly. Seeing strangers bring my books to the checkout desk was extremely rewarding. It meant that they touched other people, too. I then expanded the collection, which now consists of 12 different collections on various emotional or natural themes.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
One of the biggest catalysts to support your creative journey is to find a creative community. I didn’t have that for a long time and it made all the difference for me. Connect with artists and find a group of people who are also working on their own career. Other artists will give you great insight, they will help connect you with tools you don’t have and giving your own insight back to artists is important for your own self-esteem. It’s also not just about connecting with artists, connect with business owners, with writers, with designers, so that you can you see what they need, what is helpful for them to keep their doors and businesses open and what they are looking for from artists.
A supportive, creative community will keep you creating, will give you honest feedback and help push you into the next level of professionalism and that is what you need. Also, within a creative community you will see artists that will make it seem feasible and doable for you. You will begin to shape and visualize what type career you want to have by seeing examples of those in the industry.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
As artists, our careers are constantly evolving. As your career continues, I think it’s natural to start to gravitate towards creating things that really fulfill you on a deeper level. Of course, not everything I make satisfies that, I have to balance making things to keep the income flowing but also make things from a soul-fulfillment level, too. Right now, I feel the most fulfilled by my writing. I feel that my purpose, in addition to creating, is also to bring healing through my art and my writing. I am always I am the most proud of myself when I see a stranger tear up when they read a free poem at a festival or I receive an email from someone who sent a book on self-love to their sick friend or bought six grief books for their siblings after the death of a parent.
Poetry and books were something I turned to, and still do, to process emotions. I know the feeling when you read something that relates exactly to your being and you suddenly don’t feel alone. To be able to do that for others is the ultimate reward – to make someone feel seen and foster human connection is all the inspiration I need.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.MayaJoyintheWorld.com
- Instagram: @MayaJoyintheUniverse
- Facebook: @MayaJoyintheWorld
