We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Melissa Helene. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Melissa below.

Melissa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

I have been a full-time working artist for almost 8 years, after spending several years job hopping in the non-profit sector. I’ve been an artist my whole life, but didn’t intend to pursue it as a career. I have no degree in the fine arts and no background in business. I decided to pursue my passion after encouragement from fellow artists and after several years of ‘dipping my toe in the water’. Growing up, I didn’t know many people who were in creative careers or who were business owners, so the concept of running a business was completely foreign to me. The biggest obstacle that I’ve dealt with in my career has been figuring out how to run my business properly, legally, effectively, and successfully on my own. Even seasoned artists that I approached for help didn’t have the practical answers that I was looking for. It has taken many years of trial and error and self-education to figure out what I’m doing. I’m still learning! Aside from creating my wildlife scratchboard portraits, one of my passions now is helping other artists navigate the business side of building their creative careers.

Melissa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I am a serial job hopper turned creative entrepreneur who almost never fits neatly into any box. I create photo-realistic, highly detailed wildlife scratchboard portraits. Scratchboard is a subtractive medium that utilizes abrasive tools to layer scratches into the black ink layer of the board, revealing the white beneath. Layered scratches create different values and textures. Translucent inks can be added over the scratches to color the boards as well. I am a stereotypical type A person who loves color-coded spreadsheets and detailed lists. Scratchboard is the perfect marriage of my creative passions, love for wildlife and natural spaces, and compulsive need for neatly organized details.

Apart from every high school art class that was available to me, my art education has been entirely self-propelled and researched. My introduction to scratchboard happened in my early teen years, but I didn’t happen upon the high quality, professional scratchboards that I use now until well after college and that is when my fascination with the medium took off. I worked in black and white before I discovered scratchboard, but almost entirely in graphite and charcoal. My subject matter varied from animals to landscapes to human portraiture, but always heavily detailed and realistic.

When I started my business and began to focus my creative energy toward building a career, I was still dabbling with different mediums, including oil painting and photography. It didn’t take long before I really hit my stride with scratchboard and everything else slowly fell aside. In the first three years of business, a majority of my income as an artist came from wedding photography and graphite portraiture. I started selling original scratchboard work right away, but it took years before that was established enough to become my primary source of income. I also worked full-time in the first two years of running my business, part-time in the third year, and barely scraped by in the fourth year – which was my first year full-time as an artist.

Now, eight years in, I travel across the US to premier juried art festivals to sell my original scratchboard work and reproduction prints of my work. I offer custom scratchboard pet portraits for all the pet lovers who come across my work, as well as custom wildlife options for those who have specific visions.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

One of the biggest misconceptions about being a full-time artist and running a creative business is that we get to spend all day, every day creating in our studios. In some seasons of a creative business that may be true, but most of the time, we wear many different hats that require our attention. Artists who are trying to build a career and business have to build and maintain a website, do their own marketing and promotion, photograph and frame their work, pack and ship orders, deal with accounting and managing receipts and invoices, and so on. There is always a lot to do and every creative business is different, with different goals.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

There are two things that I find most rewarding about the work that I do and how it contributes to the world.

One – As a festival artist, I see a lot of different people and travel to many different cities/states. The biggest compliment that I get at these shows is when a child comes to my booth to make a purchase with their own money. They come in so proudly to be purchasing their first piece of art for their bedroom or to be adding more ‘real art’ to their budding collection. There is no greater honor for me as an artist than to create something that connects with a child.

Two – Creating custom pet portraits for people who have recently lost a beloved pet. I grew up with dogs and have two now, so I fully understand the bond between an owner and their pet. There is no greater joy than to hear how a custom portrait was received by the grieving pet owner. The portraits help people grieve, but also retain a small piece of that animal with them each day.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.melissahelene.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/melissa_helenefaap
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/melissahelenefaap

Image Credits
Headshot photo – Elizabeth Leeann Photography