We were lucky to catch up with Nashaé Peavey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Nashaé, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s talk about social media – do you manage your own or do you have someone or a company that handles it for you? Why did you make the choice you did?

I manage my own social media, because hiring someone to do it is just too much for me right now. I made that choice, because I want to learn what goes into social media myself and go from there really. Some people love to say “social media and art can not be a career”, “It is too easy to be a job”, or “You are gonna be a starving artist”, etc. I want to change that stigma around that! I have the art career down, but social media is almost a different world to me. Which is ironic to say being part of this generation where all we know is technology. There’s a lot of little things you normally wouldn’t think of, like if you were posting nonchalantly. There’s an algorithm to follow, finding your demographic, what is trending, and so on. I have all the art content it is just a matter of editing and posting to my socials. I’m still learning all that goes into posting to Instagram, Tik Tok, and Facebook. The results can be better for sure, but have definitely boosted my business from word of mouth. Where people and businesses reach out to me and vise versa. The advise I would give to others and myself would be to have some type of schedule around when you’re going to post and stick with it! Consistency is your biggest friend when it comes to posting on social media. Starting this year of 2024, I am honing in on posting to my socials.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

Yes of course, I am Nashaé Peavey. My brand name is Nashaé Studio where I express myself though art and bring my clients imagination to life. I am a muralist and graphic design local to the Huntsville area. My style of art is a mix of pop art and street art. All of the bright colors with bold black outlines have always intrigued me when researching all the different styles of art through out the centuries. I work with people and businesses to do commission pieces; whether that be a painting, mural, digital print, album art, logo, flyer, tattoo design. My favorite part when my clients see the final product is when their eyes light up to seeing the physical representation of what was in their mind. Even when I use my creative freedom for different mediums of art it is nice when people appreciate what you do as an artist. If a client and I run into a problem it is normally in the initial meeting we have for brainstorming everything. To work through that is to break down the creative side for the client in order for them to understand what goes into the process without overwhelming them and losing their interest in the work. I’m most proud of how far I have gotten in my career by just getting out of my comfort zone and just living life to the fullest. Reaching out to people even if they don’t follow through. A phrase that I have been living by recently is “Oh well, what if”. Like if I were to reach out to someone to get an art piece done and they turn down my offer. In that case I tell myself “oh well” I reached out and that happened. Instead of sitting there thinking to myself “what if” I reached out to someone for an art piece and I’m just sitting there guessing the possibilities. A big thing I want the viewers to know about me is that I’m ready to work with you!

Can you talk to us about how your side-hustle turned into something more.

A little funny backstory is the very first time I made money for my art was when I was in 5th grade. I made a business where I would draw my classmates names in graffiti letters with different colors, script, designs, and characters on paper. I made a whole brochure of what the options were to choose from with prices next to everything. I will say I made a decent amount of money for being a 5th grader in school not having to worry about anything. What is really cool about that is some of the people I grew up with and did that for still have that to this day! So I will say that was my side hustle that turned into my main job down the line. I always saw myself to grow up as an artist when I was really young. Then throughout middle school and into high school I thought I was gonna be a professional basketball player. Something switched in my mind, my junior year of high school, to pursue art as a career. The last interview I did with y’all I dove deeper about that switch. I started going in the direction of being my own business roughly two years ago. I’m still new and there is always something new to learn in this industry, but my niche of art is there and ready for people to see.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I’m going to answer this from my stand point of doing murals, so it’s not all over the place talking about my different mediums I work in.

I think that non-creatives will not understand all the little things that build up that goes into creating works of art. As an artist I see a non-creative coming up to me and asking for this gigantic piece and they want it done in three days. First thing is that is not possible for it being just me. One individual painting this mural. That will take at least a week to do. They want a quick turn around but there’s so many different aspects that come into play when getting a design for a mural. Just to name a few aspects; time, equipment, sketching, labor. One: time for prepping which goes hand and hand with all of the other aspects. Two: the equipment needed to do the mural. such as; the right color paint, brushes, ladder/scaffolding, texture of surface, and the list goes on. Three: is sketching takes time. The beginning process is the most important to avoid any clashing with the client as you are working on the mural. Creating multiple designs to present to the client up front so they can get the gist of the ideas you’re talking about is key and again, takes time. Four: the labor that goes into everything pertaining to completing a mural. I have done my fair share of sleepless nights to get a mural done. Moving a ladder around the building. Painting on a ceiling. Painting in uncomfortable positions to paint a base board.
All of those are things that I think non-creatives don’t understand or really think about when hiring an artist to get a mural done for them.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: nashae.studio
• Facebook: Nashaé Studio
• TikTok: Nashae.studio

Image Credits
Auty Horn