We recently connected with Pat Redding Scanlon and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Pat, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear the story of how you went from this being just an idea to making it into something real.

This isn’t actually about a “business”– hope that’s ok!
The past two years, I visited the DC area to be with my 7th grade bestie on her birthday. She has a party at a nearby event space and her band plays! We make cupcakes. Last year, we decided that in 2025 I’d have an art show at the same time. The owner of the space agreed! I showed him my Instagram with all my projects, and he liked my artwork. I’m a mom whose daughter is now 18 and in art school overseas. I’d done freelance illustration while parenting for almost two decades, and lately I’ve designed and painted large canvas banners for the freakshow at Coney Island Circus Sideshow here in Brooklyn. Yes, I live in NYC.

Since the party’s venue is called Maryland Meadworks, it has a bee theme because they serve mead which is made from honey. I thought about the old Victorian-era flea circus, which was a real thing with actual insects(!!) but took ths idea further by imagining a flying circus emceed by a queen bee, featuring hot mutant bug/human hybrids doing tricks for us (I worked at Marvel Comics years ago!)… I made 7 colorful canvases suspended on dowels for this show, which I called LOVE BUGS, just in time for Valentine’s Day. The party happened on February 1 and will hang for 3 months. I sold 1, maybe 2, banners at the opening and also was hired to do caricatures for another emerging musical act. Success! We awarded prizes! 7 lucky people found gold stars on the bottom of their cupcake wrapper: each won a small printed version of my Coney Island banners. Yum!

Pat, 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?

I’ve always been an artist, in gradeschool I was that kid who’s draw Elvis for your mom or doodle your fave cartoon character on your notebook. In highschool, if you needed the back of your denim jacket painted, you came to me. I moved to NYC to go to art school, started a zine, got a job at Marvel, moved on to edit and develop newspaper comic strips at Unied Feature Syndicate/United Media, I packaged pop culture paperback books, I worked at MTV animation, Nickelodeon and Curious Pictures. I was the head character designer on Barbie MyScene, Barbie Diary and Polly Pocket animated cartoon movies (Curious Pictures for Mattel). I am a banner creator at Coney Island and I specialize in illustrations that feature portraits and caricature. As my parenting years allowed me to volunteer at my kid’s school in many ways, I’m now pivoting to become a teaching artist. I’ve earned my Red Cross CPR/first aid certification for all ages and had Narcan training. I’m having art shows and exploring ways to share my vast artistic and crafty experience. Thanks for allowing me to tell my story!

What else should we know about how you took your side hustle and scaled it up into what it is today?

I sell handmade and vintage on Etsy and have for over a decade, and I also sell on eBay. I’m in the process of adding my custom caricature work and painted pet portraits to my Etsy shop. Previously, I did dog and cat portraits only for friends, pet owners who loved my work. Through word of mouth, showing these works on social media, offering the pet portraits as an auction item at my daughter’s school’s fundraising annual gala, I spread out to clients I hadn’t met. I do caricatures at outdoor and indoor events — and yes, I do color pencil likenesses of strangers now. With their permission, I post these on Instagram, Facebook etc., and I have started to pick up work from random people, previously unencountered!

In 2025 as I explore opportunities to teach, I’m updating my resume and hope to apply for a part-time job at an art supply store. I’ll meet more people and expedite my teaching possibilities. The job market is bonkers at this time, it seems to me, so if these goals take awhile to mainfest, I do think adding custom artwork offerings to my Etsy shop might be beneficial. I have great customer service reviews on Etsy and eBay.

One huge key milestone was that in Halloween week of 2024, I was hired to do caricatures for the international employees of Google who attended the UXFest in New York City!!

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

NNFTs? Not so much a thing as a couple years ago. I think they’re a novelty– really, a jpeg? If the server that they’re saved on goes down, what do you have? And as an environmentalist, I am appalled by how much energy they use up in their entire process of “creation” and save/sell/store. THERE IS NO PLANET B. And while we are on the subject, AI and cryptocurrency use way too much energy as well. People need jobs!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dribbble.com/PatReddingScanlon
• Instagram: @PatriciaReddingScanlon
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/prscanlon/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/patreddingscanlonnyc/
• Other: https://patreddingscanlon.bsky.social

Image Credits

Pat Redding Scanlon
Pat Redding Scanlon