We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Patti Paulsen a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Patti, appreciate you joining us today. The first dollar you earn in a new endeavor is always special. We’d love to hear about how you got your first client that wasn’t a friend or family.

Over a decade ago, a family friend had a nephew getting married and asked me if I would paint their wedding LIVE. I was terrified and had no idea how it would go but knew Plein Air painting had been around since the 1800’s. I remember being so impressed with the start of the painting, since it was such a beautiful scene.
That’s one of the things I appreciate about being creative- impressing yourself!
Their family was so pleased with my work, that they booked me for two more weddings, and so I had three weddings booked immediately! Then people at those weddings hired me and have never had to advertise.
Eleven years later, I’m still thanking her for pushing me into the best job in the world! So appreciate being paid to make people happy and create a gorgeous heirloom for clients in front of their eyes- so grateful!

Patti, 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?

As an only child born to creatives, we visited museums and art fairs for family time. I was exposed to the arts at an early age and was bored with no built in playmates. I spent my youth folding origami, drawing, participating in the PTA Reflections and won a couple of awards. When it was time to go to college, the only interest I had was in the studio arts. With my love of children and passion for all arts, I pursued a career teaching Art.
I was hired to do murals, and paintings from family friends over 30 years ago and constantly found myself with a steady stream of work due to my old fashioned work ethic, desire to serve and make people happy.
This continues to be a cornerstone of my work- making clients happy and doing my very best for every piece I put out into the world.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

After I graduated from SDSU’s art program, I enjoyed working at the college level in student services, counseling international students. Friends and family would recommend me to paint murals, host painting parties or small commissions as a side hustle. Along with my specialty Art Teaching degree and experience with painting, I was recruited to teach at a Charter School as their Art teacher. Around the same time, my family friend had pushed me into the early trend of painting weddings which conveniently did not interfere with a standard 9-5 work week.. However, as the years went by, I found myself teaching 700 kids “art on a cart” in less than a week, which was depleting both physically and emotionally. Although I love children and sharing my passion, I have scalled it down to just a few private clients- from primary school to Alzheimer’s patients. Last year, at this time is when I became brave and decided to follow creating Art & private lessons to become my full time career, As an entrepreneur and creative with functional ADHD, I’ve learned to structure certain days for lessons, mornings for business emails, certain days of the week to meet with clients and post on social media. Most importantly, blocks of days dedicated working in my home studio to complete my live & commissioned paintings. I now keep my self quite busy juggling all my responsibilities as multifaceted working mom.

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

My father worked with actors and found himself frustrated & would say- “how can you get paid so well to love what you do and still be unhappy”. My father embodied wisdom and this carries into my art business. Everytime I paint at an event, I’m reminded how grateful I am to get paid well, to do what I love to do. That’s the beauty of being of being a creative- to be paid to do your passion and make people happy? It’s a dream come true & feel so blessed!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.liveweddingartist.com
• Instagram: @socalweddingartist.com
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/paulsenfineart
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/search?find_desc=artist&find_loc=Temecula%2C+CA
• Other: My work may also be viewed at the Southern California Winery, Lorimar, who has an onsite Art Gallery in Temecula https://www.lorimarwinery.com/

Image Credits
https://mayaloraphoto.com/