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

Alright, Samantha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

I’ve been a full-time artist since 2017. It was wobbly financially at first. I decided that making space in my life to do what I wanted to do was more important than holding on to financial stability. It wasn’t a hard decision to make, I don’t like 9-5 jobs and someone else being in charge of my schedule never sat right with me. The energy we put out in the universe is what we get back. It was important to me as I put in hard work to be available when opportunity came.

I’ve been doing my art consistently since 2004, professionally since 2012, and as a specialist in my field since 2014. My last non-artistic job was in 2013, the last job that wasn’t in my field was in 2016. I’m a bull headed Taurus who didn’t like scheduling my art around my survival job. I didn’t like saying no to creative work I really wanted to do because they were in conflict with my survival job. With clear priorities I left my survival job and haven’t looked back. It was really scary at first, art is not known for paying particularly well. I had all this time and not a lot of creative work. That gave me a lot of time to look for work, create connections, and really define what I wanted to do with my art. Once I was able to be really specific about what creative work I wanted, the work started flooding in.

To be clear, I don’t think being a full-time artist is the definition of success or of a “true artist.” Being involved in your art part-time or as a hobby or just occasionally is all really wonderful. Doing art should fulfil something in you, ‘what kind of art, how much you do it, or who you do it’ with is just noise. Make the art you want to create. Do it with the people you want to do it with. Don’t fall prey to what “should” happen, that will take away the meaning of the art for you. I say this from experience. Having worked at the “big” theatres and also working at the “small” theatres, it’s not about the size of the art but what you put in it. There are problems with theatre on all levels. Seek to be content with what level you are in, don’t forget to live in the art in front of you instead of always looking for the next step in your work.

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

My name is Samantha Kaufman. I was raised in Wyoming, got my Masters in Fine Arts at Florida Atlantic University, then moved to Chicago where I am currently artistically based. I am a nomad, meaning I don’t have a home in one place and travel for work. I grew up knowing I wanted to be in the performing arts, theatre and film specifically. Began the journey in this field wanting to be an actor. Trained academically as an actor, achieving both undergraduate and graduate degrees in it. This created a great foundation for my career. As my career has grown, I realized my great passion for movement and choreographing movement. This lead me to studying stage combat, fake fighting, with the Society of American Fight Directors and adjacent organizations. Stage combat is movement that is choreographed to look violent and give the allusion of physical violence. It often reflects martial arts, swordplay, and other realistic styles of violence. The main difference being, it’s all fake, like a magic show.
Being in the movement world opens you up to a lot of different moments of movement and soon I added intimacy work to the work I do. Intimacy work is anything in storytelling that falls into the following categories: simulated sexual acts, nudity/hyper exposure/ intense physical contact. Just like how stage combat is fake, simulated sexual acts are faked by choreographing it to look as if it was really happening. When dealing with nudity, intimacy professionals set up structures around it to support the performer in order to make sure the work is consensual and repeatable.
I love finding the moments in storytelling where words aren’t enough and something physical had to happen. Whether that “something physical” is violent or intimate, supporting performers work is invigorating.

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

The constant adventures. Through my storytelling I’m living out the lives of different people. I’m embracing different perspectives through the characters in the work and my colleagues playing them. Also, since I travel for work I’m always adventuring to new cultures and places that expand my understanding of the world and our community in it.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

Donate to your local art communities, meaning the theatres in your area and the independent film companies. The more money those organizations have the more they can pay the artists what they are worth and the more work there is for artists. And do it locally. There is a misconception that performing arts is mainly in NYC or LA or at least in big cities. It’s not, there is work everywhere. Embrace those communities. They are the ones who will tell the stories that will be most impactful and reflective of your community directly.

Contact Info:

• Website: SamanthaJKaufman.com
• Instagram: @samijo_wy
• Facebook: Samantha Kaufman