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

Sarah, appreciate you joining us today. Some of the most interesting parts of our journey emerge from areas where we believe something that most people in our industry do not – do you have something like that?

Collaboration is greater than competition.
Face painting is the largest part of my art business. When I started, I was so excited about this art form, I wanted to talk to anyone and everyone in the industry and adjacent industries, like balloon twisting and henna. Anytime I’d see another face painter, I’d come right up and try to make friends!
But I found them generally uninterested, if not hostile towards new painters. I think that they were concerned about competition.
Online face painting groups were much more welcoming and I began to network with other painters in my state, finding painters that had a similar outlook on face painting as a business.
I feel that there is plenty of work to go around and no one of us can do it all. When I’m unavailable for a gig, I pass it on to another painter that I know meets industry quality and safety standards. If there is a gig that requires more than one face painter, I have a pool of amazing artists I know that I can bring in to work it.
Working and practicing together has made us all better artists as we share techniques and experiences.
Networking and befriending other local painters has grown all of our businesses.
I also believe something like face painting builds up on itself. The more people see face painting at birthdays and events, the more they come to expect it, and that means more business for all of us.
There are a lot of people trying to make their way in the world as artists and it can be easy see others doing similar work as a threat to our business. But I have learned, and truly believe that we succeed in collaboration and we can all win.

Sarah, 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 have always been an artistic person, but I didn’t take seriously the idea of being a professional artist until I moved to Eugene, OR in 2007. Eugene is so supportive of artists, I was surrounded by people making their living as artists, I finally thought, I could do this.

I started out selling paintings as a side hustle at coffee shops and then joined the Eugene Saturday Market, which is a wonderful incubator for small businesses.
I eventually picked up face painting when my kid was about 4 years old and absolutely fell in love with it. I get to make kids happy all day and make art, the perfect job!
After a couple years I was making as much money making art as I was at my retail job, so I decided to dive in completely and make art my life.

The majority of my business is face painting, but still create fine art. I’ve also offer window painting and murals. I’ve added balloon twisting, glitter tattoos, henna and air brush body painting to my party/festival options. I like to say I’ll paint anything that sits still long enough!

Making a living as an artist requires being flexible and taking opportunities when they arrive. Having a wide variety of things that I’m experienced doing allows me to say yes with confidence to whatever my clients need.

I’m grateful to be able to make a living doing something that I’m passionate about and beings people so much joy.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

Several areas have helped me build my reputation as top quality face painter.

Firstly, I am face painting at a large market every single Saturday, nine months out of the year. I’m actively painting in front of people and they can see my professionalism and quality of work.

I always ask clients to leave a review after a gig. I believe having a bunch of 5 star ratings on Google and being at the top of Topthreerated.com for my city gives my clients confidence that I can provide a really great service to them.

Networking with other professionals in my field, that know my quality of work, gets me referred to new clients with confidence.

I stay on top of my education. Face painting is a rapidly evolving art form and staying up to date with products and techniques allows me to really bring the wow factor and stand out.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I grew up relatively poor and also in a crafty family. This often meant that we wouldn’t pay for items or services that we could make ourselves.
This gave me the incorrect idea that these sorts of things were not worth the money they cost.
I had to unlearn this idea of the worth of Art in order to make a living as an artist. It took a lot of trial and error, market research and appreciating the value that I bring as a unique artist, to begin to adequately price my services.
I see lots of artists and creatives undervalue their time and creations. So many times artists are not valuing the hours they put in to their products or services. I’ve seen artists lose money doing what they love. The cost of creating isn’t just the supplies that the art uses but also the hours it takes to make the thing and the hours it took to learn how to do the things at a professional level.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://poppinfrizzle.com
• Instagram: Poppinfrizzle_facepainting
• Facebook: Poppinfrizzle Face Painting
• Other: https://Sarahbaststudio.com

Image Credits

Sarah Bast
Kenzie Wong