We recently connected with Sasha Leslie and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Sasha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?
In a way, my creative career began at a young age. I was always making and selling work to others, which is something that has followed me well into today. The first dollar I earned from any of my creative endeavors was actually back in middle school. In sixth grade, my group of friends at the time really enjoyed making rubber band bracelets, so I began to make and sell them around my school. What appealed to me the most were the colors and styles of rubber bands – ranging from solid colors, to glittery bands, to even glow in the dark variations, I found that there was always something new to create. Soon enough, I had different people buying from me, asking for specific color combinations, styles, with each request being a reflection of how the wearer presented themselves.
At home, I was looking up different techniques to practice so I could begin to expand my work and have new, exciting things to sell the next day, excited by what I was learning and the possibilities out there. Even if I didn’t realize it at the time, this was one of the first times I realized I could make a living off of being creative. When I reflect on this story now, I feel validated. From such a young age, I was exposing myself to the absolute basics of running a creative business without even realizing it. Many of these concepts I see even now, and I’ve continued to carry this desire to learn more with me and my current work.
Sasha, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
I find it hard to categorize my work. Right now, I’m finishing my last semester in college, but throughout my educational career I’ve never been afraid to put my work out there for others to see. My interest in art began as a child, but as I’ve gotten older my skills have evolved to include various mediums and messages. My skills include graphic design (web design, branding), social media marketing and studio art (drawing and sculpting). My background as a fine artist has directly influenced my graphic design work; I believe almost everything we do today involves a level of artistic skill, from the icons on our computer to our favorite video game characters. Each of these objects has something to say, a certain way to present themselves to us. Now more than ever, art and creativity have become easier to access, which motivates me to keep creating.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Being a working creative is not always about, well, being creative. What I mean by this is that there’s other skills artists need to know, especially if they want to work. When I started my first business, Sasha’s Shack, I was still in high school and selling to others at my school. Therefore, it was easy to sell my work; everyone I was selling to either knew me well or had friends who knew me, which made it easy to build trust and put myself out there. At the time, I was so excited about the possibilities. That was until the time came that I wanted to expand and set up my own social media and website. I realized that running a business meant more than just posting my work and hoping others would like it – I would have to learn how to talk to others and market myself, and even build my own personal brand to boot. By learning how to market and brand myself, I unintentionally put myself in front of more people, and was able to get more eyes on my work, and therefore more opportunities.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
The best way society can support the arts is having art classes be more readily available and continuing to fund art education. Understanding art is so much more than just knowing how to draw, or paint; it becomes a tool to communicate with others. Throughout the years, we’ve seen artists from a variety of backgrounds use their skills to make a statement on current events in the world, good or bad. What artists do is communicate in a way that words alone cannot convey; sometimes, we need to experience things from different perspectives, to put ourselves in the shoes of others, to truly understand what is going on. Moreover, talking about your art to others develops a hidden skill; learning how to be your biggest advocate. Explaining why you used a certain technique or why a certain shade of blue works best can influence the way you handle other aspects of your life and build confidence within yourself as you begin to understand why you make the choices you do. Providing art classes allows us to start developing both artistic and professional skills that we can use to take us further in our lives and build deeper connections with one another.
Contact Info:
- Linkedin: Sasha Leslie
- Other: email: sashales827@gmail.com
Image Credits
Andrew Jenkins (First photo), Sasha Leslie