We were lucky to catch up with Tay Richards recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tay, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
When I was around 13, in the 8th grade I had this English teacher who was really into fantasy. She used to see me drawing fairies and flowers during class and one day she asked me to draw her some fairies for her to keep on the wall above her desk. I did it and she had her fairy picture up for the rest of the year. Kids would compliment it and she would tell them I created it and it really sparked something in me so I started drawing more. Kids started to notice my art after that and compliment me when they’d catch me sketching in class. Eventually kids started offering to pay me in the student consession candy tokens if I made them little characters or portraits. I ate so much candy all throughout 8th grade year in Queen Creek, Arizona because of this gig. It wasnt cash. But it definitely felt like i was rich. I moved away to another school after that year and didn’t make another cent doing art until I was 20!
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I started arting in Scottsdale, Arizona after my grandma died when I was around 12. Her death really sparked a creative and silly side to me. I would sketch daily and pretty soon art became one of my favorite outlets. When people would ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up I would say “an artist.” Every year for Christmas my parents got me one of those suitcase art kits that I would use and abuse until the next year.
When I got to high school in New Mexico, i had an amazing teacher, Dale Latta, who pretty much taught me everything i know about art. He called me “painterly” which really stuck with me. Painterly means you arent afraid to make your brush strokes and mistakes part of the painting. Very Loose and Bob Ross like, embracing the weird. I was offered an art scholarship from the Arizona Art Institute my senior year but turned it down out of fear of failure at the time. But everything is full circle now.
After graduating high school in 2011 i got pregnant with my son and decided to pursue retail management instead of pursuing art because again, everyone i cared about said “you cant survive being an artist.” And I got the fear. I still painted with Acrylic and sketched for fun though. And I even freelanced a couple of times here and there. I always kept doing art.
Fast forward to now. It all happened really fast. In the spring of 2021 i became sick autoimmunely, I then got pregnant with my daughter and almost died from placenta accretia and at the end of May 2023 i had to quit my job alltogether because i could no longer physically work. I became very depressed. So i started coloring coloring books to keep myself sane. And then i started sketching again to pass time. And that turned into me asking my friends for prompts. And then i thought, Why dont i try to make money off of this skill? Ive been arting for 20 years!
So i began advertising my freelancing skills to my friends and i got hired to do multiple freelancing gigs and then friends and family of friends hit me up for gigs as well. I then created my own inventory for the fun of it and soon i had enough artworks to open an etsy shop called Tempest Luna Creations in October 2023. I began making sales through there as well. I decided I needed to do more, promote more, and since my boyfriend and i own our house i thought, why not have an art show in my front yard? And so i had a co op art show in my front yard with my friend Brie Dieker for 3 days and i ended up making 3 sales! I have since then continued selling through etsy and have even shipped my art to Canada!
At the beginning of November I was contacted by Feat of Clay Artists Co Op Gallery because they saw me self promoting all over the place and they heard about my front yard art show and they offered me a working membership. I took it! So I have now been one of 10 co owners of the gallery for a month and i just made my first gallery sale at the end of December! The sale happened to be Mr Latta, which meant so very much!
I have become almost a jack of all trades when it comes to art because of starting out doing commissions. This means I can make whatever someone asks me to in a variety of styles. BUT i have been really trying to figure out MY style. And it consists of 3 things. Whimsical, Weird
and Colorful! Everyone always says not to use the word weird but I am weird. And I’m pretty proud of my weirdness and I think that really reflects in my art. I enjoy doing Watercolor Sunsets and Landscapes the most nowadays as well as mixed media collages involving aliens and cryptids and wizards and the like. My technique consists of a baby medicine dropper and a burp rag. And another unique thing that i do, is I take watercolor paintings that haven’t sold in over a month and I cut them up and make them into 3 or 4 paintings instead of one. I would hate to trash something i could recycle into new art. I also use thrifted frames for the same reason. You never know the story behind a scratch in a frame and often times i create art based on an old frame i find. I would say my art is very unique and creative and that you can feel it.
Art has changed my life in so many ways and I am so thankful to have this skill and the opportunity to be able to share it with the world!
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I started with my friends. Then I branched out to the community I lived in. That went from the community to certain niche groups on Facebook. I started commenting on people’s posts with interests in the content my art contisted of. For example I would type in “iso fairycore wall art” and look at all the open posts on Facebook and I would comment on them with a link to my shop or offer my services as a barter. I’ve gotten multiple customers nationwide by doing this. And i have done about 8 barters nationwide this way as well! I also made a Facebook artist page. Promoting myself to other small businesses has gotten me a lot of business just through sharing etc. I am still very small but my numbers are growing every day organically and not through paying for advertising. I made an Nextdoor account and started posting my shop and skills on there and have gotten a couple of sales that way. I also have a tiktok @tempest.luna.creations, where I show my creations start to finish and my artists journey! I post on my Instagram as well which auto posts to my personal account on Facebook. So I’m sharing it like 5 different ways each time I post.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
I really wish people would realize that being an artist IS a job and that skill should be something that deserves as much compensation as someone who has ANY skill would be paid. If a person with the ability to cook gets paid $18 an hour then I should be able to get that kind of pay no question for something I have 20 years of experience in. It’s so frustrating how hard we have to hustle online and how much we have to sell ourselves daily to even get a couple of views. It shouldn’t be this hard. I have sold myself short so many times because people are cheap, when they would spend that much on something else no problem. I’m not sure where the disconnect is there but I’m hoping one day my job will be seen as a real job.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://tempestlunacreations.etsy.com
- Instagram: tempestlunacreations
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tempestlunacreations?mibextid=kFxxJD
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@pixietay86?si=eLEB0trwMprMEWBG
- Other: tempestlunacreations@gmail.com