Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Toni DeBiasi. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Toni, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. It’s easy to look at a business or industry as an outsider and assume it’s super profitable – but we’ve seen over and over again in our conversation with folks that most industries have factors that make profitability a challenge. What’s biggest challenge to profitability in your industry?

Getting work out there and being seen by the right demographic. My work falls into a specific niche and so it requires extra marketing work which as an artist isn’t my strong point and I know many artists that have this same problem. To sell original art you have to get it in front of the right demographic and that’s difficult since the only real options are galleries and social media which luck plays a part in both of these. Another issue is that buying original art can be expensive and not everyone can drop that kind of money.

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 got into art very early in life, as an introvert I found it easier to sit and draw rather than participate in a group activity so art became a big part of my life. I have always loved the odd and surreal and my work reflects that which tends to make it not for everyone but I do have a wonderful fan base and I appreciate them immensely.
I went to college to study illustration when traditional art started to be overshadowed by digital art so though I was trained as an illustrator I only stayed in that field for about ten years before leaving it behind to tell my own stories with my art rather than someone else’s.
I occasionally put my work out at oddity conventions which is always fun and I love meeting people who want to have conversations about the thought behind the image. Right now I’m working on a body of work for a gallery show so I’m not taking commissions but I hope to get back to that soon.
My goal like most artists is to have people be drawn to an image. to have some kind of reaction, good or bad, but hopefully good!

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

I do sell on my website but I also sell a lot of work when I post it on Instagram. The great thing about selling my work directly to clients is obviously no middleman commissions and I get to deal with clients directly which builds a relationship. The downside is dealing with algorithms as most people can tell you. E-commerce is a double edged sword, you can build a large presence but with that sometimes comes theft of images. There’s a lot of people out there who take images from artist posts and sell it through places like Etsy where you can put an image on anything without questions.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I think one of the biggest lessons that I’ve had to unlearn is comparing my work to others. In college we were constantly being compared and my illustrator years compounded that which set me up for years of frustration. Until I started to get involved in the artist community and found how supportive everyone is no matter how successful or unsuccessful they are, and that it isn’t a competition, that we’re all in this together and there’s room for everyone.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.burningseahorse.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/burningseahorse
• Facebook: Facebook.com/burningseahorseart