We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Travon Childress-Smith a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Travon , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?
I definitely wish I would’ve started taking it serious sooner. I started painting my senior year of high school and I’d sell a few here and there but I only looked at it like a hobby or therapy for myself. I only just recently said to myself that I’m finna do this full time and actually commit to it, because I always seemed to gravitate back to art no matter what else I do in life. I’d like to think starting sooner would have put me further along by now and I’d be a more established artist but who knows? Honestly speaking, even though I would have liked to start earlier I do feel like I just wasn’t 100% ready from a mental aspect, so I suppose I’m still on time.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers
I got into the art world by kinda just creating and eventually sharing what I would make, it started to circulate on a small scale and that’s how a few people learned of me.
I’m still now tryna turn it into a successful business, there’s ups and downs like in any other avenue. I mostly sell digital art/prints, I feel it’s more convenient for me and the customer. Also something that potentially sets me apart because I do what I do a certain way and there’s pride In that.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
Everyday is a demonstration of resilience while in this thing full time for real, some days the motion is slow some days there’s no motion at all. It can make you feel like a waste, or make you feel that the dream is foolish.
Is there mission driving your creative journey?
Partially I just wanna be able to make a living off of art, because almost everything else feels draining, and draining at a viscous rate. Then the other part of me does it because sometimes It’s the only way I can communicate and it always calls me/pulls me back to creating something on a canvas
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/picassaveli?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/picassaveli
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTd7UNG73/
Image Credits
Shot by Josef Phillips
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