We were lucky to catch up with Uriel Artiaga recently and have shared our conversation below.

Uriel , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

When you think of artists, creatives, and visionaries, it’s hard to wonder about earning your first dollar in a career field with no guarantee of financial success.

Artists typically prioritize passion work over earnings without any financial knowledge and confidence to take advantage of their well-sought skills and ability to create.

When I first earned my very first check as a videographer, I could still vividly remember rejecting a client’s (friend) offer of $300 to a mere $100 for a birthday event.

I was undervaluing my abilities at the time, but it was also the start of a realization of the ability to be confident in oneself and that I’m worth more.

This confidence does not grow in a matter of instances but it grows as you work through many experience stages in your career.

As you grow in the creative field, you start to meet many people whether they are colleagues, friends, mentors, or even competitors. This is important as you get to realize your true potential value- not just in dollar signs but mentally, physically, and even emotionally.

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.

My name is Uriel Artiaga, I am a videographer based around the Baltimore, Maryland area where I have worked with businesses and events since 2019 junior year of high school.

To sum up my about me page, I am very passionate about experimental cinematography and have been working on my craft since I first held my first camera back in freshman high school.

I create a lot of experiments whether it’s out worldly or as grounded as your feet stand, the style of videos I create varies a lot especially how I am feeling on that particular day or how I feel a scene could stand out from the rest.

I think what makes my style of film/video different from others is that I am self-taught through YouTube which in return creates an accumulation of many different styles of film/video editing into one as time goes on.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being creative is your ability to take a jab in marketing. In theory, marketing is all about catching someone’s eye and baiting them into clicking on (let’s say) a product subconsciously.

As someone who makes ad videos for businesses, over the years with a lot of trial and error; you begin to learn the basics of how to sell a product with great success.

An example would be a living room couch, a normal person would just take a photo, post it, and call it a day. Little did they know it would take ages for that couch to sell because of how awkward the angle they took a photo of the couch or how bad the lighting is.

Not only this is wasting their time, energy, and space, but this is a simple issue that could have been resolved with a little extra time and effort of taking a photo.

The way I would tackle this problem is to arrange the couch by putting it in a setting where it creates a sense of familiarity like a living room full of other furniture, pillows, blankets, and mood-setting lights; you take a good picture with the proper lighting and viola!

Someone will subconsciously be interested because they feel at home with the couch.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Connecting with the first question on being an artist; It will be financially hard unless you have a backup plan in this era.

It has come to the point where the market is so saturated that it’s very hard to distinguish the greats and the doers.

Being an artist also means constantly having to create and create until you hit exhaustion in which you have hit your creative dryness.

I’ve reached and gone through all these stages throughout my career and have realized to have a backup plan.

Using my ability to create and with experience in marketing, I began to invest in a computer business and used my earnings as a creative to fund the beginnings with hopes of sustaining both businesses in the long run.

A benefit would be to focus on bigger projects that create a bigger impact on my career.

Beforehand I would take small projects on top of big projects just to pay for the bills, this is a big no-no mentally and physically as it can seriously damage your morals with all the deadlines and revisions, losing your sense of creativity as an artist.

In my honest opinion, don’t be afraid to venture into another adventure, and take a detour, you will never know where it will take you next.

Contact Info:

• Website: urielartvisuals.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/urielartvisuals
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@urielartvisuals

Image Credits
Screenshots from “The world of Costa Rica” an Experimental Created by Uriel Artiaga