Artist Academy

This week’s episode features Pennsylvania-based artist Andrea Fairservice . What I liked most about my chat with Andrea was how relatable she is. Aside from having the same name, she reminds me a lot of myself with all the different art things she has going on. She does commissions and prints, live streams on Twitch, has subscribers on her Patreon, sends out email blasts and all the art marketing...

Pricing art is a hot topic and one that I believe truly has no right or wrong answer. However, this pricing strategy is one that has helped me book more commissions and often increase the budget of my customer’s projects, as opposed to getting ghosted. The strategy involves giving your customer 2 options…. Meaning, give a price and design that you think would fit the customer’s needs while not bre...

This week’s episode features Victor Ving of the Greetings Tour. Ya know, the “Greetings from…” murals we’ve all seen in various cities around the United States. I even replicated a version of the idea to paint in my own hometown of Springfield, Missouri and have gotten several jobs simply from the recognition of it. I am a huge advocate of finding out what works, making it your own, and putting in...

Things go wrong all the time… so let’s chat about it! I put together this list to hopefully give you a heads up on what’s to come, so that you don’t make the same mistakes as often, but also to normalize that having things go wrong is just part of the job. It’s no big deal. Scheduling- AKA not leaving enough time in between projects. Using the wrong materials, mostly the wrong paint. Forgetting th...

This week’s episode features Washington state-based nature artist Gianna Andrews. Gianna has figured out her niche (nature), created products and takes custom commissions surrounding said niche, and written a book on the subject to help aspiring artists learn to do the same. This all came after a bike accident that left her hospitalized with a body brace and nothing to do but sit still, heal, and...

My New Year’s resolution is to figure out how to work less and make more while sticking to a quality work/life integration schedule. Heavy on the “life” part, specifically family, specifically my new baby boy. So, how is this even possible with all the things requiring my attention? It's possible because I don’t fill my weekday painting calendar to the max. Leaving just one workday per week comple...

This week’s episode features Cleveland, Ohio-based muralist Lisa Quine. I really enjoyed my chat with Lisa. She has this positive, honest energy that comes from someone who has just come out of the thick of building her business, already having figured out so many things, while at the same time still growing. We chatted about her unique pricing strategy and how it came to be her standard way of do...

This week’s episode highlights some of the Artist Academy Advanced members who have successfully made $100,000 or more this past year. I asked them to summarize where their sales came from, how they attracted customers, and to give their best piece of advice as to how they got to where they are today. Because that’s what we all want to know, right? How the heck are artists out there making a great...

This week’s episode features Australia-based artist Carmel Jenkin. Carmel has built her art business up to what most artists aspire to live up to one day: Someone who creates from the heart rather than constantly running on the commission hamster wheel. Yep, she paints whatever she wants and that happens to be a series of abstract female figures. Her unique niche has attracted the attention of mul...

If I had to do it all over again, this episode is all about how I would go from having no commissions on the books to making six figures quickly. Looking back on past years at things I’ve done right, the things that ended up being a waste of time, what’s been most profitable, and what has NOT. I now know how I would cut out months or even years from my journey to earning six figures. WARNING: Thes...

The 31-Day Challenge begins January 1st! Are you joining in? This week’s episode explains what this challenge is all about, how you can benefit from completing it and gives examples of past successes. If you’re looking to make 2023 your most profitable year yet, committing to a challenge like this will help create the success habits needed to make that goal a reality. Creating art every single day...

This week’s episode features California-based muralist Morgan Bricca. I have stumbled upon the more experienced version of myself in Morgan. I could talk to her for hours. She has the confidence and positivity of an experienced artist; One who has dealt with the past trials of owning a business but happily perseveres because she knows from years of experience how the profits far surpass the strugg...

This week’s episode features Southern California-based wedding painter Nicolette Martin. This conversation will make you ask yourself, “Should I try wedding painting?” Between the amount of fun she’s having creating these one-of-a-kind pieces combined with the high profitability factor sprinkled on top, this seems to me to be the perfect way to make a great living as an artist. Nicolette fills us...

About once a week or more I’ll get an inquiry in my inbox that goes something like this: “Hi! I’m a new artist trying to get my start in the art world and could really use some advice. Could you please let me know how you are able to make art your full-time career? How are customers finding you? If you have any tips for me I would greatly appreciate it!” Not to be mean in any way, but I give a goo...

This week’s episode features Washington-based muralist Glynn Rosenburg. Glynn’s journey is yet another one of those artists made by the pandemic stories we love to hear when a good thing happens from an unlikely circumstance. She’s been growing her mural business since and already has a record $7,000 month under her belt! I’m switching things up a bit with this one and interviewing an artist who i...

This week’s episode features traveling muralist Carmen MacLeod. Carmen joined the Artist Academy about a year or so ago after listening to the podcast for a while, and now has found herself in Vietnam on a workaway program creating murals in exchange for free housing and food. She reminds me of myself 10 years ago. She’s doing the thing that most of us think would be fun to do but might not have t...

I just finished my last mural project of the year in preparation for maternity leave. Talk about waiting until the last minute. I’m taking time off to have a BABY… is this real life?! My idea for painting while pregnant this year did not go as planned… I thought I would hustle hard during the summer and then take the last few months off, assuming a time would come when I wouldn’t be able to physic...

This week’s episode features British Columbia-based artist and adventurer Jessa Gilbert. Jessa creates these giant, stylized nature murals and sells her canvas originals and prints through local shops. Also, she’s a wilderness guide for part of the year. Talk about integrating your work life with your nature-adventure life. Jessa is the ideal example of someone who stays true to the specific art s...

In this week’s episode, I’m celebrating finally hitting the big 100,000 follower mark on Instagram after a little over 5 years of effort creating 1,700 posts. The majority of those shared posts over the last couple of years were in the form of videos, more specifically Instagram Reels. Reels are THE main way I have grown a following recently, so today I wanted to share my top video ideas plus edit...

This week’s episode features Florida-based artist and muralist Kole Trent. Kole is living the stereotypical cool guy, hippie-style, freedom-embracing life. He hustles with his art business for half the year then spends the remaining months traveling in his van wherever the wind takes him. He’s learned to let go of what doesn’t matter, dematerialize, and embrace the life that he is called to live....

This week’s episode is all about organizing, batching, and repurposing content to make your promotion efforts easier, specifically around the upcoming holiday season. This topic is top of mind because I’m currently batch recording podcast episodes and all the things while preparing to make my own life much easier in the coming months when I take maternity leave. I’m working a bit more strategicall...

This week’s episode features Florida-based muralist Derek Donnelly. The thing that really stuck out to me through Derek’s interview was his strive to create an artistic community in the St. Pete area. Doing this art thing all by ourselves is just scratching the surface of how much fun creating for a living can be. Having just come off another Artist Academy Mural Meetup, and getting to spend the w...

This week’s episode features trash sculpture artist Stephanie Hongo of Sugar Fox. I’ve been loving all of the advice from all the various artists I’ve been interviewing lately on the podcast. Getting away from my bread and butter, murals, and branching out to chat with digital artists, gallery owners, and people like Stephanie who creates trash sculptures, has been eye-opening to all of the many d...

If you’ve ever thought about selling prints, now is the time to start getting your system set up and ready for the holiday wave of orders. Today I’m going to share my past experiences with selling, promoting, and creating prints to help you figure out if this could be a profitable option for your art business. In the beginning, I tried everything to make money with art. Nowadays I’m more focused o...

This week’s episode features Switzerland-based lettering expert Stefan Kunz. If you’re at all into letters you’ve probably stumbled upon Stefan’s work somewhere on the internet. The dude has over half a million Instagram followers, as well as being spread out across various social media. He creates for big-name brands like Coca-Cola, has built his business to the point of hiring others to help, an...