The Thriving Christian Artist

Send us Fan Mail It’s a question that almost every business owner has to face - should you incorporate your business? It feels so…official.  Adult.  😬 But if you’ve hesitated because you fear that incorporating your art business will take away from your creativity or make you "corporate" (in the sense of being dull and milquetoast), don’t!  You still get to be you, and your art still is...

Send us Fan Mail One of the biggest struggles that creatives have is finding the time in our lives to be creative.  With all the pressures of the day, we’re lucky if we can let our creative energies flow for an hour on any given day.   Dan McCollam, my guest on this episode of the Thriving Christian Artist podcast, has heard this from people all around the world, but he’s not buying it.   Instead,...

Send us Fan Mail What’s the one question I hear most frequently?  (Other than “Would you like fries with that?”  What can I say - we’ve been traveling a lot lately! 😆) It’s probably some form of:  "How do you go from being a hobby or part-time artist to being able to do art full-time?"      This can definitely feel like a massive leap, especially for folks who are currently working a mo...

Send us Fan Mail What it is like to go from feeling like you’ve lost your creativity and giving up on art, to creating art that moves and inspires everyone who sees it?   Ask Jeanette Sthamann.   Jeanette didn’t grow up a Christian, but she did grow up loving art.  That is…until a short-sighted art teacher discouraged her art and made her think she wasn’t creative. It was enough to make her cast a...

Send us Fan Mail When you come to a roadblock while driving, what do you do?  You backtrack, pull out the GPS, and navigate around it to get back on course.   But what about when you hit a creative roadblock in your artistic life?   It’s something we all experience from time to time, and it can feel very daunting.  And unfortunately, your GPS won’t be of much help.   You’re going to have to seek o...

Send us Fan Mail Sometimes, as a Christian, it’s hard to know exactly what God is telling you. For my friend Tan-Yah Jackson, the messages she was receiving from God were really confusing…God’s voice was telling her to not quit creating art because that’s who she is meant to be…and yet He was also telling her to quit art for Him.   So how did she know which voice to follow?   She didn’t - so she f...

Send us Fan Mail If I told you I could teach you how to grow your art business with 5 simple tips, would you believe me?  I know…sounds like it’s too good be true, doesn’t it? Well, in this episode of 5-Minute Mentoring, I really am going to teach you how to grow your business with 5 simple tips… …but just because something is simple doesn’t mean it’s easy.  These concepts are simple - but followi...

Send us Fan Mail They say that change doesn’t happen overnight…but my friend Anne Ashton would respectfully disagree!   Anne’s introduction to the art world is unlike almost anybody else’s I’ve ever encountered. No spoilers…but let’s just say that the Lord transformed her into an artist basically overnight!   Everything in Anne’s artistic life comes from following what the Lord is guiding her to d...

Send us Fan Mail I have a confession to make. When I first started building my art business, I had no idea what I was doing at first. 😳 Okay, maybe that isn’t that big of a confession - I think a lot of business owners feel this same way!  Trying to turn your creative life into a successful art business creates a whole host of challenges, frustrations, and uncertainty.  Everybody tells you that t...

Send us Fan Mail One of my favorite things about this podcast is connecting with amazing people doing amazing things, and it’s so much fun to check back in with previous guests to see what they’ve been up to and to see how God is moving in their lives today. My guest on this episode of the Thriving Christian Artist podcast is Rebecca Friedlander, who joined me way back in episode 141 to talk about...

Send us Fan Mail I remember how I felt when I first started thinking about turning my art into a business.  Excited, nervous, scared, hopeful…  All the emotions were fighting for space in my mind and it was hard to concentrate on anything else.   And maybe that’s what you’re feeling right now.  When you start any kind of business, there’s so much to consider and weigh out, and that goes double whe...

Send us Fan Mail You know those people who are so busy and prolific that you wonder how on earth they manage to get everything done?   That’s my friend, Joshua Mills.  Joshua and his wife, Janet, have been in ministry for 25 years, sharing their personal compassion and message of the hope, healing and restoration of Jesus Christ to countless people worldwide through their organization, New Wine In...

Send us Fan Mail Profit and loss statements.  Shipping and insurance.  Website updates. Taxes.  Marketing strategies. 😳 The never-ending to-do list of business is enough to make you want to tear your hair out (or lock yourself in your studio and never come out!) The truth is, building a business is a whole new set of skills that a lot of us haven’t mastered yet! But if you really want to take you...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever experienced a tug-of-war between your art and other aspects of your life - as if the two can’t exist simultaneously?   Chad Atkins had art inside him from a very early age.  He grew up in a family of artists, and he never let a day of his childhood go by without drawing.   But he also had a strong desire to live his life for the Lord.   His artistic nature and his fa...

Send us Fan Mail Whether you’re just starting out in your art business or you’ve been at it awhile, chances are once the excitement of stepping out in faith wears off, you are going to start wondering… How do I actually make this work ?  😳 I was in the same boat myself when I started out - struggling to turn my art from a hobby to a business that could sustain me and my family… …and into the kind...

Send us Fan Mail Truth time: God doesn’t want you to be comfortable. He isn’t a La-Z-Boy salesman.    If you’re too comfortable, you’re not moving forward…and God’s going to start poking you until  you do.   Allen Paul found that out in his life when he was secure in his jobs as a teacher and at a church…but God wouldn’t stop poking him.  Allen had financial security, but he just knew he wasn’t do...

Send us Fan Mail Back in the day, when I was working on staff at churches, I was the “creative guy” - which meant that I was the default graphic designer of the group! Now, truth be told, this was NOT my area of expertise, but I dove into Adobe Photoshop and slogged my way through it.  Let’s just say that it was…a challenge. 😆 Luckily, technology has come a long way since then, and tools like Can...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever met somebody whose art is so fascinating and who is so enthusiastic about it that it makes you want to immediately run out and try it yourself?   That’s exactly what happens when you talk to my friend Frances Syverson! Frances uses techniques from beading to metal-smithing to create jewelry that is just fabulous! And while she does sell her jewelry, the real joy she...

Send us Fan Mail Remember a few months ago when Facebook and Instagram went down for a full day?  Panic ensued! While some users were upset they couldn’t share their Wordle results, others - especially business owners - suddenly realized that even though they may have a lot of followers on social media, their ability to communicate with those followers was out of their hands…and that made them fee...

Send us Fan Mail You know when two things (or people) come together unexpectedly and you think, “Wow…that makes so much sense!”? That’s kind of what has happened in my friend Robin Popp’s art life.  She’s an artist to the core, an accomplished, award-winning painter as well as an experienced cabinet and furniture maker.  Those two loves existed separately…until she figured out how to bring the two...

Send us Fan Mail When you think of a job that provides steady income and security, what do you think of?  Toiling away in the offices of a big company?  Maybe a bank or a retailer?  That sort of thing?     Well, in these days of economic upheaval, layoffs, and business closures, the traditional path to “job security” has turned into a whole lot of uncertainty.   Besides, when you’re an artist at h...

Send us Fan Mail Christian art has always been a force for the Lord.  Paintings, hymns, poetry, sculpture, drama… all the forms of art you can think of have been touched by God to call people to Him.  And yet even today, some people don’t understand just how powerful the connection between art and faith really is.   Terry Glaspey is not one of those people.   Terry, my guest on this episode of the...

Send us Fan Mail When you create art for a living, there’s a lot more on the line than when you’re a hobbyist.  You can have the same level of enthusiasm with an art business that you had in your hobby days - more, even.   But if your family is counting on the income from you selling your art to put food on the table, that puts a different type of pressure on you and your art.    Naturally, if you...

Send us Fan Mail It’s always great to reconnect with old friends like Bryn Gillette.  If you’re a longtime listener to the podcast, you may remember Bryn from way way back in episode 46. Bryn is a very talented painter in his own right, but his real calling is in teaching.  His day job is teaching visual art and art history at Charlotte Christian School, where he is “raising up a generation of Kin...

Send us Fan Mail What sort of garment are you wearing?   No, I’m not asking whether you’re wearing shorts or a dress or jeans or a pocket t-shirt.  If you’re wearing white after Labor Day or socks with Crocs…no judgment here.   What I’m really asking is whether you’re wearing the Garment of Praise or the Garment of Shame.   Shame is heavy.  Shame drags us down.  Shame is a burden that colors our e...