Blog 1

 

I have always been passionate about art, working in traditional mediums like acrylic paint and graphite, but I have never been able to properly monetize any of my designs or pieces. For my project, I wanted to learn how to make money from art, and the countless processes that go into being a full time artist.

I found my mentor when I went to Roasted, a cafe in Tremont. The owner there, Sophia Syed, is a family friend of ours and we usually go there when we are in the area. In the cafe, there’s a large mural of flowers and coffee beans, and I thought that it was absolutely incredible. I contacted Sophia and asked who created the mural, and that’s how I found my mentor.

My original idea for the project was to create a community mural with Evan, but the timeline did not perfectly match up, so we decided to do design work and printing instead. We figured that this would actually be better, since I’d be learning about the process of creating products and selling them. Some of the things that Evan does to monetize his work are, selling designs through mugs, shirts, cards, etc, on his website, going to art shows, running a food truck, and painting large scale community based murals. Obviously I won’t be doing most of those things, but learning how to publicize and sell your art is crucial to becoming a successful artist.

My goals for the project are to create designs of my own and put them on shirts, mugs, koozies, etc. If we have enough time, we might even set up an Etsy shop to actually sell stuff. Most of the time during this project is going to be spent learning the process, but I’ll also have time to work from home where I’ll create designs.