fine artist — Creativity School - Episodes

“Be yourself in life and in your work.”

— Aimee Hoover

Today’s episode is for everyone that was told you can’t make money doing what you love, especially as an artist.

(I have a feeling this is the majority of us!)

The myth of the starving artist is one of the biggest misconceptions there is about creativity. I was told my entire life that I could never make a living with my creative hobbies. But my guest today, Aimée Hoover, has made a successful career as an extraordinary fine artist for 20 years, painting contemporary portraits of animals. Her paintings are in collections all around the world, seen in galleries and exhibitions, and featured in countless magazine articles.

In this episode, Aimée tells us how she accidentally stumbled upon her niche painting portraits of pets 20 years ago, built her business as a side hustle, and how she’s been able to sustain a long lasting career creating exactly what she loves to make. She talks about the point in her career when pleasing clients left her lost and burned out, and how she shut down a successful, profitable business to find joy in her work again. Aimée also shares how to build self confidence and resilience in your work, especially in this day of social media when it’s so easy to feel like you’re not good enough. You’ll also find out why I call Aimée a social media and marketing genius!

Mentioned in this episode:

How Aimée accidentally stumbled upon her niche painting pet portraits 20 years ago
How she transitioned from a side hustle to full time business
How she learned the business of being an artist (and it wasn’t from school!)
How to overcome the “compare and despair” of Instagram and social media
Why I call Aimée a social media and marketing genius
How to build your confidence in your work as a creative person, even when you feel like you’re not good enough
The point in her career when she felt completely lost, burned out and wanted to quit everything
Why filling your creative well is so important when you have a creative career
Aimée’s tips for how to get started as a creative entrepreneur
The power in just being yourself and creating work that’s important to you

CONNECT WITH AIMÉE:

Website | Instagram

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Lesson 04: Becoming More Creative USING YOUR INTUITION

*With Esther Loopstra*

This week’s episode is all about HOW TO BE MORE CREATIVE! How to tap into it, how to follow the creative process, and how to feed your creative spirit by listening to your intuition. This is just the first of many episodes devoted to becoming more creative, and I’m excited to bring you Esther’s take on it.

My guest today, Esther Loopstra, is a prolific artist and illustrator, specializing in food and travel, hand-lettering, and surface design. Her work has been used for print ads, editorials, books, stationery products, and textiles and her clients include Target, Frito Lay, Google, Jo Ann Fabrics, Eddie Bauer, and American Greetings.

Esther’s insatiable curiosity drew her to learn as much as she could about the creative process, eventually leading her to teach people how to discover their innate creativity. She believes everyone is creative and is passionate about helping others find and express the creativity that resides inside of them. In this episode, she shares all about her insights as a creativity expert and teacher.

Mentioned in this episode:

How Esther became an illustrator, burned out, and eventually discovered her intuition
How creativity has a whole range of pathways and is something innate in all of us
Exercises to develop our intuition, trust it, and act on it
How to quiet your inner critic
Why we need to feed our creative spirit
Overcoming the fear of what people are going to think and the fear of sharing our work
Giving ourselves the freedom to make mistakes
How to find your passion using your intuition
Open mode and closed mode - the two modes we need for the creative process
The Artist’s Way, by Julia Cameron

CONNECT WITH ESTHER:

Instagram | Website | Courses

An exclusive offer just for Creativity School Listeners! Get 20% off of e-courses with code: CREATIVITYSCHOOL19

Thank you so much for listening!

Subscribe so you never miss an episode, and connect with me online!

Instagram | Twitter | Facebook

If you have any questions or comments for the show, click here.