Creativity Interviews: Creative Careers in the Arts Series

Interviews with Muses, Authors, Artists, Writers, Teachers, Coaches & Creative Professionals!

By Molly Anderson-Childers

I created this new series because I have found that many young artists lack practical strategies to create a successful career in the arts. They have passion, maybe even education — but is that enough? Someone who wants to become a CPA has a clear-cut path ahead — a certain number of years of schooling, a few certification tests, and Presto! Another accountant is born!

For someone who’d rather be a poet or a painter — and who could blame them? — the way is shadowy, filled with uncertainties, rejection letters, doubts, and setbacks. You can study drawing and sculpture, take classes in writing the perfect short story, even get a degree. Still, it is not enough. Of all the aspiring poets in all the undergrad poetry seminars in all the world, how many will create a masterwork? Few, too few. How many will actually make a living as a poet, supporting themselves solely with pen and ink? Fewer still.

Who are these precious few, the shining ones, the artists who have made their creative dreams come true? And, more importantly, how did they create success in a realm where so many fail? How do they deal with challenges, rejection letters, and vicious critics? What keeps them from giving up and becoming bartenders and travel agents and waitresses? Why do they return to the studio every day, even though the odds are against them from the start?

I hope to discover the answers to these questions, and to learn what I may from different creative professionals in all fields. I hope to pose interesting questions for myself, as well as for our readers, and in the end, be a valuable resource to those seeking to make the leap from day job to dream job!

Careers in the Arts Interview Archives

• 2011 Creative Careers Interviews
  Interviews with Peter Clothier, Stephanie Rose Bird, Tim 'Dr. Hope' Anders, Shelley Klammer, Abby Connors, Victoria Hanley, Joseph Dillon Ford, L.A. O'Neil, Natalie Goldberg, and Judy Wood.

• Interviews with Jill Badonsky's Nine Modern Day Muses (and a Bodyguard)
  This collaborative series features conversations with Jill Badonsky's "Modern Day Muses" (based on the book with the same name) and is chock-full of good advice, inspiring insights, and engaging humor to inspire your creative life, the small-step Kaizen-Muse Creativity Coaching™ way. Muses interviewed include: Marge, Lull, Audacity, Spills the Imp, Muse Song, Bea Silly, Albert, Aha-Phrodite, and Arnold (The Bodyguard).

• 2010 Creative Careers Interviews
  Interviews with Angi Sullins, Michele Batz, Roberta Allen, Tina Verduzco, Chuck Sambuchino, Terri Conrad, Jennie Nash, Cynthia Staples, Penny MacPherson, Nadine Sanders, Ashfaq Ishaq, JoAnn Bromley, Debra Ponte, John & Sandy Weber, Diana Rivera, and Carson Jones.

• 2009 Creative Careers Interviews
  Interviews with Bruce Deitrick Price, Jill Allison Bryan, Valery Satterwhite, Rita Farin, Jeff Scarterfield, Michael Michalko, Kristi Tencarre, Jerry Wennstrom, Jennie Nash, Angela Cartwright, Susan Brackney, and Carol Parks.

• 2008 Creative Careers Interviews
  Interviews with the Christmas Sugar Plum Fairy, Annette Rose, Erin Gray, Lily Raven Queen, Kimberly Richardson, Lilly Fluger, Chris Dunmire, Cynthia Morris, Naomi Rose, Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy (SARK), Chris Zydel, Jurgen Wolff, and Deanne Fitzpatrick.

• 2007 Creative Careers Interviews
  Interviews with Joan Lefkowitz, Cathy Yardley, Angela Hook, Pat Conway, David Duggins, Lynda Lehmann, Linda Dessau, Dorothy-Clare Jacobs, Annie Lang, Kristen Fischer, Kathy Rembisz, and Anne Marie Bennett.

• 2006 Creative Careers Interviews
  Interviews with Sonia Wijts, Quinn McDonald, Jill Badonsky, and Molly Anderson-Childers.

• More Creativity Interviews by Nancy Mills
  Spirited Woman interviews with Marie Javins, Marlow Wyatt, Laurel Touby, Elizabeth Forsythe Hailey, Roz Browne, Frances Halpern, Fannie Flagg, and more!