Ambitious artist brainstorming ideas to make a sustainable living

[Thonaja]

Ambitious artist brainstorming ideas to make a sustainable living.

I've been seriously inspired by the YouTube channel to build myself a living situation in my van with a studio inside it, and make music and art around beautiful things, release my material for free on YouTube,  Spotify, iTunes,  etc., andlive an inspiring life. I want to pursue art as a lifestyle,  but I'm concerned about making a sustainable living on the road. 

I don't have any sustainable, financially stable family background and I came from nothing (truly) and I don't really have any support in my community because over the past year I've gotten completely sober and the friends (artists) that I have spent time around aren't really there now that I'm sober. I thought that I might throw a shot in the dark and see if anyone here has any advice and/or guidance for me to chase my dream from an educated perspective. 

Excuse my lack of depth, but I have no idea what I'm doing.

I appreciate any consideration.   :heart:

 

[lenny flank]

What salable job skills do you have? Which of them can you do while mobile? There you are.

It's either that, or rob gas stations.

 

[travelaround]

Maybe you could play for tips at a coffeehouse or art fair? Take your art to sell? I don't really know what would make your skills marketable because art and music are wide fields. I'm also daydreaming about having an art studio - in a cargo trailer behind my van. I hope I've located the trailer. I will use it for art, sewing, and whatever else comes up.

 

[Qxxx]

Thonaja, I like travelaround's idea of having a cargo trailer for a studio. Both living and also working at any kind of craft inside the van might be a bit crowded. Pack up one bit and setup the other, 2 or 3 times a day. Lot of mess around.

It's not clear, but if you have some kind of crafts for sale, you might be able to travel around the country to various arts and craft shows and sell your wares. There must be some websites that list such shows, and they likely happen all over the country over all the year.

There are also books that list all the "art towns" in the US, which might be good place to start, and each will likely have its specific shows.

https://www.amazon.com/100-Best-Art-Towns-America/dp/0881506419
https://www.amazon.com/100-Best-Small-Towns-America/dp/1562612751/
https://www.amazon.com/National-Geographics-Guide-Small-Escapes/dp/0792275896

 

[rvwandering]

Welcome to the CRVL forums Thonoja! If you are making a living with your art and music now you should be able to do it on the road too. An alternative would be to get a job for the summer season in a national forest campground or national park, save enough for your winter living expenses and create art while camping for free on BLM land.

To help you learn the ins and outs of these forums, this "Tips, Tricks and Rules" post lists some helpful information to get you started.

Most of our rules boil down to two simple over-riding principles: 1) What you post should provide good information (like your introductory post), and 2) Any response to someone else's post should make them feel glad they are part of this forum community.

We look forward to hearing more from you.

 

[travelaround]

Here's a site that lists fairs and festivals for vendors.
https://www.fairsandfestivals.net/

I agree that having both an art studio and living space in a van would be crowded. I have a large van but it would still be too crowded for me. One would have to have the space organized and few possessions. That's my problem - I haven't been able to cut back on possessions enough to make room for an art studio in my van - but I'm just getting started... maybe someday!!

 

[maki2]

it sounds to me like you are a musician rather than someone who is making a form of visual art such as painting, sculpture, various kinds of crafts, etc.

You are correct of course to ask for advice on how to earn a living as a musician on the road. There are a few people in this forum who do that but I don't recall their specific threads. I have no idea if you will get a direct response from them. But I do know they have been at it for years and have regular contacts where they can play and focus on getting more contacts.

I would say the first thing to do is put together a presentation package of your music as well as a video that you can send to places that want to have live music. Even festivals want to see what you do before they will put you into a schedule. Artist of all types can't thrive by making new contacts without a portfolio that presents their abilities.

 

[swlands]

Check this out: https://www.bluetangoproject.com/ Kevin is my brother in law. He and his wife tour the US and Europe regularly doing house concerts. They have hosts who put them up, and offer them a space to perform, or they book venues and hosts put them up. They also sleep in their van as they travel from San Francisco to Washington, to Nebraska to New York then back across the south to San Francisco from August until November. They also tour Europe, but they live in Buenos Aires.

Last month they performed at California Jazz Conservatory then gave a workshop there on doing exactly this. Go to the website and send Kevin an email and ask...

 

[namenlos86]

Hello from a fellow artist and musician!

You are def right to be concerned about making a sustainable living on the road. I learned this the hard way in my 20s (in my durty 30s now

The best advice I can give you is to find a decent paying job and build up your savings and credit for as long as you can stand and be very prepared before you actually hit the road.

There is no worse feeling than sitting in your car somewhere with nothing in your bank account and no income. It feels sooo much better to have a few grand in your savings and a credit card or two to help you get yourself out of jam if you need. I decided to pause my travels and work a corporate delivery job in a major city for a while so that I will have more options and peace of mind for when I go back out onto the open road.

As far as making money with music is concerned it is like any other business, you have to market yourself ect. But if you are very consistent with releases and people dig what you do there will always be opportunities. Streaming and selling music actually can make a bit of money if you have your publishing set up. If you have production and sound design experience you can also make an account with a website called splice.com and sell sample packs (big market for this right now). Start a patreon account and give away special content for subscribers. Use indieonthemove.com to book yourself some shows. Invest in some merch! Especially stickers. Find a talented graphic designer and pay them a bit for some designs and have batches of stickers made. Ppl love cool stickers and you can price them as needed to make some money.

Get your instagram game up! Make videos of yourself performing your music and post them with tags. Spend a bit of money to promote the posts you think are best and have a link to your music in your bio. Hit up ppl with followings and see if they nee music for your content. Instagram is the only social media I use and its very effective. You do not need to have a million followers you just have to attract people that actually like your music. Use instagram stories! This is how you retain the attention of your followers without floodign their feed with posts.

Just some ideas. Use your imagination here. But above all BE PREPARED. Please do not take off without doing so I have done this and it very quickly becomes no fun.

Good luck!

 

[LoveCareThinkDo]

You might take the advice of my last ex's daughter and "make pretty, shiny things for rich people to buy."

My son's fiancee was born without one hand. She makes a decent living making and selling jewelry. Here is her Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ShieldmaidenDesigns. She can't make this stuff fast enough. (And I guarantee you, that is not due to her handicap.)

 

[swlands]

^^^ nice! A friend does metal work. It involves lots of fire and heat and pounding of metal on heavy anvils - not your typical accessory on an RV. My friend has done quite well financially - not rich but built his own house and studio in Berkeley CA, which is not a cheap place to live. But it takes time to get the skills up. You don't just jump in and turn the key... David used to make stuff at his studio then travel in a van to trade shows, now he mostly wholesales from home. Earrings always sold well. The economy goes down and folks can't spend much they would still get the earrings. They were all that would sell so he could pay the rent some months.

 

[SheketEchad]

You might take the advice of my last ex's daughter and "make pretty, shiny things for rich people to buy."

My son's fiancee was born without one hand. She makes a decent living making and selling jewelry. Here is her Etsy shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/ShieldmaidenDesigns. She can't make this stuff fast enough. (And I guarantee you, that is not due to her handicap.)

Unique and quality looking work!  I think I'll bookmark her shop