Suzanne Redmond is the creator of this podcast. Each week she interviews an artist from all over the world. For this episode, the tables are turned and Suzanne is interviewed about how she came to art, how she developed her artistic style, and why she started this podcast. She also reveals who her dream artist interview would be. Suzanne is interviewed here by her son, comedian and fellow podcaster, Michael Springthorpe. Listen here or use a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Spotify, or Stitcher. Suzanne Redmond Wildflower Path Ribbon Garden Moonlight Walking the Butterfly Path Suzanne Redmond and Michael Springthorpe Suzanne Redmond and Michael Springthorpe after his New York City improv show Batsu Morocco was filled with colorful inspiration. Watercolors in Morocco at the rooftop terrace.

Artist Jane Davies lives in Vermont. She started her art career in ceramics, and eventually specialized in painting the designs on the ceramics. Now she paints abstracts and creates collages on wood panels. She teaches her techniques locally as well as all over the United States. Listen here or use a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Spotify, or Stitcher. Jane Davies Who Knew it Could Be So Complicated? 19”x25”, acrylic and collage on paper Muddying the Waters, 12”x12”,acrylic and collage on paper Structure in the Headlights, 24”x24”, acrylic and collage on wood panel Fact Check #10, 12”x12”, “Radical Layering” (collage, paint, sanding) on wood panel Fact Check #12, 12”x12”, “Radical Layering” on wood panel Fissure #1, 36”x36”, acrylic on canvas Her website is janedaviesstudios.com. You can also find her on Instagram @janedaviesart. Her 2020 workshop in Tucson is hosted by Madeline School of the Arts. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation: When evaluating which aspect of your business is most profitable, compare the income that is generated to the time involved. Jane spent a lot of time licensing her designs, but after a while when there were lots and lots of freelancers out there, she didn’t get as many acceptances. When she tried her hand at teaching, she realized that she could easily book many teaching classes that were profitable. She first started teaching at venues that she could drive to. That makes sense when you’re first starting out and you’re learning about and improving your teaching style. For each class that she taught, she would analyze it after the fact and think about what she could learn from it and how she could improve it for next time. Teaching at a large art retreat such as Art and Soul is a great way to get a lot of people interested in your classes and to build your mailing list. When teaching at an outside venue, you should be doing your own marketing for your class. Don’t rely on just the venue’s marketing because most likely, you’ll be paid per student, and the more students you can get to sign up for the class, the more income you’ll make from the class. Marketing can include tutorials on your website or videos on YouTube. That way people can see what your teaching is like and decide if they’d like to take a class from you. When doing collage, Jane likes to work on wood panels because it’s a sturdier surface for adhering papers and it’s a smooth surface for making marks. You may do classes by planning and organizing the venue yourself. Or you may do classes where another party runs the venue and preps it for your class. Be sure and ask the right questions when looking into teaching somewhere so you know what to expect from them and just how much you’ll need to do. Jane offers online workshops where the student can interact with the instructor, or they can take the class at their…

Deborah Engelmajer has a vibrant online community called Tizzit where she helps creatives develop a successful handmade shop. She offers lots of free resources on her blog and through her Youtube videos. She’s also created The Maker’s Roadmap, which breaks down the steps needed to dream, start, grow, and scale your handmade business. Listen here or use a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Spotify, or Stitcher. Deborah Engelmajer's business is called Tizzit and her website is tizzit.co. Click here to go to the Tizzit HQ membership community. To get your own copy of The Maker's Roadmap, click here. To join her free 5-day Challenge for Makers and Handmade Shop Owners (January 6-10, 2020), sign up here. You can find her Youtube Channel here. This is her Tizzit Facebook page and her Instagram. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation: A great way to share knowledge with artists is to create an online summit where you interview experts and then post those interviews over a week. You’ll gain many followers and then you can take that information and offer it in videos or courses. Deb did her interviews with video so you could see who she was talking to. You can offer the original interviews for free during a certain time period, then charge for the replays later. Offering free content to people enables them to see what you’re capable of, and they can decide later if they want to pay for your next level of content. If you build a community where people can have access to all of your content, you’re also giving them a way to ask questions and get feedback on what they are doing. Deb has put her community on a separate website, so it acts as a forum where people can talk to one another. That website is where they also get all the content and educational courses. She chose this platform rather than a Facebook group because she didn’t want people to get distracted by everything else that’s on Facebook. When they go to engage with her community, they are focused on the community. Deb actually blocks her Facebook feed so that she doesn’t get distracted by it. She uses News Feed Eradicator for Facebook, which is a Chrome extension. When you’re trying something new, like making videos, don’t worry if you’re nervous at the beginning. That’s what makes it real. Remember that the more you make, the better you will get at it. When you set up a community, the members will pay a monthly charge to be a part of it. When you’re in the community, you have access to all the content. If you cancel, then you don’t have access anymore. Deb offers The Maker’s Roadmap, which is a list of steps in order of what you need to do to start your handmade shop. She includes a list of don’ts at each level to remind you not to get ahead of yourself. So for example, when you…

Artist Mary Beth Shaw creates abstract and collage art from the St. Louis, Missouri area. She also teaches all over the United States her art techniques, often using the stencils that she designs. You may know her from her very successful stencil business called Stencil Girl Products. Not only does she manufacture thousands of stencils designed by her and many other artists, but she also offers online classes and has created a community of stencil enthusiasts. Listen here or use a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Spotify, or Stitcher. Mary Beth Shaw Mary Beth Shaw with Danny Gregory from Sketchbook Skool Mary Beth's website is mbshaw.com. You can go to her Stencil Girl Products site from her website or you can use stencilgirlproducts.com. Her online classes can be found at stencilgirlstudio.com. You can also find her online classes on the stencilgirlproducts website through the Tutorials tab. You can also find lots of free instructional videos there. You can sign up any time for her class through Danny Gregory's Sketchbook Skool. Mary Beth is also teaching through Wanderlust 2020 with Kasia Avery. As of December, 2019, there are still a few spots left in her 2020 Italy Art Retreat. Mary Beth can be found on Facebook at Stencil Girl Products. Stencil Girl Products is on Instagram. And Pinterest. And Twitter. And Youtube. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation: If you’re looking for a way to put creativity into your life, see if there are any classes in your area that you can take. Mary Beth took one that she thought was a crafting class, but it turned out to be a study about a creativity book called The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. That helped her to get started making collages. She later took classes from a local artist named Ann Baldwin. Try to make your art different than what else is out there. When it became popular to use words on collages, Mary Beth went edgier with the words and phrases that she used. When Mary Beth started applying to outdoor shows, she didn’t start with the smaller local shows. She applied to the bigger name shows, and because her artwork was so different, she got in. Don’t limit yourself to only what you think you should do; go beyond that and try something bold. The outdoor art show circuit can become like a family situation. You travel from show to show with the same artists, and you get ideas from one another. It’s hard work but you can make many lasting friends. Large art retreats sometimes have vendor nights where you can buy a table space to sell your art or supplies. This can be a very lucrative option, whether you are teaching there or not. When Mary Beth did her first vendor night where she sold her first stencils, she gave some of the instructors who were teaching at the art retreat stencils to use in their classes. By the time vendor night came…

Hope Barron is a CPA in Wellington, Florida. Not only that, she’s an artist in her own right, so she understands when artists need to buy more equipment before they’ve even made sales, and when they need to hire an assistant to help them with their administrative tasks so they can concentrate on making art. Hope makes beautiful fused glass, and she uses that as her creative release to balance her time with her thriving tax accounting and consulting practice. We’ll talk about her glass for a little bit, then we’ll dig into the world of business and accounting. We talk about: how to set up your business how to keep track of your sales and expenses, how you will report your taxable income to the IRS the tax benefits of having a home office or studio what you need to do when you’re ready to hire employees and how you can set aside some money for retirement. Listen here or use a podcast app, such as Apple Podcasts, Castbox, Spotify, or Stitcher. Hope Barron This is her glass piece before it is fused in the kiln. The top one is the piece after it was fused. Hope Barron is located in Wellington, Florida. Her firm is Barron and Kogan CPAs. If you are not in the Palm Beach County, Florida area, Hope suggests that you talk to your artist friends and small business owners to get recommendations for local CPAs in your area. Here are some great takeaways from our conversation: Hope has taken fused glass classes with a local glass studio called Northwood Glass Art and Gifts in West Palm Beach, Florida. She has established a relationship with the owner of the studio who has become a mentor to her. Local shops are a great way to find experts in your art medium so that you have a source for answers and an opportunity to learn more advanced skills. Local stores are also a great way to use larger equipment that you may not be able to afford or fit in your own studio. Hope has a small kiln for fusing glass in her home studio, but she uses the larger kilns at her local glass store to fire bigger pieces. Fused glass is fun for Hope because it’s a very forgiving medium. It’s also a nice surprise when you see the finished piece. If you’re looking for an art medium or technique to try, search for classes in your area so that you can try it and see if it gives you as much joy as fused glass gives Hope. Now for the accounting and business tips. First of all, we’ll about how you set up your business. When you start making art, and then you start selling your art, you need to first decide if your artmaking is a hobby or a business. Even with a hobby, you could be selling your art, but it may just be that you’re wanting to sell enough just to…