Introducing The Resourceful Artist: Start With What You Have
Over the years, my creative business has taken quite a few turns. I’ve worked with pyrography, crochet, watercolor, digital illustration, and surface pattern design. I’ve sold original artwork and handmade products, participated in markets, worked with retail shops, created educational resources, and explored different ways to earn from the things I make.
Some of those directions worked beautifully. Others were interesting experiments that I have absolutely no desire to repeat. But every experience taught me something, and eventually I began to notice a common thread running through them all.
We often have more to work with than we think.
As artists, we’re encouraged to keep creating something new. New collections, new products, new content, new ideas. There’s always another opportunity waiting for our attention, and it’s easy to believe that growing a creative business means constantly producing more.
I’ve learned that sometimes the better opportunity is sitting in a folder of artwork we’ve already finished, a skill we’ve developed over years of practice, or knowledge we don’t realize someone else would find valuable.
That’s the idea behind my new book, The Resourceful Artist: Make More of What You Create. Build a Business That Fits Your Life.
A Different Way to Think About Creative Business
This book brings together my experiences building and changing a creative business over more than twenty years, along with practical ways to recognize and evaluate opportunities.
I explore how one piece of artwork can become several different things, how our knowledge and experience can become valuable resources, and why earning from creativity doesn’t have to mean constantly starting from scratch.
But I also spend time on the less glamorous parts of running a business. Pricing, choosing platforms, marketing, creating systems, and recognizing when an idea is taking more than it’s giving back.
Because having more opportunities doesn’t mean we need to pursue all of them.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is that a creative business should make room for the person running it. Our interests change, our circumstances change, and sometimes the business we built five years ago no longer makes sense for the life we’re living today.
There’s nothing wrong with changing direction.
Coming at the end of November
The Resourceful Artist will be available in paperback and Kindle editions, with publication planned for late November 2026.
I’ve also created a free companion workbook with practical exercises to help readers explore their existing creative resources, evaluate opportunities, and decide what they want their businesses to look like.
Over the coming weeks, I’ll share more about the book, some of its ideas, and the experiences that shaped them.
If you’re an artist who’s interested in earning from your creativity without feeling obligated to turn every idea into a product or follow someone else’s business formula, I wrote this book with you in mind.
You might already have more to work with than you realize.
