An Artist’s Palette for Mixing Business with Passion
By Rachel Hicks
Let me paint a picture for you.
You’re working a 9 to 5 but your real passion is painting. Traffic puts you home at 6:30 p.m. By the time you’re done with dinner and socializing with your housemates, you’re ready for bed.
You could either paint for an hour or two or call it a night. None of your canvases are unpackaged and your paints are somewhere in the basement. Oh well, maybe tomorrow …
If your canvases were unpackaged, your paints were mixed and your brushes were clean and ready, you’d be much more likely to choose to paint instead of calling it a night.
Since I can remember, my mom always left art supplies out for me at home. As an elementary school art teacher, she knew the secret to getting her kid to draw more—sharpened pencils, unbroken crayons, and the juiciest markers on the block. She knew that kids lost interest in their art quickly. But if their supplies didn’t work correctly, they’d move on to another game even quicker. That’s why my mom always sharpened my pencils for me, made sure my crayons weren’t broken and threw away any dried-out markers. She made sure that art was fun and easy, so that I associated it with relaxation, creativity, and peace.
Today I have my own stationery business, and no, my mom doesn’t lay out my art supplies for me anymore, but she is still my biggest supporter.
I’ve kept up with the practice of sharpening my pencils and creating an attractive work environment for myself, because I recognize that I still have a short attention span, even though I’m not a kid anymore.
When I decided that I wanted to have my own stationery business, I immediately cleared out a space for myself to do my art. I invested in nice watercolor paints, brushes and paper. And I laid them out in a way that I knew would make me want to use them. When I came home from my 9 to 5, I was always tired. But my art supplies were always waiting for me, ready to go. I had no excuse not to create new designs and more cards to sell.
Every night, once I finished my art, I’d make sure to clean my brushes, restack my paper and sharpen my pencils. It took five minutes, but the next day, when I was tired after work, I chose to paint because it was too easy not too.
These days we’re all working several jobs to pay the bills. But you don’t have to put your passions on hold. You can give yourself the space to make one of your passions into a potential career. Your side hustle can turn into your main income, if you give it a fair chance by dedicating a little bit of time to it every day.
It may be daunting to start pursuing something that isn’t immediately profitable. But what’s the worst that can happen? You get a little joy and relaxation from practicing your hobbies?
Make a space for yourself and treat yourself to a time to do the thing that you love.
I guarantee you, if you do a little work on your side hustle every night now, you’ll be thanking yourself later.
Meet the Writer
Meet Rachel Hicks, owner of Art on a Note, a watercolor stationery business where hand-written letters meet original artwork. She graduated from Washington and Lee University in 2019 with a degree in Journalism and Russian language. Her dream is to open her own stationery shop where she can also sell delicious tea and coffee.
Instagram: @art_on_a_note
