We had the good fortune of connecting with Britni Mara and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Britni, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
Honestly, I was tired of grinding and hustling for someone else. I graduated in 2013 from Bradley University with a BFA and moved to Chicago with $400.00 in my savings account. I picked up a job as a bartender with the aim to work a few days a week and build my art career, but I ultimately got sucked into the hospitality industry. I spent most of my early to mid-twenties working 60 hours a week behind a bar. It eventually wore on me, emotionally, physically, and creatively.

When the pandemic hit, I had the opportunity to stay at home and collect government subsidies. I had the time to create and market a lot of artwork. I started off selling pieces way under market value. I had no idea how to actually price my work back then. In a matter of a few months, I couldn’t keep up with custom work, and my inventory was often depleted. I thought if I took the risk, I could build something financially sustainable for myself, in an industry I loved. For me, Covid became an opportunity to make a huge life change, and I acknowledge that was due to privilege. I was able to stay home, and stay safe, while so many people were not. I am extremely thankful for that opportunity and I’m unsure I would have been able to start my business without it.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My art practice is based on mediation and relies heavily on my decade-plus experience. It involves little to no planning and is expressed fleetingly. As an abstract painter, I find myself intimately connected to the sensory experience of pushing and pulling paint around the canvas. I strive to control the uncontrollable and reign in bursts of movement.

My canvas work is what people started seeking out at first, but in the coming years that shifted. In 2018 I had a client with a large stairwell and an oddly shaped wall. She was a new collector and wanted a mural, but struggled with the idea of investing in custom work she would leave behind if she ever moved. For that project, I created my first Canvas-to-Mural work. It was a creative solution to her large empty wall, and her desire to have a custom piece of artwork she could take with her. That idea took off in the last few years and I have created several similar works that start on a canvas, and leave the edges onto the surrounding wall. Thanks to Instagram, it was easy to share my work and find other clients interested in this novel idea! I encourage artists to take the idea and run with it in their own way, but when I first started doing it, I hadn’t really seen anything like it. It felt like something that set me apart for a while.

Nothing about this career has been easy. I think people see my life on Instagram and say “YOU’RE DOING IT! YOU’RE LIVING THE DREAM”. It’s truly my least favorite thing to hear because it’s such a naive concept that making art for a living is a ‘dream’. It’s actually a f*ck ton of work. Yes, I am doing something I love, I know that in and of itself is a privilege, but I didn’t wake up one day and have an art career. I taught myself everything; taxes, small business start-up strategies, marketing, bookkeeping, networking, social media tactics, and on top of all of that, I somehow found time to make artwork, document it, get it online, and sell it.

I am EXTREMELY thankful for where I am, don’t get me wrong. My job offers me so much flexibility to travel and LIVE my life, but it’s still a job. Some parts are not glorious; I put my head down and just get the work done. It’s a unique position to be in, doing something you love for monetary gains. Innately what you create as an artist is an extension of you, and when it doesn’t sell, it feels like a critique of your personhood. Your entire self-worth becomes wrapped up in sales targets. It can be, difficult. Toss in the glorification social media naturally enables, and you’ve got a recipe for burnout.

I experienced intense burnout starting in early 2022. Fall of 2023 I decided it was time for change. I wanted to search for healing, to be kinder to myself and ultimately to shift my life in a completely new direction. I sold all my belongings, purchased a built-out van, and left Chicago for the foreseeable future. I moved out of my commercial studio space and highrise apartment in search of solace. I’m an avid rock climber and nature lover who felt uninspired, depressed, and anxious in a city that built me, so I made the tough decision to leave.

I currently live on the road and in pursuit of authenticity and realignment in my life. I paint outside and ship work to clients from wherever I am. I’m deeply inspired by Mother Nature and hope that my new life will kickstart a series of work in a totally new direction. I have no idea what will happen to the creative business I’ve built. I did I feel if I continued on the path I was traveling, I would have imploded. Our capitalist society sanctions a sense of unease in the present to keep you striving for the future. It’s something I just didn’t want to do anymore. I cannot advocate enough for creative entrepreneurs to take care of their mental health. Without it, there’s no creativity and there’s no business.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Denver is high on my list of places I could see myself settling into once I leave my life on the road!

I love exploring the RiNo (River North Art District) for obvious reasons. There are some wonderful small galleries, lots of beautiful murals, and some great breweries to check out. The warehouse-lined streets make you feel like you’re in a big city without the excessive hustle to overwhelm you.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
So many variables in what pushed me towards “success”, but I think the largest is the group of supportive women I found myself surrounded by. Shannon Lewis, Taylor O’Doherty, Amy Fantozzi, Jackie Stanczyk, and Beth Swanson…. all played a roll in pushing me toward my dream. I leaned heavily into art business or creative flow books like Art, Money, Success by Maria Brophy and The Creative Act by Rick Rubin.

Website: www.britnimara.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mara.onthemove/

Image Credits
Kyle Wilson

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