Meet Sage Storm Davis | Social Media Marketer, Artist, & Model

We had the good fortune of connecting with Sage Storm Davis and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Sage Storm, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
When I was in high school, I got really into both chemistry and makeup artistry-special effects, theatrical makeup, beauty makeup, etc, which lead me to going to college for a BS in Chemistry to work in cosmetics. I was paying for college on my own, so in my second year of school I started making jewelry to help pay for my degree and living expenses. I used to sit in my first research lab gig making art while waiting for tests to run and I’ll never forget when I realized that I made my first $1000 total in sales. It was in that moment that I realized I had something special and it was worth putting serious time and energy into.

I started traveling the country to music festivals selling my jewelry and before I knew it, I was selling out in a weekend, and then in a day, and then hosting meet-ups to do drops and selling out in seconds. In order to create and keep enough inventory to sell in person, I couldn’t sell online. I quickly realized that there were risks to my in-person drops (people knowing my exact location at a certain time and how much cash I’d have on my person immediately following these drops made me reasonably nervous), and the online demand from people who couldn’t make it in person was growing restless, so I switched to online sales.

I continued to juggle and grow my business throughout all of college and into my professional career. I achieved my goal of working in cosmetics very early on, and then I ended up in a job where I was really unhappy. I didn’t like the work, the office politics, or the commute, and I constantly had my dad and colleagues in my ear telling me that it was time to work for myself. My jewelry was selling out as fast as I could make it and working a full chemistry job was hindering my ability to reach my earning potential. I realized I could work half as much to earn just as much as I was making at my full time chemistry job, have a higher earning potential, travel as much as I wanted, and not have to answer to anyone. So I took a leap of faith.

I worked as a full time artist for the next 4-5 years, rarely taking longer than a day to sell anything I made. I refused to take on custom projects for many years and then when I finally did, I regularly had to reject projects because I was always at capacity. I also started making oil paintings and murals with similar success. I was living every artist’s dream, but I was struggling with undiagnosed chronic physical health issues and as it became more severe, making my art became physically painful and I became incredibly depressed. I reached a point where I was both physically and mentally unable to make my art and I was forced to retire.

Given my health issues and my disdain for being told what to do, going back to a full time job wasn’t on the table. I had to find another way to survive and still feel fulfilled and aligned with my goals, values, and purpose. I put it out into the universe that I needed to do something else, but I didn’t know what. People quickly started offering me opportunities utilizing my other skills that I had naturally shown through running my own business, including sales, community management, and marketing. I worked some odd gigs, including traveling art sales, community management/marketing jobs in Web3, and managing other artists, before I finally landed on what is now my main gig: Social Media Marketing for arts and art organizations.

I am really grateful to have a career that allows me to still be fully immersed in the art world and supporting as many artists as physically possible. It brings me a lot of joy to be able to help other creatives succeed!

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.
As an artist-turned-marketer, I have a deep love for the arts and helping artists succeed. I founded and have run a jewelry community called Theta Movement for the last 7-8 years, without ever taking a single cent, just because I wanted to offer my marketing skills to help other artists succeed and help connect them to potential collectors so that they could be successful in their own careers. I genuinely care about seeing creatives win, and I believe that that shows in my marketing and is what sets me apart. I fully immerse myself in the worlds of my clients. I show up, put in 500%, and make sure that I am sharing their efforts and stories in the best way possible to reach the largest, quality audiences possible.

I definitely wouldn’t call the path I took easy, but it was absolutely worth it. I always followed my passion for creating something beautiful, even when I felt like it might break me. I was broke and in debt for a long time and fighting my health battle didn’t help make it any easier. I was constantly in and out of various specialists trying to figure out what was wrong with me so that I could even stand to work a full day. I was only recently diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis AND a decade-long chronic systemic infection a few months ago, both of which are now being treated and managed. I feel the best I have in 10 years. I’m a fighter and I won’t let anything break me.

When it comes to building your own business, I believe it is a spirit like mine that will stand the test of time. Anything is possible as long as you just keep fighting for what you love and believe in. I love and believe in my clients just as much as I love and believe in myself.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I feel lucky that some of my favorite places in Denver are also my amazing clients! I would take them to Spectra Art Space to check out art from over 100 local artists, and then explore their seasonal annual immersive art space together. Novo Ita: Propogation is the current immersive ready to explore, which is an interactive botanical, psychedelic wonderland! It is seriously such a blast for ALL ages. I’d also take them to RiNo Art District, where we can spend endless hours hunting for murals by artists from all over the world, including the DENVER WALLS murals. There’s also so many incredibly options for places to eat around RiNo, it’s impossible to name just one! I also have a passion for thrifting and antiquing, so that definitely needs to make the list! I could spend days touring someone around to all of my favorite spots.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I wouldn’t be where I am today without my best friend, Ally Grimm aka A.L. Grime. She was one of the first people who saw in me what I couldn’t yet see in myself, and when she was offered the opportunity to create DENVER WALLS, a mural festival as part of the internationally-renowned WORLDWIDE WALLS family, she immediately called me and asked me to lead marketing for the festival. She knew that I was basically an encyclopedia of the street art world and saw what I did for myself in my own marketing, and believed that I would be the perfect fit for the job. She has also been generous in connecting me to others, like the team at RiNo Art District, helping me get more clients and grow what is now my marketing business.

Website: https://bio.site/sagestorm

Instagram: https://instagram.com/sagestormdesigns

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sagestormdavis

Facebook: https://facebook.com/sagedavis

Other: https://tiktok.com/@sagestormdesigns

Image Credits
Portrait photography by Earian Plummer (IG: @nokummint)

Art photography by Sage Storm (IG: @sagestormdesigns)

Flyer is from DENVER WALLS Festival (IG: @denverwallsfestival)