Today we’d like to introduce you to Zoe Carter.
Hi Zoe, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I began my art business because I am an unemployed college student. People will tell you if you have a talent or skill, then monetize it and service the people on your campus, that’s the easiest way to support yourself in college. My problem was that I didn’t have any practical skills outside of art and didn’t know how my art could benefit my campus. There are people I’m close to who know I’m artistic and around probate season, began asking me to paint things for them and afterwards would post the art and tag me, leading more people to contact me for similar projects. At that point I realized who my target audience was and began to charge with no business name attached to my work. Once probate season was over and I realized how profitable it was to make art, I created a name for my current business, CustomCrëationZ . The Z and special ‘ë’ that has the same pronunciation mainly represents my name— Zoë , so people know it’s me 🙂 From then on I’ve gone from painting Greek paddles to even the probate masks for the Alpha Xi Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Incorporated for two consecutive years. I’m blessed to be able to say I’ve found a way to use my talents on my campus and in my community.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
The one thing I have and continued to struggle with is knowing the monetary value of my art pieces. I put a lot of work and detail in my art and I’ve gotten much better from where I’ve started so of course I know my work has a high value. However my audience is mainly college students. We tend to turn away from high prices if we know we might find it somewhere else for cheaper ( I do this too), so me charging 100-200 dollars for paddles that I know are worth that much is slightly unrealistic for where I’m at right now and that’s okay. I’ve just been working on finding a good medium. It’s a work in progress.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
As an artist, I love painting Greek paddles for probate season. That’s what I do and it’s also my specialty, it’s what most people know me for and what they reach out for. I also have done custom painting for pageant outfits and more recently probate masks for new member presentations on my campus.
The thing I’m most proud of in all of this is that people from outside of Tallahassee have been contacting me to request my art. That really means something to me because there might be someone closer in their area that can do what I specialize in but they want me and my work. It makes the hard work worth it to know that my talent is being seen by others.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success to me is achieving any milestone you’ve set for yourself. Even if that milestone is getting out of bed that morning, because sometimes, that’s all we can do and that’s okay. You still succeeded. Checking off your to-do list, completing a certification, graduating college, hitting an business goal— there are so many little and big things that can count as success it really just depends on the person. So yes, any steps you take in the direction of achieving something you’ve set for yourself is what I’d define as success.
