Nurture the artist inside you – an interview with Samantha Hahn

Samantha Hahn is a Brooklyn-based illustrator, creative director, and author. If you are someone who wants to pursue your creative vision, while also earning a living and raising a family, then you have to listen to what Samantha shares.

I was blown away by how she balanced so many practical aspects of developing her career and working within the marketplace, along with the ways that she stays inspired and nurtures her personal and creative needs.

When I researched her background in preparing for the interview, I realized why: growing up, her mother was a commercial artist, and her father worked in the music industry. It’s as if her childhood had been an apprenticeship at the crux of creativity and commerce. There is so much to learn from her experience!

As I went through the recording of our conversation, I kept coming back to these two quotes from Samantha — how they balance two critical sides of what it means to be a creative professional:

• “Nurturing the artist inside you is an essential part of the creative process.”
• “There is always this fear that you are standing on a precipice, and that any moment, you can completely fall off. I don’t want to be driven by fear, but to be a commercial artist, there does need to be that hustle attitude. If you don’t have a constant output of work, the industry is a moving freight train, and it is going to pass you by.”

Ooomph. Listening to Samantha is like taking a masterclass in developing your career and your artistic vision.

You can find Samantha in the following places:
samanthahahn.com
samanthahahncreative.com
Instagram
Pinterest
Her books:

• A Mother is a Story: A Celebration of Motherhood
• Stories for my Child: A Mother’s Memory Journal
• Well-Read Women: Portraits of Fiction’s Most Beloved Heroines

Note: this interview was recorded a little while back, so her kids are a bit older now, and she has been focusing more of her attention on her creative direction work in addition to illustration.

You can find Dan Blank at WeGrowMedia.com and @DanBlank on Twitter and Instagram.