‘Quit your day job’: Local market supports full-time artists

Peggy Stansbery, Staff Writer

“Quit Your Day Job” at Richmond Makers Market curated a bustling market of full-time artists on Jan. 21 at Basic City Beer Co.

Richmond Makers Market hosts a themed event each month, according to founder Marie D’Angelo. This month she chose “Quit Your Day Job” because she wanted to make sure she selected full-time artists for the January market, as it is a historically difficult time for artists, she said. 

D’Angelo wanted to ensure the opportunity went to artists who needed the market to help pay their bills, she said. Having worked as a vendor herself, selling crystals and jewelry, she felt “deeply connected” to this. 

Years ago, D’Angelo almost got evicted when a market canceled their January event, she said. She had depended on it to pay her rent.

She hopes people had a “full experience” this past weekend while they shopped and got to better know their community by learning the artists’ stories, D’Angelo said. 

“My whole thing with the market is that you can go anywhere and buy something,” D’Angelo said. “But when you come to these markets and you are meeting the actual person who created, designed and dreamed up what you are buying, there is a connection there that you are not going to get at other places.”

Buying something at the market has a direct impact, D’Angelo said. 

“I hope they keep in mind that they bought something and now that girl was able to buy groceries today,” D’Angelo said. “Instead of going to a Target where you buy something but there is zero impact on the other side of it.”

D’Angelo believes the community and experience fostered by the markets she created could not be replicated in other cities, she said. 

“I think what we have is a result of the magic that Richmond has,” D’Angelo said. 

Full-time artist Curly Dacs sold her products from her Richmond-based business, Griot Goods, at the “Quit Your Day Job” market. Her product includes 3D-printed plant pots that are shaped like various body parts with differing adornments and surface decorations, according to Dacs. 

“When being disabled came in so much conflict with being able to work a regular job, I made a job that I really enjoy,” Dacs said. 

Dacs said the market helped show people how many full-time small businesses there are in Richmond that they can support year-round. 

Dacs hopes the Quit Your Day Job market exhibited the “joy” that can be found in the Richmond Makers Market community, she said.  

“I am just really excited that people got to be like me buying this product, that came from this person, helps support them in their life,” Dacs said. “And me supporting them helps them create art that makes me happy, them happy and everybody else here happy.”

Podcaster and full-time artist G Terado sold his landscapes, fan art and pop art at the Quit Your Day Job market. Terado began making and selling art in 2011 while working for different companies, including Michaels and a sign-making company. 

After being let go in 2019, he pursued his “side gig” as an artist full-time, according to Terado.

The market’s focus on full-time artists in the community is what stood out to him, Terado said.

As a newcomer to Richmond and the pop-up market scene, Terado hopes the market helps spread his name and brand through visitors buying products, getting his business card or following him on social media, he said. 

“The market supports local businesses,” Terado said. “Whether it’s crafting, handmade, visual, culinary, all endeavors that our community is pursuing as a labor of love but also for a living. 

Market attendee Julia Boyd decided to attend the market because she wanted to support local artists and see what they had been making. 

Boyd said the market helped showcase Richmond’s “personality” and empower people to pursue their creative endeavors. 

“It showed that if you have a creative side, or you have a side of yourself that you want to showcase, you can pursue that,” Boyd said. “There’s empowerment in making this your full-time career.”