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Ep. 37: Vanessa Piche on Starting Over as an Artist: What Happens When You Lose Your Audience?

Art + Audience

Release Date: 12/16/2025

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In this refreshingly honest episode, Stacie is joined by fine artist Vanessa Piche (pronounced “cliché”) for a raw conversation about what it feels like to start over again. Vanessa opens up about her unexpected move from a thriving art career in Rhode Island to rural Indiana, and the challenges of rebuilding her audience from scratch in an increasingly unpredictable online landscape. Together, Stacie and Vanessa reflect on what’s not working anymore in creative business. This episode is a candid exploration of transition, vulnerability, and resilience. If you’ve been feeling lost or like you’re shouting into the digital void, this conversation is for you.

Today on Art + Audience:

  • Vanessa’s Journey: From art markets and a brick-and-mortar shop in Rhode Island to life on a farm in Indiana with chickens, horses, and a whole new creative landscape.

  • Starting Over: What it really feels like to lose a built-in audience and begin again from zero, and why Vanessa isn’t giving up.

  • The Online Shift: A candid look at why platforms like Instagram aren’t working the way they used to, and how creators are scrambling to find what will work.

  • TikTok and Trust: The only place where Stacie and Vanessa are seeing any real organic growth, and how they're experimenting with it.

  • Return to In-Person: How in-person events might be the next pivot, and why some of the most meaningful connections (and repeat buyers) still happen face-to-face.



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