E28: A contemporary embroidery artist builds a thriving creative business and life outside of the city | Sarah K. Benning in Keene, NH

I’m excited to invite you to my conversation with artist, embroiderer and DIY designer Sarah Benning. At first glance, Sarah's life seems like a vision from the past. She lives in a historic Victorian home in New Hampshire, and spends most of her days embroidering.  Although, in actuality Sarah is a successful contemporary artist, creating one of a kind hand stitched artworks, DIY kits and digital embroidery patterns. Sarah studied painting in college and despite being drilled in school that in order to be a successful artist you have to live in a big city, she decided to throw caution to the wind and leave Chicago and city life after graduation. She took a job as a nanny and in her downtime began experimenting with embroidery as a creative medium. She found that the lower cost of living and the less stressful lifestyle gave her more free time, which actually inspired her creative process and ingenuity in taking up an antiquated art form and bringing it into the 21st century. Documenting her work and process on Instagram in the early days of the app Sarah amassed an enormous online following that helped her begin selling her work. In just a year and a half, Sarah reached a point where she felt like she could make art her full time hustle. She has slowly built a sustainable art business by constantly evolving her work and offerings to keep up with the wants and needs of her customers. Now, both Sarah and her husband work full time to run the business. They are able to live in a small town and have much more flexibility in their lives. I am so inspired by Sarah’s creative journey of taking a leap from side hustle to full time artist. I also really appreciate her journey of leaving the city and moving to a tiny community before realizing that a slightly larger small town felt more like home. Sarah’s story speaks to both the intense amount of work it requires to build your own business and also the tremendous rewards of having more autonomy over your own life. I encourage you to peruse Sarah’s online shop or consider taking one of her workshops. This is a story of making your passion your profession, being open and willing to make creative evolutions, rural entrepreneurship in the digital age, the lost art of embroidery, and so much more. I hope you enjoy it. For links to Sarah's work, social accounts and photos from her creative home and studio visit the Urban Exodus blog. Photo credit: Sanders ThreeSupport the showSign up for  Apple Podcasts premium or our Patreon Membership for ad-free listening, rapid-fire guest interviews & our new mini-pod Ditch the City. urbanexodus.com | @theurbanexodus | buy the book