Meet Becca Barnet

We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Becca Barnet a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Becca, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?

Growing up, I heard the term “starving artist” quite a bit. Ultimately I was supported by my family, but my parents had initially not loved the idea of attending art school and choosing art as a career path. I am only really good at making art, and it brings me a lot of joy, so in my mind there was no other alternative. It’s my passion and I had to make it work. I switched high schools to focus on AP studio art, and applied to/attended the Rhode Island School of Design. The rigorous course load there and the RISD community work ethic stuck with me after school. I vehemently pursued all internships and opportunities in my field, cold calling and bringing folks coffee and my portfolio and chance I could.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I started Sisal Creative in 2012 after realizing that I wanted to continue making art for other people, and to visually represent their brands, as a full time job. It started with a lot of tutoring and pet portraits, and evolved into mural art, museum displays, and custom work for hospitality organizations. Since starting Sisal Creative, I’ve dedicated my time to collaborating with amazing artists and craftspeople to help me create anything I couldn’t make myself.

At Sisal Creative, we’re a passionate, multidisciplinary team of artists for hire—ready to consult, conceptualize, design, and fabricate just about anything. Every project we take on is fully custom and site-specific, blending fine art with function to create immersive objects and interactive experiences.

Whether we’re working from detailed plans or building ideas from scratch, our thoughtful approach to materials and processes ensures that each piece reflects our clients’ stories with artistic integrity. With vivid imaginations and an eye for detail, we produce work so distinctive, it defies traditional categories.

What is most special to me about Sisal Creative is exemplified by what I worked on last week – completely repainting an entire carousel, designing an interactive exhibit for a non-profit that works to decline recidivism rates, and refurbishing a vintage taxidermy pheasant mount! We specialize in applying unique techniques and processes, offer custom design in almost all avenues of physical artwork, and bring big ideas to the table.

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

My three areas of knowledge have come over the course of my time running my own business. Be authentic, do your best, and learn as much as you can.

Be authentic and kind. You never know who you will work with or for in the future. If you are able to voice your gut feelings and opinions while considering those of others, it will go a long way. That has a lot to do with trusting yourself and your expertise and experience.

Do your best. Anything worth doing is worth doing well. If you bring your best self, admit when you can’t do something, and ask for help when you need it, you can make some amazing things.

Learn as much as you can. Say “yes, and” – teach yourself new skills any time you have the chance, take classes, and ask a ton of questions. The more questions you ask, the broader your skillset will get and the more you’ll be able to confidently weigh in on in the future.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

Pricing your work as an artist is very challenging. I believe that artwork is a reflection of the society we live in, so our business is affected by the economy/stock market, political turmoil, etc. I find art to be a necessity, but many view it as a luxury or something that isn’t required for their space. Convincing folks that artwork engages customers, elevates any experience, and brings a unique voice to their space can often be challenging if they don’t inherently see the value in custom work. Pricing custom work at Sisal Creative, because we offer so many different services, can take time and attention to detail and is very different for each project. We consider both labor and materials while we heavily weigh in the story that each material and process can relay to the viewer. Over the years, we have developed a pricing rhetoric that allows us to consider expenses as specific as the hardware used, but often times we find that broad concepts and ideas are difficult to put a price tag on. Our goal is to be competitive and fair and cover hard costs, while also considering our years of experience as well as the wide range of specialty techniques that we offer. Over the years, I’ve worked hard to ensure I am valuing my experience and specialized offerings in addition to the actual price of materials and subcontractor services.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.sisalcreative.com
• Instagram: @sisalcreative
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sisalcreative/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sisalandtow/
• Other: instagram – @beccabarnet

Image Credits

Portrait photo by Joel Caldwell