These NYC artists turned studio scraps into gallery art. Here’s how they afford to keep creating in the city.

The Nose to Tail exhibition ran from June through July at Equity Gallery in the Lower East Side.Yao Zu LuThe Nose to Tail exhibition in NYC highlighted art made from scraps never meant to see a gallery.Five artists discussed the financial realities of sustaining an artistic practice in New York City.From cheap materials and multiple jobs to affordable studios and housing, here's how they do it."Let nothing go to waste" has taken on a literal meaning for these New York City artists.As the cost of living is a big challenge for many New Yorkers, artists from a recent thrifty art show talked to Business Insider about how they have found ways to adapt to rising prices while continuing their creative pursuits — including using scraps of their work that were never meant to be seen on the walls of an art gallery.This was the thesis of the Nose to Tail exhibition, curated by New York natives Patricia Fabricant and Jeanne Heifetz and featuring eleven artists living in the city. Its title refers to the culinary practice of using every edible part of an animal, both to reduce waste and honor its life."As inflation ticks ever higher and resources more precious," the group show featured artworks "sourced from studio process by-products, down-time doodles, and happy accidents," according to the exhibition description.Business Insider has covered how other artists are working to make ends meet throughout our Cost of the City series, reporting on how people can afford to live in one of the most expensive cities in the country. How has your experience living and affording New York City been? What challenges have you faced and how have you adapted? If you are open to talking to a reporter about your experience, reach out to mros@businessinsider.com or fill out this form so we can contact you. The show ran at Equity Gallery in the Lower East Side from June to July and showcased a range of art forms, from paintings to metalwork and music videos. Here's how five New York City artists turned studio scraps into finished works — and what it means to sustain a creative practice in an increasingly unaffordable city.Gabrielle Shelton: When business sustains the artYao Zu LuGabrielle Shelton, 53, originally from Los Angeles, has been living in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, for 31 years. As a metal sculptor, she also runs her own business, Shelton Studios Inc., which produces high-end custom architectural metalwork for homes, businesses, hotels, and other spaces."I specifically placed myself and started a business that could feed my art without me having to come up with another way to make money," she said. "The only way that I could access materials and space is if I started a business that focused on the same materials that I wanted to make my sculpture out of."For the exhibition, she used leftover scrap metal from previously sold sculptures and brought them together."I have a lot of little, really beautiful scrap metal or offcuts or prototypes and jigs," she said, "and the last couple years, I started taking them out and making sculptures out of them, joining parts that never would have joined."To balance managing her self-owned business, her artwork, and her family life with her husband and two children, Shelton worked during the day, spent the afternoons with her kids, and returned to her studio at night."For many years, I worked about 70 to 80 hours a week," she said. "I basically didn't sleep for about 20 years."Damien Olsen Berdichevsky: Turning the city's leftovers into artYao Zu LuDamien Olsen Berdichevsky, a 65-year-old sculptor and musician born in Argentina, has lived in the city for 28 years. For the show, he submitted The Book of the Comfort Zone, a piece he started when he first used an issue of The Brooklyn Rail journal to wipe his brushes."I was using it to clean my brushes, and it all started with a stain. Then I started painting page by page every night," he said.From February to May, he painted all the magazine's pages, complementing the book with a music video displayed alongside it.Berdichevsky primarily works with wood and cardboard — not too hard to come by in New York City."The streets are piled with those materials," he said. "Besides, there's a lumberyard a couple of doors from my house, and I can't tell you the amount of wood they throw away."While the city provides some materials for free, Berdichevsky does pitch in to buy paint, paper, and glue. In the past, he has also worked as a "ghost artist" and bought and resold music instruments and antiques on eBay to make extra money.Yet, he said he has been dealt a lot of luck. Thanks to his wife's family, he receives financial support and lives in a 150-year-old family home in Greenpoint that she inherited, where he also has space to work instead of renting a studio."I've never had to interrupt my work because I couldn't afford it financially," Berdichevsky said. "How much of your merit is at play, or is it simply good luck?"Jessica Nisse

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