We recently connected with Monica Chesnut and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Monica, thanks for joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I honestly believe that being a creative is a very lonely job and that can be really difficult. It’s our job to think differently than everyone else and no one can quite fully understand us. We think in color combinations and font pairings and lines and shapes; we trust our eye and our gut. We can try to explain why we did something, why we need that color in the brand or why that paint stroke went there and not here, but non-creatives won’t understand. And then we’re left wondering if we’re even a good artist/designer or if we’re just crazy. That train of thought can be really isolating. But then we get to spend our whole day making something — cutting out paper, sketching ideas, playing around with layouts — and nothing else in the world matters. Even when it’s hard, it is worth everything else, and way better than a regular job.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

In elementary and middle school, I took projects wayyy too seriously. Visual aids, presentations, anything that involved a handmade aspect — I loved doing them, and I’m fairly certain this is where it all started for me. When I reached high school, I took art classes, I’d draw on my hand every single day (which my dad hated), and I started painting on people’s backpacks and shoes; I think I even painted flowers on a friends bedroom wall. For the longest time, I was planning on majoring in english or creative writing, not art.

I remember the first time it really dawned on me what I wanted to do. I was at Vans, buying shoes with my mom, and they had this “catalog” of sorts. It wasn’t just a “here are the types of shoes we have,” it was a visual representation of the lifestyle that the Vans brand emulates. The photographs were grainy and raw and gorgeous, and it just screamed CREATIVITY to me. I picked up that book and showed it to my mom and said, “This is what I want to do.” I still have that catalog.

During my first year of college, I had a friend show me how to bind books (in a very DIY way) that opened a door in my brain. I couldn’t stop making them and I filled them with all sorts of things — drawings, watercolor paintings, poems, dried flowers, polaroids, nicely-designed packaging — it was basically a visual journal. The more books I made, the more they evolved. They became a place where I practiced layout, patterns, typography, pop-ups, and where my scraps and failures from classes went. These books ended up getting me my first internship in my college’s marketing department, where I designed an award-winning publication.

I doubled-majored in graphic design and fine art, simply because that only meant about three extra classes for the additional BA. My professors did a great job allowing us to discover our personal style and explore different avenues, guiding us in critique and how to think about concepts, both in art and design. This created in me a constant need to explore, to follow where creativity took me, whether I felt comfortable in it or not. My preferred fine art form became sculpture, after I greatly enjoyed an assignment to carve an animal out of a bar of soap and then a fruit out of a stack of paper. I graduated with the “Best in Show” graphic design portfolio and a deep appreciation for pursuing creativity in all its forms.

My first job was for a non-profit for 4 and half years, and it offered a lot of different creative opportunities. I could design fun colorful brochures and clean modern booklets in one day, from emails and print collateral to installations and trade show booths. It was a great first job that gave me so much design experience, but after awhile I started to crave other creative outlets.

The department I worked in had a bookshelf full of art magazines, and they were going to toss them until I saved them from the trash bin. I didn’t know what I was going to do with them yet, but I knew they couldn’t be wasted. I thought I could at least cut out some of the things I liked and tape them up on my wall, like I used to do as a kid. But the problem was, there was too much that I liked. I soon had a huge pile of clippings with nothing to do with them…until I remembered my books.

I had never collaged before, so I was utterly shocked when it flew out of me, as naturally as breathing. I was collaging every single night after work — sitting on my bedroom floor with clippings sprawled all around me, pasting into a notebook late into the night. My back ached and my eyes were exhausted, but I felt so ALIVE, like I felt in college when I was creating 24/7. Collaging began to influence my design work, and those designs were the ones people liked the most and kept asking for. “Finally, I found my style!” I thought.

Being able to work remotely during COVID was a blessing, but I feel like it expedited my impending burn-out. After COVID, I was thankfully in a place where I could take a step back for awhile (an opportunity I know not many people have), so I quit my full-time graphic design job to become a wedding florist. I had always loved flowers and I wanted to learn something new. It shouldn’t have been as shocking to me as it was how much I could pull upon my design knowledge to make floral arrangements. Design principles still stand, no matter the medium.

I did floral design and freelance design projects for a little over a year, until I felt ready to get back to full-time graphic design. I landed a job as Senior Designer at a local chain of restaurants (a brand I loved and knew growing up), and my personal design style actually fits very well in their brand. I tried for so long to make my style into what I thought people wanted, but through collaging, I was able to rediscover my style — it had always been a little handmade, a little collage-y, things cut and pasted and drawn and typed. And now that I know what it is, I can’t believe I had tried to do anything else.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My goal for my creative journey — and my life — is to never stop learning new avenues for creativity. Creativity is such a fluid, ever-changing, on-going idea. For a time, it can feel like the best way for you to be creative is get lost in a drawing, painting, sculpture — to express yourself through those outlets and be immersed in them for hours. Then a few years later, you don’t really feel connected to those mediums and you only have enough creative energy to get through your 9-5 job as a designer. After you get burnt out there, you’re so desperate to love creating again that you pick up something completely different; to get back to the roots of why you love creating so much. And from there you remember why you create in the first place and you feel reborn. Creativity has these ebbs and flows, good days and bad days, and it’s our job to never turn it away and follow where it leads. If my whole life is spent picking up creative outlets and letting them influence each other, then I will consider that a great creative journey.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding aspect of being a creative is creating something from nothing. Someone approached you with an idea or a message, and it’s your responsibility to make it into something physical — a poster, an installation, a brand. Where there was only thought before, you’ve now turned into something that can be used! And it seems so hard at first, like “how can I possibly make this?” but then after hours of trying and moving and editing (and slamming your head against a desk, willing a solution to emerge), you’ve created something that didn’t exist before. To me, that is pure creative power, and the greatest reward to any job, ever.

Contact Info:

• Website: monica.studio
• Instagram: monica__studio