We recently connected with Kayneisha Holloway and have shared our conversation below.

Kayneisha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear your thoughts about making remote work effective.

I embraced the digital and portable age, and found balance and flexibility with working from home and on site. I faced some initial setbacks like losing my teaching job during a tough pregnancy, and expending my savings. I had a lot of anxiety around supporting myself as an artist who has held a job since 16, now 26. I considered transitioning to a remote work position that I saw in mom groups. I told myself that I wasn’t ready to be a freelance artist full-time yet. A lot of self doubt and feelings of inadequacy clouded my vision and future. But I knew I wanted to change the narrative around being a young mom AND pursuing a creative career. I transformed unfortunate circumstances into opportunities for growth and connection with the immense help from family, community, and my faith.

My iPad became a tool for creating sentimental portraits that brought joy to clients while enabling me to work from anywhere, reducing anxiety as a stay-at-home mom and creative entrepreneur. I worked with artists such as Adam Brouillette to create a banner along Parsons Avenue, which I did digitally from home. All People Arts Gallery invited me to create a mural for the peoples farm, which I completed on site, while pregnant during the summer, and many more opportunities came into fruition. I worked alongside artists Bryan Moss, Raeghan Buchanan, Hakim Callwood, Salina Wenzel and Sterling Carter with Columbus City Schools’ Summer Experience, where I got to teach again, and even some of the students from the school I previously taught! This opportunity was in person and on site, but most of the planning was remote. And I was able to create an immersive, creative experience that the students and even the CCS staff enjoyed! This allowed me so much time with my baby boy. I get the best of all worlds. I’m a mom, a creative, and I get to do it from the comfort of anywhere, he even comes with me to my on-site work sometimes.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I am Kayneisha, I also go by Neisha, and I am a passionate artist, devout mother, published illustrator, experienced designer and instructor. My artistic journey began really early, with the introduction to Aminah Robinson and learning that she grew up in the same neighborhood that I’m from. Although our styles are different, her love for community and self-expression carries in me. We share the same alumni status from Columbus College of Art and Design, with my bachelors being in Interior Architecture in Design. From there, I learned how to use the Adobe Creative Suite, which I call my Big 3; Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign which are heavily used in my work. I work with clients, big, medium and small to connect art and expression with social Justice, education, faith and well-being. My first huge commission was in 2018-2020, where I worked remote from Ohio to create a large oil painted portrait to commemorate the accomplishments of Dr. Delores Williams at the Union Theological Seminary in New York City. I did this during my studies in school.

My first mural and interior design gig was with Columbus Fashion Alliance (CFA) in 2020 during the pandemic, and I worked closely with Yohannan (Yogi) and Therese on the mural. They entrusted me with my creative talent and continued to use my design services to do a full interior design of their space at Idea Foundry, to be used as a creative makers space for fashion designers of all ages, artist visits and workshops. This was my first time using my knowledge as an interior designer on a solo project. My confidence in my creative abilities was concrete, especially after seeing the space go from just a rendering on Revit (design software) to walking through my design in real life. Some of the furniture was custom made from the wood shop in the same building!

My creative abilities continues outside of traditional painting, murals and interior design. In 2020, 2021, I completed two book covers for author Tiraj Lucas and another for author Adia Holmes near the end of 2023. The first book cover pushed me to use my digital illustration skills using procreate for IPad, Photoshop and InDesign skills for creating layouts, spreads and font designs. I worked carefully alongside Tiraj especially because the illustration on the front cover was a portrayal of her portrait in statuesque form in progress. So the statue was to be drawn from where the statue would be chipped away, molded, added onto, and sculpted until it appeared finished. This was a challenge to do as a drawing, but after that, designing became a breeze. I was able to complete her second book covers knowing what to expect, while still being open for a challenge. Working with Adia was a beautiful experience, as I felt very confident to bring her ideas to life. Working with writers can be intimidating as we both express our ideas differently and communicating our thoughts concisely can be a challenge. I find that using different ways to communicate such as talking on the phone, FaceTime or even doing a quick drawing to see if that is what the client is looking for clears up any confusion that assumptions would have made muddier. My creative capabilities are pretty solid, but I think I’m getting stronger in my communication skills, also, which is very important when solving problems with clients, or even with family and community.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I mentioned briefly that I was let go from my first teaching job at a prominent private school on the far east side of Columbus after confidentially notifying school admins of my tough pregnancy. My expectations was some form of a congratulatory email but I was left with a message from the head of school and HR to not return for the remainder of the school. My pregnancy was considered high risk early on, about 5 weeks.

Two years prior, in 2020 I lost both of my jobs; clerk at the art supply store and my design internship. I had to pivot many times in my early creative career and it took some quiet and alone time, self reflection, Indeed job searches, social connecting, community, and creativity to get back on a path that wouldn’t leave me spiraling in a personal financial crisis and mental breakdown.
At the top of 2022, I didn’t think that I would have to go through a pivot again, especially after securing a teaching job during a teacher shortage, but the pandemic and its effects remained.

I had a good cry with my mom and exchanged a few curse words into the air about how unfair it was. I wanted to fight back but my job was contract, which means they can technically let me go for whatever reason they wanted, and likewise if I wanted to leave, but I wasn’t ready to go just yet. I loved my students. I taught art every single day, even on days where art was cancelled and I had to substitute a class or two. The school seemed to struggle a lot to retain their teachers, but I felt committed to show up everyday for my students and do art and forget about the unsettling world we’re in. I spent my own money that year on art supplies, and even foraged classroom teachers supplies for unused supplies for the students. I allowed students to keep some of the supplies for home, because school was the only place they could access them, and some even for the first time. That was taken from me as the instructor but also from the students (pre-k-6th grade). They were left without an art teacher from February 2022 until May. I eventually found work as a freelance artist and contract artist for other gigs around Columbus.

Majority of the pivot was mental and emotional. My identity was “Miss Holloway,” “Miss Art Teacher,” and sometimes “Miss Kayneisha” when they saw my name tag. I was going from “Miss Holloway” to “Mama” pretty soon. I couldn’t allow that experience to harden my heart right at the most vulnerable and transitional period of my life. I had to learn and understand that the door for my creative journey isn’t traditional, linear and certainly not at the end of its life, and neither is the work I do. There will be many opportunities to pivot in my life, especially now as a mother, and I have to show my son, whom I now share the Scorpio zodiac with, how to get back up and continue the marathon. The work isn’t done.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

A lesson I had to unlearn is a tough one that many artists and other creatives may resonate with or come to terms with eventually, and it’s that social media is not our (my) job. Firstly, unless you work for a company that asks you to manage or be a creator for a social media platform, then technically it is your job. However, as an artist who has reached most of my audience and worked with clients through Instagram, it is not a mandatory thing that I have to do to find work. In some cases, it can be easier to find work via Instagram DM or email. Personally, most of my new followers in the past 4 years were gained because I met them in person and we exchanged our social media profiles, not because someone found me through a hashtag. When a new client contacts me, either through Instagram messages or email, somewhere in the first paragraph is that they were referred to me from a mutual friend or coworker. This has been a pattern I’ve noticed with other artists I’m close with, too. My goal once was to have thousands of followers, and to be popular and show up on the explore page on Instagram, which isn’t close to the reason I even made Instagram in the first place (to share my art). Now I learned that I don’t always have to share my art on social media. There is so much real estate in galleries, the inside of friends’ homes, community festivals and gatherings where real interactions and memories are made. The connections and joy that is experienced when someone walks up to me and tells me they enjoy my art cannot be properly packaged to be recorded or saved for social media. The lesson is that I can be intentional with how I share, or not share my art, and still be okay with the work that I have and do.

Contact Info:

• Website: Artdealerchicc.com
• Instagram: Instagram.com/artdealerchicc
• Facebook: Neisha Holloway

Image Credits
Rebecca Tien, Ana Lowe