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

Jillian , appreciate you joining us today. One of the toughest things about progressing in your creative career is that there are almost always unexpected problems that come up – problems that you often can’t read about in advance, can’t prepare for, etc. Have you had such and experience and if so, can you tell us the story of one of those unexpected problems you’ve encountered?

We are an active military family so with that comes a lot of absence from the one serving (in this case, my husband). With that, I was not expecting to be single parenting two small children, barely 1 and 3 when my business took off as a full-time gig.
Of course in the military people assume the soldier is deployed. And in a lot of cases that is true. But most people do not know that the soldier is also gone for moths at a time for various trainings and procedure trainings. My husband is a pilot so he has many extra schools and trainings and require travel throughout the year. This first quarter alone (2024) he has been gone for 12 weeks. 12 out of 16 weeks!!! That is a lot of time to single parent and not have a mental breakdown.
Add in a full time business and the question is –HOW.
We move a lot also so it is not easy to find people we trust to watch our children. I have to make decisions for the kids by myself…
ALL that to say, the unexpected problem is how to be a full time mom, military spouse, and business owner — AND THE ARTIST. There is not enough time. And I do not have a village or family helping me due to the nature of the Army lifestyle.
The resolve part of this is you have to give things time. Time to settle in. Time to feel comfortable with anyone watching your children (and feel comfortable about it). Time to figure things out. And allow yourself to definitely flail for weeks and months as you figure it out. TV time is ok :) And finally, childcare is OK! I don’t really know how other military families do it. This life is extremely challenging. We watch our kids scream for daddy (or mommy) as they leave yet again. And we are there to emotionally pick up the broken pieces….and then go create and produde work for other people that is meaningful and also captures their incredible stories and service in the military.

Jillian , love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I’m a professional oil painter specializing in Aircraft and Military machinery. Each painting is done with a palette knife only – aggressive raw edges and strokes that really layer in the story of each soldier and family into the painting. I began painting 10 years ago but did not start painting in this professional capacity until my husband started flight school (Army). He was a trumpet player in the Army band prior to this and on deployment was flown around Afghanistan on a Black Hawk. He came home and said that is what he wants to do for the rest of his career. Thus launching BOTH of us into our own careers.
I paint for pilots and crew chiefs and really soldiers all over the country who work on Tanks and Bradleys and all sorts of military machinery. Now things have progressed into an International world where I get requests from Russia, Japan, Taiwan, Argentina, Columbia, Chili, Poland, etc. and have already painted for German AF pilots, Italian pilots, Sweden, and the French AF.
My art business is now international with everyone coming to me with one universal love: aircraft.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

I started out with a very poor presence on social media. Only recently (2024) did I start making reels after some guidance from a friend (start with finding a friend willing to help you). I posted and posted and posted daily to try to get my exposure noticed. Most of it was poorly done as I learned the IG platform and page. Finally after trying various engagement methods I had a few reels take off (800k views) and my account has snowballed since then. It looks nothing like what my friend’s page looks like who helped me so while it was good guidance to get me started — I also had to figure out what MY followers wanted. Once I had a few repeated similar reel take off I stuck to that type of video. I have most my commissions coming from social media now (mainly IG) and am beginning my TikTok journey!

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Because of the military lifestyle I have had to repeatedly pack up my art supplies and move – yet again – to a new location. Leaving behind my connections and where I thought I was doing great business – to starting over and tapping into new clientele. I’ve had two babies within 3 years and that work-life balance of single parenting (when the husband is gone) and painting full time is very painful and usually frustrating. How to be a mom and enjoy it when all you want to do is PAINT!

We recently have moved to Savannah G.A. and I was so bummed to be moving my business. But since moving my IG has taken off and my sales come more from social media exposure than local sales now! I do not have to set up booths and events and do extra work outside of home to bring in money.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jillianphillipsart.com
• Instagram: jillianphillipsart
• Other: Toktok jillianphillipsart