We were lucky to catch up with Janessa Prawer recently and have shared our conversation below.

Janessa, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

The speed of life is the #1 challenge.

We are all so busy that we look for the most convenient solutions to address our needs.

This means, shopping at only a few stores and having things shipped directly and as fast as possible.

I cannot begin to think how many times I have thought “I don’t have time for this,” when really I am just overwhelmed with too many tasks coming at me.

The thought of slowing down and thoughtfully purchasing handmade and locally made goods seems out of reach.

I really believe people appreciate well made, local things, but they will generally choose convenience shopping first.

During the holidays there is more pressure so we see sales on places like Etsy go up. A willingness to look harder for a meaningful gift and a willingness to spend a little more on handmade etc.

However when it comes to day to day shopping, local artists cannot compete with the big box stores importing cheap, and poorly made things from China.

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 began my career in mental healthcare administration, which is a highly regulated and complex business.

I love slogging through a complex process to make it better, but after a few years I felt like pursuing alternative ways to create exponential impact on people’s mental health that I might be uniquely positioned to implement. Specifically, I was looking at the strong connection point between art and mental health.

Our mission is to create more caring communities focused on mental wellness. We do this through volunteer opportunities, art donations and community engagement that exposes people in an approachable way to the topic of mental health.

Volunteers wanted to make and donate tiny art with messages of kindness (the heart) to those facing hardship.

Artists wanted to do donate some of their art to others in difficult places in life.

The hardest part was cutting through the complexity of mental health regulation, to find organizations that would receive the art donations due to the ever present fear of liability.

It wasn’t a barrier I didn’t 100% anticipate, but it was more difficult than I initially expected. And yes, I am still slogging through that with advice from colleagues and my unofficial (and very skilled) board.

I am also still learning how to sell my art to support operations. It is a saturated, convenience-focused (but generally distracted) and price sensitive marketplace!

Everything we make is with heart and intention to truly create more caring communities who are aware of mental health prevalence and levels of care. The more informed we are, the more empathetic we are and the more we can demand change in coverage for mental health care.

We have reached upwards of 560 tiny art donations in our two years. Now, I am working on relationships with clinics to receive those donations for their patients, as well as working on wholesale relationships with local gift shops.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I called and sent letters to hospital gift shops requesting to sell my tiny art, but the gift shops didn’t respond.

I sent 40 individualized letters to therapists and physicians at a local hospital system asking to donate tiny art to youth mental health patients, only to be told that they don’t accept handmade items. It was confusing, as I once received booties when my daughter was born there. Not to mention they gave my youngest daughter a DOG toy when she was a patient there in the ER.

I made a customized box of Medicine Snugglers, which are friendly crochet holders for medicine bottles. I dropped them off at a fellow grad student’s practice asking about donating and selling them together, only to never hear back.

I’ve been given an enthusiastic response to receiving volunteer donated Medicine Snugglers by a nationwide teletherapy group, only to be shut down 30 minutes later by compliance, despite an initial passthrough.

I’ve sent my Medicine Snugglers into functional art catalogues with hoped of wholesale opportunities only to not be accepted.

I find I have more chutzpah when I am pursuing for others – whether it’s for the volunteer makers of the 560+ tiny art donations or the young people facing unfathomable mental health challenges.

Ruth Bader Ginsberg said to fight for what you believe in. I take nothing personally and I keep pivoting in my approach.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Non-creatives tend to not understand the ‘why’ in art. Why are you doing something that can’t be operationalized into a big money maker? Why would anyone want to help or volunteer without getting something in return etc.

Even I sometimes allow my brain to go to the ‘why am I making art’ space. We didn’t have much money when I was young, so I always wanted to make money and never have debt. Thus, art felt frivolous. So, I too need to check myself when my brain goes there!

I believe the why is individual for each person who is touched by that piece of art – the volunteers and artists making the art and writing messages of kindness and the recipients.

My why is in helping that process flourish and in allowing my own brain that space to play and create.

Joy experienced as a result of art is certainly not a typical Key Performance Indicator. However, I did create surveys for those who worked with me to determine how meaningful the experience was for them. My hope is to get that survey filled out 100% of the time so we can begin to understand what joy in art is, how our little company might have impacted people, and how we might increase that impact.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tinyartwithheart.com
• Instagram: @tinyartwithheart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TinyArtWithHeart
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janessa-prawer-mba-1a5a4050/