We were lucky to catch up with Janky Dood recently and have shared our conversation below.
Janky, appreciate you joining us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
As of June 2022, I can say that I am earning a full-time living from my creative work. I started Janky Dood in 2020 during the pandemic, and it took working some odd jobs to sustain myself while creating my art on the side. I applied to several “professional” jobs and got ghosted/rejected from all of them, so it sort of forced me to be on this self-employed journey (which I’m actually very happy it happened this way). I pretty much lived like a crusty rat until I had a mini art explosion on the internet where I got a flood of people wanting commissions. I think if I could go back in time, I would tell myself to stop wasting so much time applying to “professional” jobs I didn’t want and focus as much energy as I could on my art.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve been drawing since I could hold a pencil, and it’s something I’ve always done. When I was 23, I was living in Australia working at a cafe and just doodling on napkins, going to the beach, living life sorta vibes. On a particularly slow day at the cafe, I doodled my first Janky Dood character on a napkin. I really liked how she looked, so I started drawing her more. I wasn’t expecting it to turn into a whole thing. Eventually Janky Dood snowballed into what it is now. For anyone who doesn’t know, my Janky Dood drawings are mostly “self-portraits”, though they often feature other characters.
A lot of my time is spent creating custom portraits of people and their pets in the Janky Dood style. I recently did a collab with a local candle company called Candlefy where my art is featured on their candles. I also sometimes do shop pop ups at markets around the Los Angeles area. I’m still figuring out the direction I want my art to go, so I’m trying out everything that I can.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
I had been working as a dog walker in LA to pay my bills, and I knew I needed more time and energy dedicated to my art in order to get it off the ground and running. It was really terrifying to quit my job not knowing how I was going to pay for everything. During this time, I did everything I could to make money and said yes to every creative opportunity that came my way. I even took furniture I found on the street and sold it on Facebook marketplace to pay rent one month. This time was really tough because I didn’t know what the outcome would be. Thankfully it turned out well, and I learned that it’s important to believe things will work out if you consistently keep working at it.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Society wants you to be “practical” and have very limiting beliefs. I think our school system is really good at teaching us how to think inside the box. I basically had to throw that ideology out the window and retrain my brain that anything is possible. People probably think that’s crazy, but I’m excited to see where this new mentality takes me. It’s working pretty well so far.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jankydood.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janky_dood/
- Other: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@janky_dood