We recently connected with Julie Fazooli and have shared our conversation below.

Julie, appreciate you joining us today. Before we get into specifics, let’s talk about success more generally. What do you think it takes to be successful?

I think to be successful at anything, you have to look outside of yourself and your own need to be the best, and really spend time connecting with community – you have to drop the ego and ensure that you’re touching others in a way that really draws them in to support you and what you do. I think my greatest strength in business has been my ability to communicate with and fully engage my community in everything I do – whether it be in organizing events that bring joy and togetherness for small business running local market events, or simply for recreation like manning the helm for the dance floor during a great club night out, or whether it’s in the subject and execution of the creative work I produce that delights, touches their hearts and compels them to think outside the box. I wouldn’t have made it this far – or even existed as a full-time freelance creative in the first place – without fostering these kinds of connections, and my community’s unwavering support in everything I do is what drives me to continue to create for them. If you can’t immerse yourself into your community – and find that reciprocal balance that will help you grow, you’re pretty much dead in the water, and from what I’ve encountered, only dead fish go with the flow. It takes guts to put yourself out there and really dig into knowing who your audience is and get to know them so you can address their needs.

They say “it takes a village” – and they couldn’t be more accurate in that statement. Artists need an entire network of support to enable them to thrive in society – they can’t exist in an insulated environment and expect to be profitable. In. my case, they feed my inspiration to push forward and innovate as much as I feed their need for excitement and entertainment, the creation of ideas and bringing people together through joyful action. What better example to set for everyone than to be a person who connects and inspires, and pushes for community evolution in a world that’s increasingly individualistic and consumed with superficiality and greed. Success in life, to me at least, is determined by how many people you create joy and connection for – it’s never about a monetary goal.

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.

I never thought I’d become an artist – I never really considered there’d be stable money to be made in the field. I studied art quite a bit and drew extensively in my youth and was considered highly talented, and was already a budding DJ newbie in the rave scene at the time, but when high school ended, I pursued a career in Television & Film instead, starting out at CityTV in Toronto in the late 90’s and making my way around most of the national broadcasters, various TV series, and even spent a few years in live sports & events broadcasting in various parts of North America, as well as working extensively on both amateur and highly professional film sets as well as in post-production settings. After a quite long and fruitful career, and having climbed the ladder quite quickly, I found myself settled into adulthood with all of the expected goals ticked off – the house, the marriage, the stable job – and one day, a massive sweep of layoffs during the standstill that occurred during those first writer’s strikes, it really forced me to consider a new career path, at least to have some sort of backup plan. I wasn’t overly stoked about learning to be a Graphic Designer at first – I felt like I had failed at my initial career and this was one of those skills I’d been meaning to pick up, but the more I delved into a new world, I quickly realized that I had left behind a really intensely stressful career that I just didn’t have the energy to keep up with anymore, and that it had completely shot down my creative side over the years. I then dove headfirst into design – without too much consideration at first – and it turned out to be the best thing that ever happened to me.

The catalyst for my transformation as an artist, began in 2013 when I went through a catastrophic divorce. Everything in my life had completely blown apart – I lost my husband, the beautiful house, and I was laid off from my stable job. I felt like I had hit rock bottom and the whole world had fallen to ashes. I didn’t know what to do, so I decided to take a few months off to regroup and learn to heal and find my true self again – the person I had been before life had taken me off-track. I started writing the novel that I always wanted to get out of my head, I started my freelance graphic design business called Abominable Ink, that grew quite quickly and gave me the chance to work for myself for the first time. I started tinkering with art again, just casually, and created a night at my place where my friends could come and relax and we could work on our individual projects together, because I found it was more motivating to get things done with people around. The beautiful and unexpected outcome of these art nights, was the growth and support that we gave each other – we all started sharing our stories and ups and downs, we helped each other overcome obstacles, shared insights on creative ways to enhance each others’ work, teach each other new techniques and very quickly, all of us began to start selling our work, and finding ways to incorporate it into our lives as a regular practice. We grew and we healed together and we all found our individual voices – most of us are now full-time working creatives as a result.

As my artistic practice grew, my studio became so full of equipment and art supplies, and I got so busy with events and freelance work, that I couldn’t host art nights anymore. I was given the opportunity to run the first Punk Rock Flea Market in Canada, and started branching out from there, vending at different types of markets and festivals all over the place, getting my name out there. And that’s where it really all began – over the course of the next few years, the name “Fazooli” had turned into a brand. It hasn’t been easy – most of it has been a major struggle to get to where I am today – but the rollercoaster was necessary, and without all the tragedy, without all the little gains over time, I would never have had the fortitude or strength to push past my limits and evolve into the force of nature I know to be today.

Over the years I’ve really learned to tap into my intuition – there’s a lot of people out there who are super nice but want nothing more than to take advantage of you. I’ve learned to say “no” whenever there’s a shred of doubt – to walk away to anything that isn’t “f#$& yes” energy. To only take on the projects and events that I love, and leave behind those that are stressful or anxiety-inducing. If it doesn’t make me happy, and it’s not fun, I’m not doing it. And with every door I close, five more open that are far more profitable. So I follow my gut more often than not, and go with the ebb and flow of what I attract, instead of chasing. What is meant for me comes easily now – with a grateful heart and enormous love for my community, I’ve found my place finally, and really thrive in a reciprocal environment where love and support keeps me thriving.

My art is a reflection of myself – as it should be with any artist – and I have a really eclectic style that kind of embodies some of my favourite things. I mainly focus on two styles of art – typographical humour, and hand-drawn graphite illustration that is composed in a digitally painted collage. It’s a beautiful balance between the tactile feel of pencil on paper, then scanned into a digital world of photographical textures and effects, mainly using Photoshop to assemble and bring them to life in full colour.

I love animals and people’s stories so very much – so I combine them to create what I call “Humanimals”. They’re anthropomorphized versions of people in my community – animal heads on people’s bodies, accompanied with a back story for each one, depicting who they are. I try to take elements from people around me and create composite characters with really compelling stories that anyone can identify with.

I also am a huge fan of both tattoo art and food – most of my friends are chefs or work in hospitality, and I have a bunch of friends who are tattoo artists, so I bridge the gap by creating “Food Flash” – flash tattoos of my favourite foods. These are always super fun and I get to make a lot of food puns with them – I love to see people’s faces light up and hear the laughter when they read what’s written on them. Making people laugh is probably one of my favourite things in the world. It makes my heart explode three times it’s size every single time.

I sometimes draw animal skulls – skulls and bones have always been fascinating to me, and incorporate a lot of natural elements like flowers and feathers and stones to weave a bit of visual alchemy and an ethereal witchy vibe. There’s something really primordial about wanting to bind these elements together, and I often wonder if there’s something innately inside of me that was passed down by my elders that brings this need to create visual magic to the forefront of this work.

Weirdly enough – and I never expected this – but my typographical greeting cards are what’s hot right now out of my studio. I like to fill in the gaps where Hallmark and Carlton fails us – using witty remarks and unexpected greetings to help kickstart awkward conversations or just make someone howl out loud and feel loved (or hated – take your pick, we don’t always have to play nice). The idea of bringing people together through enabling ease of conversation through humour is where my psychology background strongly shines. Open dialogue is important to growth and connectivity between people.

All of these subjects are things that I feel I need to express – and over the years have evolved to help me find my sense of identity and my place in my community. I still continue to work freelance as a graphic designer, a DJ, an event coordinator, a photographer, and I still work in television and film when I feel like it and when the project is fun, with people I enjoy creating with. I feel a strong sense of purpose and direction now, as well as a strong connection to my community as a whole, even though I’m still floating on the wind, seeing where it takes me from day to day, and now I just trust that those winds will take me where I need to go, without knowing the direction, a trust in myself which I’ve never had before. And it’s all thanks to this journey.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think the most rewarding thing about working as a freelance creative has got to be that I’m in control of my time, workload, and the projects that I take on. I set my own hours – I tend to work more effectively at night when the office is quiet, and I can spend my daylight hours going for long walks or skateboarding to stir up ideas and get inspired by my surroundings. If I sleep in and there’s not an event happening, it makes no difference to my clients that an email response is a bit delayed, they understand that I don’t work at a breakneck pace anymore and respect my need to attend to things when I can deliver the proper focus to each query. My schedule is all over the place and books up super fast so I am always always crazy busy, but I love the variety of skills I get to use and every day is completely different, with unexpected challenges and progress, some days are more fun than others, but it’s all towards a rewarding goal now – the setbacks don’t phase me anymore, I see them as lessons towards growth, so I embrace the highs as much as the lows these days. It’s a bit of a luxury – not many people can say that failure is an intrinsic part of their success, most of them seem to get fired for it. I guess for creatives, it’s what gives us the choice whether to push harder and try again, or just give up. I’m not built to give up easily.

My favourite part though is that all I do now is create joy for others and that I don’t need to answer to anyone anymore – or sit in long meetings to cover pedantic details – I’ve never been great at kneeling to authority or sitting still while groups circle around a specific topic that cuts into my productivity for too long. I tend to have too much of a stubborn streak and I tend to gravitate more to being in leadership roles, and have trouble with certain situations when I have to back off from that to let someone else lead. I don’t miss the frustration of having to deal with the hierarchies of corporate business life whatsoever. Then the crushing boredom of long commutes and work hours, being on call 24/7 and working with a team that wasn’t always helpful, or simply downright toxic coworkers that you have to contend with. I feel like that’s the crux of what had drained me in my previous career, and I feel so free now to make my own decisions, be around inspiring and enthusiastic people who are full of amazing ideas, and finally really create again.

One of my favourite rewarding aspects of my work is when I create workshops for my community. I teach a series of different graffiti workshops for kids that really engages youth in a unique way. I let the parents join in if they choose, so they can spend time in a cool, creative atmosphere that promotes stronger bonding. Once I show them all the techniques and tricks they can play with, I let them fly free to experiment and play – a lot of these kids really open up during these sessions and I’ve watched some of them evolve quickly into incredibly talented artists. I also teach DJ workshops for femme-identifying and GNC individuals to promote a safe space for them to properly learn the history, technical aspects and mastery of the art of manipulating music. As a woman who had to self-learn in a male-dominated and hyper-misogynistic industry, I have the insight to provide a curriculum that includes safety to protect them from the inevitable toxicity of club culture. Everyone comes away from these workshops with so much inspiration and motivation to really dive into these techniques they’ve learned – and just watching them experiment or ask questions I hadn’t considered, or just open up to me about their own experience, truly fills my heart with a hugely rewarding glow.

It’s still crazy to me that I make fun happen for a living now – but it’s also a lot of hard work that gives me a lot of really intense satisfaction at the end of the day. Like planting a garden that will perennially grow, it’s amazing to see the fruits of your own creative labour without having to satisfy a specific corporate goal that someone will ultimately get paid more than you for. When your job is to make people feel joy, it becomes an addiction – I don’t sweat the 14 hour days anymore, or the 8 hour DJ marathons, because it’s become really enjoyable – the more I do it, the more I want to do it. Creating happiness has become my passion.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I’ve had to restart from scratch a few times in my life, but nothing prepared me for what the pandemic had in store for the arts and entertainment world. Overnight, I lost 95% of my income and as a sole breadwinner with no other forms of income, I had to think fast and pivot immediately. I am grateful that I had the means and privilege in my youth to attend many colleges and universities and get certified and experienced in so many different fields. With all of my TV/film knowledge I was able to flip most of those skills back into the industry taking on freelance jobs – especially in the livestream/live broadcast realm, as well as documentary and short film – with a vast knowledge of camera and audio, grip work, as well as production coordination, writing, graphics, etc – it’s somewhat ironic that my initial career had died off to push me into being an artist and working so many fun events, only to have this turn back on me during the lockdowns and be forced to work on productions full-time again – and having left the unions behind so many years ago, I had my choice of whatever project I wanted to work on, and choose some really fun sets and flex my technical skills a lot more than before, as I was considered well-seasoned by then. When the world opened up again, I was able to continue to balance the two worlds simultaneously. I still focus primarily on my arts and events side so much more now, but I’m happy to join a production or two for a short visit, because I still love being on set – but don’t miss the stress of it all anymore. I’m happy just showing up to capture and hand it all over and walk away with a lil credit. I know now where I’m happiest and so grateful to have multiple skills in multiple areas so no matter what happens, I can easily shift gears to what is more profitable for the moment.

It’s funny, I’ve been a DJ for 25 years and tried to retire from it three times now, but this year, that’s the skill that’s in the lead. I never would have thought my teenage hobby would be the bulk of my income one day. Next year my art might take off again, who knows? Maybe I’ll run more events or workshops. Maybe I’ll finally finish that novel. I don’t worry about where the winds of change will take me anymore, because I managed to survive through enough that I know that I’ve got the skills to pay the bills, regardless of what the world will throw at me next. It’s created an immense sense of resilience and trust in my own abilities that I carry with me now into my day-to-day and keeps my head level, no matter how stressful life can get at times.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.fazooli.com
• Instagram: @abominableink
• Facebook: @FazooliArt
• TikTok: @juliefazooli

Image Credits
Fazooli Photography