Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jessica Hollander. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jessica, appreciate you joining us today. So let’s jump to your mission – what’s the backstory behind how you developed the mission that drives your brand?

I have always felt deeply connected to nature and had a great love for plants, animals & insects. My work is a spiritual process for me: my mission is to channel the healing, peaceful energy of nature and grace people’s homes and lives with the beauty while awakening them to the magic around us. There is nothing as gratifying as seeing a person view my work for the first time and gasp at the beauty. It means everything to me.

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 a painter and not the kind who knows how to make it in the very exclusive gallery world. So I spent my 20s working at office jobs while painting as much as I could. But it was stultifying and depressing to waste so much of my time not being an artist. I had to find a way to make a living exploring my passion. In 2009 I started a business hand dying clothing and selling it, which was a thrilling shift for me. By 2013 I had stumbled upon an idea for a way to reproduce my actual oil paintings (which I had kept at on the side) to create beautiful home décor products, and I changed directions. This initial tiny seed of an idea has blossomed over the past decade into a full collection of home décor, accessories, stationery and art prints. I opened my first brick and mortar shop in Soho in late 2022 and it is full of printed products featuring my oil and watercolor paintings of botanical objects, like seed pods and flowers. I am full of passion for not only product design, but also the spaces that can be created with my collection.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

It’s inherently risky to create rather than follow other people’s models for work and life. But in my opinion, the rewards make it well worthwhile. Building a brand is a roller coaster – there are endless challenges and it’s harder than I ever could have imagined. But there are moments when I look around at my designs and feel such a sense of gratitude that I get to continually create. There is truly nothing like those moments.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

My initial idea for my company was silkscreened t-shirts and hand-dyed clothing. I experienced a true renaissance moment with the hand-dying and my passion for it led me in that direction exclusively. The pieces I made were a hit and I struggled to create them quickly enough. I was so naive about business when I started that it hadn’t occurred that it might be untenable to create each piece myself. Over the next few years, I slowly realized that the only way to not completely exhaust myself was to find a way to reproduce my work. This led me to pivot to turning my oil paintings into digital designs and launch a whole new concept, which has blossomed into my current collection of home decor and accessories.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @indiaandpurry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indiaandpurry/

Image Credits
lifestyle photos (umbrella, wallpaper, tote bag) by Alexandra Grablewski