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

Boscha, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I have worked a great many jobs in non-creative fields. While making art was my only job for over 20 years, the time spent from high school through Art School and the many years until I opened my shop I always worked, frequently at 2 jobs. Since I was forced to close my tattoo shop at the end of 2023, I have been working as a custodian during the week, tattooing on the weekends, and drawing commission pieces during all the free time between dropping off my child for school, and clocking in to my day job. Balancing all of this with raising my kiddo as a single parent leaves no time for much else.

I choose out of necessity to do whatever I can to earn a living, but I could never simply cease to work on my art. It is a happier occupation to be certain, but simply not doing it doesn’t feel like a choice at all. Making art is more than a job, or a compulsion. It is a calling that cannot be ignored, even if I wanted to. For lack of materials, I have made cardboard sculptures and drawn in the dirt.

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?

Tattooing I broke into through tenacity and force of will. I had spent decades working in kitchens, movie theaters, doing sales calls, working construction, running cash registers, cleaning, and what have you. I always hoped if I worked hard enough, it might provide me the funds to buy materials after my living expenses had been handled, but that surplus never really materialized. Frankly, working 2- 3 jobs wouldn’t allow for anything beyond sketchbooks and pilfered pens snagged from standing in line at whatever bank I had to go to for paycheck cashing, deposits, and do forth. Yes, I am the reason they only have blue pens and they are chained down. Sorry, folks.

After needing to relocate to help my parents nurse my younger sister through a terrible illness for several months, I struck a deal with them to allow me to continue living with them long enough to get through a tattoo apprenticeship. I picked up a night job in a waffle house, and spent every day going from shop to shop trying to beg my way into an apprenticeship. I always carried in new drawings every single day. Eventually one owner relented, saying the customers saw me so much they thought I worked there anyway. It turned out not to be the best start, but it was the start I could get.

My colored pencil portraits began as a self driven exercise to move into more realistic expression for tattooing, a way to document my child’s life, and to simply keep myself busy and learning.

When Covid shutdown down the country, and we were forced to cease tattooing for the duration, it became a lifeline mentally and financially to get us through.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I suppose knowing that, despite my poverty, I will have something to leave behind for my child after I am gone. The portraits I have drawn of them at various ages. The portraits of their beloved ducks that they live to feed at the park, and all the others that are simply my creative expressions from my overworking, blended adhd brain.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

I do wish that I had taken the time to learn how to use a computer. I would love to shift into illustration work, but it appears that traditional art mediums like painting and drawing are unwanted. Everything is now digital.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @boschaillustration @boscha.palapava