We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful CJ Monét. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with CJ below.

CJ, appreciate you joining us today. One of the things we most admire about small businesses is their ability to diverge from the corporate/industry standard. Is there something that you or your brand do that differs from the industry standard? We’d love to hear about it as well as any stories you might have that illustrate how or why this difference matters.

My art practice is different than the standard in that I combine music and art in my work. A large part of my work up to this point has actually been creating portraits completely out of the lyrics to that artist’s songs. As I have evolved over time, I began creating my own music. For me visual art and music are still both art, just two different mediums touching two different senses. I have started to create art series in which I make art and music that correspond with each other and can be displayed and heard simultaneously. I am so excited to see where this takes me and hope to be able to continue to mesh and evolve these concepts over time.

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?

My journey all started my junior year of college when I decided to take the risk to pursue my art full-time after graduation. I was on the premed track, in school for neuroscience. When I thought of my life 10 or 20 years down the road on the path that I was on, I was not excited by it. I remember calling my mom and telling her about my decision and her being very confused but yet not confused at the same time. She didn’t understand why I was stopping pursuing the premed track, but understood that art has been a huge part of my life since I was little. I remember when she used to put up giant pieces of paper in the playroom and just let me paint whatever I wanted to paint. My grandma, my mom‘s mom, is an artist herself who only ever did as a hobby but is extremely passionate about it and honestly might have pursued it full time if given the chance. I told myself that I would give myself two years to pursue art full-time and weigh whether it would be something that I could do long-term feasibly. I hit the two-year mark a year ago and officially started CJ Monét Art. I have been going strong since then, creating music, art, and lyric portraits, along with graphic design projects on the side and I am loving every bit of it.

It was a radical choice that has paid off in more than my own happiness. My mission is really to just inspire others to do what it is that they’re passionate about and to forge a path for themselves, even if that path hasn’t been forged before. My art is multimedia in that it combines mediums in visual art but also combines music. I am honestly super proud of the work and the music that I make. I have worked hard both on myself and on my craft to create art that evokes real human emotion in a world that feels more cookie cutter and emotionless by the minute.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I definitely wish I knew more about tax tracking and mileage tracking earlier in my creative journey in terms of taxes. No one ever really tells you or explained to you what it looks like to own your own business financially and all the different things that go along with that. It sounds like it’s a small thing but I end up spending a large part of my time as an artist doing things outside of art because there’s so much more that goes into owning it as a business and supporting yourself then just creating the art itself.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

For me I think the best source of new clients has been a combination of in person marketing at pop-ups and markets in the area, along with social media. Being very present on my social media pages both with my artwork and music and just with personal life as well has helped bring a humanity and authenticity to my brand.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cjmonetart.com
• Instagram: @cj.monet
• Twitter: @carlsjuddster
• Youtube: CJ Monét

Image Credits
Madison Cubbage @mad_creates_ is her IG (for the photo of me)