We recently connected with Ella Zona Bryant and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Ella thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?
My parents were very supportive of me regardless of whether I chose to take a more pre-professional route or venture out on my own and do something creative, so I guess it just never occurred to me to NOT work in the creative space. The visual arts were always my “thing” growing up; I always had a knack for drawing and that kind of snowballed into art becoming my greatest passion and strongest interest. It was definitely a positive feedback loop; the harder I worked, the more I felt encouraged and rewarded by my local and regional community and when it came time to apply for college it just felt obvious that I would major in studio art and add on a “safer” minor or double major. Going to NYU for art had felt like a huge dream and when I arrived in New York City at 18 knowing absolutely no one I felt totally at peace and excited about my future, although I had absolutely no idea what I would actually do with a BFA. Honestly, I initially thought I would study marketing or communications and go into talent management before working a creative job, but that all changed when the pandemic hit in 2020.
I had to quit my restaurant job in New York and move back in with my parents for several months at the end of my freshman year of college and I poured a lot of my spare time and energy into a remote internship I was doing in Graphic Design & Social Media management. Working in person didn’t really feel like an option at the time, and I was also seriously dating my (now) husband, who had enlisted in the Marine Corps the year prior and whose career would, I knew, be unpredictable and filled with moves across state lines. This gave me an incentive to build a professional practice that would be able to move with him without being compromised when we began our life together. I decided to start freelancing as a Social Media Manager and Graphic Designer in 2020 and since then my practice has grown into a full time job! My business, Zona Creative Solutions, offers brand design and digital marketing rooted in a holistic awareness of my client’s needs and my own education in fine art and design.
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.
My parents were very supportive of me regardless of whether I chose to take a more pre-professional route or venture out on my own and do something creative, so I guess it just never occurred to me to NOT work in the creative space. The visual arts were always my “thing” growing up; I always had a knack for drawing and that kind of snowballed into art becoming my greatest passion and strongest interest. It was definitely a positive feedback loop; the harder I worked, the more I felt encouraged and rewarded by my local and regional community and when it came time to apply for college it just felt obvious that I would major in studio art and add on a “safer” minor or double major. Going to NYU for art had felt like a huge dream and when I arrived in New York City at 18 knowing absolutely no one I felt totally at peace and excited about my future, although I had absolutely no idea what I would actually do with a BFA. Honestly, I initially thought I would study marketing or communications and go into talent management before working a creative job, but that all changed when the pandemic hit in 2020.
I had to quit my restaurant job in New York and move back in with my parents for several months at the end of my freshman year of college and I poured a lot of my spare time and energy into a remote internship I was doing in Graphic Design & Social Media management. Working in person didn’t really feel like an option at the time, and I was also seriously dating my husband, who had enlisted in the Marine Corps the year prior and whose career would, I knew, be unpredictable and filled with moves across state lines. This gave me an incentive to build a professional practice that would be able to move with him without being compromised when we began our life together. I decided to start freelancing as a Social Media Manager and Graphic Designer in 2020 and since then my practice has grown into a full time job!
I’m a studio artist and the owner of Zona Creative Solutions, a brand design and digital marketing studio located in North Carolina. We work with a wide array of small business owners but are especially passionate about working with those who infuse physical, emotional or spiritual wellness into their brands in some way. I have a strong personal interest in personal development and fitness, which I think is part of what draws these clients to our work. We offer full brand design suites including colors, fonts, logos, illustrations and even business cards, websites and social media templates for those who want them! Our longer-term clients stick around for continued social media and marketing support, and those longterm relationships are one of my favorite parts of my work. We also offer a self-paced course called Design Online that helps entrepreneurs design for their own businesses strategically and without all the hassle before they’re ready to invest in full branding! We’re all about supporting our people in getting their messaging out there accurately and effectively from day 1.
My own studio art practice feels a bit rawer and more in flux, which I suppose is the nature of being an artist, but it’s something I’ve been devoting more time to lately and I feel so excited about that! I explore spirituality, mythology, body politics, sexuality, and motherhood through detailed mixed media drawings and paintings. I often refer to my body of work as “feminist theological takes” because that truly feels like what most of them boil down to.
When I lived in New York, I visited the Met Cloisters frequently; I couldn’t stop staring at the ancient paintings, sculptures and tapestries. The craftsmanship, the grittiness of it all, the detail… it all felt so profound to me, even holy, and my interest in medieval Christian art only expanded as I grew in my own personal faith. Obviously so much of the work from this time period regurgitates a pointedly antifeminist theological perspective, so in mimicking the elements that inspired me I would have to think about how I could give them new meaning in my own work.
Of course, the flip side of this experience is that art has always reflected back at us the untold stories of the marginalized, even when this hasn’t been the artists intention. For example, the materials we use to create art tell a story, and those hidden stories really interest me. I’ve always rooted my work in portraiture, which can make it easy to take for granted my materials and my research in favor of only focusing on my subjects. This is something I’ve been working a lot to improve on, and I’m currently learning more about the monastic reading practice of Florilegia and how it can be applied to gain a deeper understanding of visual art.
Right now, I’m focused on building my body of work and am taking limited commissions, but I’m in the process of relaunching my Etsy shop, where you can find prints of my latest work for sale in various sizes!
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I came of age and started freelancing in the early days of the “girlboss” movement online which was very focused on encouraging women to believe in their worth, charge more, work smarter not harder, etc. Obviously, there are so many valuable lessons in that, and I still see so many incredibly talented women undercharging massively compared to their male peers, or even just seeing themselves as underqualified for things they could absolutely be doing. However, I feel like internalizing those messages at a young age held me back a little bit. No matter how much grace you give yourself, how much time you free up, or how strategically you approach things there will always be phases in entrepreneurship where you have to work hard and compromise in other areas of your life for a short period of time to achieve long term gain. I think all the talk about balance and correctly channeling your creative energy and setting clear work hours comes from older and wiser entrepreneurs who have already paid their dues, to use the common phrase, in hard work during the early days. While you can absolutely start a business without burning out I do think it’s important to embrace the scrappiness of early entrepreneurship and also the scrappiness that is a necessity when you’re pivoting or kicking things up a gear. Trying to map your creativity onto the same schedule or level of investment as a 9-5 office job, in my opinion, dishonors the natural rhythm of creativity. It ebbs and flows, you know? Sometimes you’ll be working more than your friends and sometimes you’ll be working less and that’s ok. I think realizing that has taken me awhile and convincing myself I need to work specific hours and not push myself “too hard” or “too little” has held me back a little bit and is something I’m still unlearning.
Are there any books, videos or other content that you feel have meaningfully impacted your thinking?
Lily Stockman’s essay, Portrait of a Marriage in wartime, was shared with me by Maureen Gallace, one of my amazing professors at NYU. It captures perfectly the intersection of married military life and working in the world as a woman, as an artist. It’s not about business or art theory, but it has resonated so much with me in this season of life.
https://www.vogue.com/article/wartime-marriage-desert-life-joshua-tree
Contact Info:
- Website: zonacreativesolutions.org (business), ellazona.com (studio)
- Instagram: @ellazonaa @zonacreativesolutions
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-zona-b93189196?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bing.com%2F
