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

Helen, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

For my undergrad program I majored in illustration, where I learned the business side of being an artist, which is half the battle. I currently work on a freelance basis and have an online store for my work, and I wouldn’t have been able to do that if I didn’t learn about taxes, rates, contracts, invoices, etc. etc. While I’m pretty averse to financial/bookkeeping topics, I think those more behind the scenes skills are essential and most important when it comes to making money for yourself. Being able to run and manage yourself as if you were a small business is a skill every freelancer should have. It has helped me be more steadfast in my boundaries when dealing with clients, and confident in the rates I set for my work. Probably two of the hardest things to learn as I’ve jumped into this field. The other half of learning to be an artist was taught to me by many lovely professors and friends throughout my entire life that showed me how to embrace my own way of interacting with the world. That’s really the “what” of what I do when you get down to it. I take in the world around me, and synthesize and react to what I’ve observed through my art.

If anything could have sped up my learning process, it would definitely be getting out of my head. I struggle with anxiety & depression, and find myself overwhelmed by comparison to others or lack of confidence in myself quite often. As most artists that I know do. If I could go back to the person I was in high school, I would tell myself to stop thinking and just make things. I’ve always had this weird need for everything I make to be perfect or really well received, and that’s not fathomable or fun. I look at creating as a series of decisions now, and focus less on the outcome and more on how I’m making decisions during the process.

I hope to keep growing and learning every day, so I hope there’s no obstacles to learning more in the future! :)

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I’ve always had an affinity for arts & crafts, growing up in around many creative people in my life. I pursued illustration initially because I really enjoyed drawing and wanted to go into children’s books. In college, I became super enamored with art books & independent publishing. Things like zines and printing methods like screen printing, risography, and cyanotype. These were mediums more focussed in emphasizing accessibility and sustainability- two principles I think frequently about when creating. I also took a number of classes in graphic design in college, where I discovered my love for typography and hand lettering – which I still carry to this day.

As a freelancer, I am able to work on many different projects from poster illustration to murals to t-shirts etc. etc.. In the past, my client work comprised mostly of digital , but in the future I hope to work more frequently on printed and product illustrations. One of my dream projects at the moment is to work on a print and packaging for a puzzle piece set. I’d say my style is characterized by my emphasis on bright color palettes, with minimal shading on graphic shapes. Most of my work takes on a “feminine” feel due to my heavy use of the color pink and reappearing flower, sparkle, and smile motifs. Due to this, I work mostly on content geared towards women, although I see my work as very gender neutral and prefer to work on non gender specific projects.

At this point in my career, I am most proud of having the first show of my work this year. I exhibited and sold my work this year right before my college graduation, and I would consider it one of the most gratifying and nerve-wracking experiences to date. And I hope to do it again sometime :)

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I forget where I heard this, but the phrase “don’t take yourself seriously, but take your craft seriously,” comes to mind. This has been something I think about a lot recently, as I’ve been trying to take the burden off of myself to do everything perfectly all of the time. I think I’d consider that to be something of a mission at this point. I hope that by giving myself the space to play around and be silly sometimes, that act can in turn allow others the same space to do so in their own lives. I care a lot about what I make, putting effort into even the tiniest details which makes it feel very serious and intentional, but in reverse my actions are almost always the opposite.

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

It’s a very magical way to live! I find myself being surprised and excited by the littlest things now, like a really proportional form or a specific hue or a certain shape of a moth’s wings. Taking care to appreciate all the little aspects that make up our worlds opens you up to so many things that you may not have noticed before, and it makes your life all the more intimate and intentional.

Contact Info:

• Website: helennichols.com
• Instagram: @helenn.art
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/helennichols/