We were lucky to catch up with Jacki Fisk recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jacki , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I left teaching in August of 2022. I was working 40+ hours a week, juggling classroom management, conferences with parents, and leading meetings as the Union Steward all while navigating a “post” covid world. I was burning out… no I was fully burnt out and running on fumes without realizing it. I spent my free time sleeping or trying desperately to catch up on my To Do list. It was as long as my forearm and full of mundane things other folks seemed to magically have time for throughout the work week. But that version of me didn’t think there was another option. That version of me thought that if she could just catch up, catch her breath, catch a break, she would be able to make it work. That Jacki thought that she would one day be able to do 40+ hours of work, have clean laundry, washed dishes, time for brunch plans and that she’d get her creative drive back. Thankfully the only thing that Jacki and I have in common is our Husband. He saw what was happening and he told me to quit, and I listened. Do I wish I had given up all of that sooner to start my creative career? More than anything.

Jacki , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Jacki and in 2016 my boyfriend and I made a deal. He was going to start his unpaid tattoo apprenticeship and I was going to work two jobs to cover all of our expenses. In exchange when the time came, and he could financially support the both of us, I would have my time to pursue my creative career. Six years and one wedding later my husband told me to quit my teaching job and I did.

I spent the first few months experimenting with mixed media collage and illustration. I would post videos on TikTok and I started to grow a small following, mostly fellow creatives and a few folks that just liked what I was doing. I hadn’t really thought of offering commissions, and when a friend reached out and asked I was ready to turn him away. In the past when folks asked me to make art for them it would always start off with an interesting idea, which would eventually dissolve into “Can’t you just draw a picture of my dog/family member/favorite pop-star etc?” To my complete surprise when I told my friend I refused to do portrait work he was excited about it. Instead of trying to convince me to change my mind he wrote paragraphs about the person the piece was for, he told me about everything he loved about them and how they made him feel. It was one of the most inspiring things I’ve ever read, and he told me to use his words and make what made sense.

So I did just that, and I made a TikTok showing my process and recorded a voiceover explaining everything. I hit post on January 12th 2023 in the waiting room of my doctors office and when I came out the video had 10,000+ views and I was stunned. It continued to circulate and now sits at around 300,000 views. As you can imagine there were some comments about how I would never be a successful artist if I didn’t take on portrait work. There were also plenty of folks praising me for refusing work I wasn’t interested in and many of those people became future clients.

I spent most of last year working on commissions. I held on to what brought me so much inspiration in that first piece, the words of love. I made writing about your subject a requirement of my commission process. I’ve created art for young loves that were separated by a move but since reconnected. I made a piece for the love of ones self, their home and for their explorations. I was honored to created two pieces for a couple to display together, one made for each based on the words of their partner. It’s been an incredible 2023 and I’m looking forward the what kind of inspiration the world will bring in 2024.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

Other than being gifted a sketchbook for every holiday and birthday, I’d say the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is that rush of pride and excitement when a piece finally starts matching the image you had in your mind. There’s an ugly stage to every piece of art and I don’t think anything beats the feeling of finally getting out of that stage. I usually find myself standing at my desk and dancing a bit once things are really coming together. That’s when I, as a Swiftie, switch from my Folklore/Evermore records to Lover/1989. It can be really easy to get trapped in the frustration of “this doesn’t look how I want it to” but I just remind myself that every piece has it’s own timeline and unfortunately you have no idea what that looks like until you’re looking back.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

After attending four years of art school where my teachers tried to hone us into marketable little illustrators I had a lot of unlearning to do. Any bit of experimental creativity was quickly shut down so we could focus on what kind of art would get us jobs. There was very little flexibility behind what “illustration” was and I felt fully and completely stifled as an artist. When I graduated I stopped making art. I would doodle sometimes but all creative drive was sufficiently beaten and tossed in a dusty corner of my mind. After a few years I started to try and make art here and there but I would always be running through a list of reasons why what I was making wasn’t good enough to sell. So I had to unlearn that list, and over the years I’ve managed to get away from that kind of thinking, but it took a lot of unlearning to get myself to where I am today.

Contact Info:

• Website: OMFgallery.BigCartel.com
• Instagram: @OldMaidFisk
• Other: TikTok: @OldMaidFisk Email: [email protected]

Image Credits
Jacki Fisk