We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jamyah Montissol a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Jamyah, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
Growing up I have always loved to draw and was intrigued by the idea of creating something from scratch. However, being a student athlete caused me to pursue other things with my time off the court. When covid hit and our basketball season just ending I was forced to relocate, so I moved back home with my family for a few months. Now that basketball was no longer an outlet I started to look for other things I enjoy doing; one of those things being drawing. After days of drawing I was bored with my images, as they lacked color. This made me start painting and after posting my work a couple of times, people started reaching out to me encouraging me to sell them. So I did and my business Juvisuals was created!
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I am a 24 year old creative with ties to photography and fashion, but what I’m most passionate about is my artwork. For me art is a way to release non verbally. It has been extremely therapeutic and helpful in my transition from being a collegiate athlete. Covid changed a lot of things not only in society but personally for a lot of people. For me I was granted the opportunity to figure out my passions apart from sports. I am used to living a fast life and art forces me to slow down and be intentional. I am a self taught artist so most of my journey has been trial and error. From the kind of paint I use to how I package my paintings. I believe my style of art is unique and plays into my personality as a whole. I would describe my work to be vibrant and “out of the box.” I sell custom artwork on hand and by request. Along with this, I paint murals, customize sneakers, clothes and trays. What I am most proud of are the connections I have made thus far. A lot of the time people try to network up but I have been networking “across.” I have a handful of friends who are creatives in their own ways and passionate about their crafts. We have all found ways to help and/or show up for each other in terms of support. I’m most thankful because my overall goal is to create a community for creatives to network and grow. Knowing this, if I had advice for anybody it would be take one step forward. You have to start somewhere so whatever it is just one step is getting you closer to your end goal!
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
My creative journey is driven by my desire to create an organization/community for creators and entrepreneurs in my city. I reside in Atlanta, Georgia and I believe this is a hub for creatives of all kinds of genres whether that be music, art, or fashion. I want to create an atmosphere for individuals to grow and learn while also providing resources and opportunities to the city. Considering I make art I believe I play a part in having the ability to grab peoples attention in the first place.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
Being a self taught artist can sometimes feel discouraging when first starting off. For the longest I did not feel like my work was qualified to stand with others. However, my views on that changed once I started attending pop up shops. My first couple of appearances I did not sell any art and would be out there for at least 6 hours when attending. Not selling anything made me question if my art was good. However, I developed the mindset “I can’t miss what’s mines.” Meaning nothing is by mistake and whoever is supposed to have this painting will eventually get it. Once I came to the terms my worth was not based on my sales it made me fearless in putting myself out there and taking hold of networking opportunities.
Contact Info:
Image Credits
Jada Morgan