We were lucky to catch up with Jess Olson recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jess, appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

Taking risks is an integral part of owning a business and being an artist. When I was first starting out as a 20- something fresh out of college, I remember my Dad saying to me, “Now is your time to try things, to make mistakes, to figure it out. Take some risks.”
This advice has become a cherished practice in my life.
I stumbled around through much of my early 20s trying different jobs, thinking each time “This could be it, this could be what I want to do” but each time I felt disappointed and unaligned with my true self. I was depressed. Over time I realized where my true passion lies, in creating art.
I worked as an art teacher in a studio in Colorado and that was the closest I had come to feeling truly fulfilled. But something was still missing. I realized to follow my greatest joy would mean having complete creative freedom, to not be tied to someone else’s schedule or vision. And this led me to taking the greatest risk of all: leaving the work force and starting my own art business.
Friends and family gave me worried looks and expressed how difficult it is to live as an artist. I heard their fears but they didn’t phase me because for me, the worst possibility would be to stay in a life that I wasn’t happy in. Perhaps as an artist my emotions tend to lean towards the dramatic, but I’ve always felt that if I’m going to be alive, I want to *live*. I don’t want to survive and I don’t want to just get by, I want to experience, create, love, travel, and be free. So I took all my savings and started buying vendor passes to festivals, buying equipment, live painting and putting myself out there. I had a steep learning curve in both talent and business savvy. I made plenty of mistakes and there were plenty of chances to give up. But I knew what I wanted and I couldn’t go back, so I kept pushing forward.
Five years later and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. Last weekend I took my partner with me to sell art at a music festival in Missouri. We sat around outside in beautiful weather and met amazing people as they stopped by to look at my art. I sold art. I live painted and people from the festival joined in and started painting with me or playing music in my tent. There was a giant bonfire and families dancing and playing in the field. I felt so at peace and happy with where life has taken me. And I know I’m still at the precipice of everything I envision myself doing. It’s a great feeling. So if you’re ever thinking a better life awaits you but there is a scary step you have to take to get there, it is so much better to try and have the possiblity of achievement, then to never chase your dreams. My advice is this: Never fear failure. Fear giving up.

Jess, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

As an artist I go by Noslo, named after the mysterious architectural stick fort my friends and I stumbled upon in the middle of the woods as kids and named to reflect the majestic scene we discovered. It was here that we would hike to after school and on the weekends, to play and make believe.
I look back at that time with great nostalgia as an encapsulation of the curiosity and magic we feel as children but often lose in adulthood. This has become the thesis to who I am as an artist.
My work celebrates life, sees the beauty and magic in the things we experience being alive, being human, being a woman, being queer, forming communities, being in nature, dreaming…

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

As a creative person who actively pursues their career in art, there are a lot of resources I discovered on my path. Living in the age of technology as we do now there is infinitely more content and ways to learn about both making and selling art. My greatest resources have been the art community itself. Almost everything I have learned is from observing those who have done it before me. And I was more than pleasantly surprised to learn how eager and excited many artists are to share.
Music festivals are an indispensable resource. So many artist flock to these events and sell art or live paint. Go and watch them! Talk to them, ask them questions. I’ll never forget when I met Logan Walden at Electric Forest and I was so nervous to bother him but I mustered the courage to go up and ask about his process. He stopped everything he was doing to talk me through both the painting he was working on, and then took it a step further and pulled out his personal sketchbook, where he flipped through to show how his process starts and how he bring its to life. And this isn’t an isolated event. I spent *hours* sitting and watching master painters make their art and I learned so much. But going back to the age of technology, you don’t have to travel and go places to have these experiences. All the artists I look up to I follow on social media. Plenty of them go live while working on paintings and are open and excited to field questions and share how they do it. Others share detailed videos of their processes and businesses. People are out there doing what you envision, just watch and learn!

Have you ever had to pivot?

When you tell people you are a professional artist they typically imagine someone who makes fancy paintings and sells them. For many this is the reality. For me, when I was just starting out, this was very difficult to do. However, there is a work around to this: people might not always be in the market to buy a big painting to put on their wall, but people will consistently buy products they can use that look cool. So I pivoted. I started painting objects, mirrors, boxes, water bottles. I figured out a way to turn simple drawings into earrings, how to print an image onto clothing. I started selling “wearable art” “functional art” and I started selling out of product. I stayed in the field that I wanted to do, but I broadened the scope and in doing so, gained an audience and grew my skills.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Nosloart.com
• Instagram: @Noslo.art
• Facebook: @Noslo.art

Image Credits

Noslo Art