We recently connected with Jessie and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Jessie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Starting off, I was a face painter for a company that mistreated its employees, so after 6 years of said mistreatment that climaxed into a disagreement, I quit. My best friend Katie (who’s also a Face painter) pushed me to start my own business, all while I was crying and feeling sorry for myself. After spending the entire night researching how to start a business, a week of applying for my license, insurance, and spending my entire savings on new supplies, and one month of working in parks for tips and other volunteer work, I was able to acquire my license, and train my long time friend and first team mate Hannah. Our first couple months we have worked hard at multiple events, most were volunteer or at a very low rate.

Within our first year, we managed to work Zozobra, the New Mexico State Fair, the Haunted Scarecrow, Winter Wonderland, The Railyards, Movies in the park, and countless birthday parties and other private events, including a celebration of life event.

We learned how to setup our own unique way. Creating a one of a kind menu, embracing technology and creating a linktree, utilizing as many popular social media platforms as possible, creating business cards, logos, talking to clients, creating a scheduling tool that we can share between all of us, making a discord channel to communicate affectively and organize conversations and requests by channels and creating decals and t-shirts.

I say that I originally started this business out of spite, but now I continue this business for my team, my friends, artists who have been mistreated by companies, under paid and under appreciated, as well as our clients and customers, parents/guardians who don’t have the means to afford a face painter, shelters and community centers where a child has never had their face painted before, places where it’s “not in the budget” to accommodate kids entertainment, and much more. We event try to go to every large vending market we can to provide the kids with some entertainment while their families shop.

In the 2 years since I started, we have grown to a team of 8 painters, a hair tinsel artist, balloon twister, and henna artists that I network with to provide the entire entertainment experience.

We are about to celebrate our 2nd anniversary, and this last week we just completed our second state fair, where we saw a multitude of regular customers and clients, who were delighted to see us.

Starting out was a struggle, emotionally, spiritually, mentally and financially, but I would do it all over again in a heart beat.

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

I was born and raised in Los Lunas to an abusive mother, my dad did his best to shelter me from her but he was soon kicked out of the house when I was a preteen. I loved to draw and paint growing up.

My mom had a history of health issues and died in 2005, so I moved in with my dad, who was extremely supportive of my art.

In 2010 I moved out when I was 20 and moved to Albuquerque for college.

I received my Bachelors of Fine Arts at UNM in 2014, and I have been painting and drawing for people in order to buy my books, pay rent, and such things during my college days.

After college I got a 9-5 job with an insurance company in order to pay my bills(I worked for them for 11 years now) so I could pursue my art, but I didn’t. Instead I got into a relationship, got a house a car, and I never left the house, I was working from home, getting more and more depressed, so I decided to try getting out, I didn’t have any friends or family, so I tried volunteer work.

My dad moved in with me in 2015 as he was aging.

In 2016 I face painted with cheap little palette for a charity walk for breast cancer, that’s when I found I enjoyed face painting.

My dad died in 2016. To say I was depressed was an understatement.

In 2017 I was dumped, the house went into foreclosure, I returned the car to the bank, and I abandoned my life to start over in a 1 bedroom apartment. I filed for bankruptcy.

In 2018 I started working for a face painting company, working birthday parties, state fair, and other large events. I realized I was asexual and gender fluid.

2019 I started working at paint nites teaching people how to make a painting at restaurants. I first met Katie, who was already a Face painter, and Hannah who I will later train and work with her as a face painter.

2020 I started my TikTok account and gained nearly 10k followers for my portraits and painting work, started an Etsy account to sell art so I could stay afloat. Face painting and paint nite events stopped completely.

2021 finally working face painting events again

In 2022 I was able to purchase a house with the savings I accumulated through my art and my work from home job.

In 2023 I quit the face painting company and started my own business

With all that trauma and experience I was able to turn it into a relatively successful business, with a zero profit goal on my end, my 9-5 job pays all my personal bills and expenses, and my facepainting business pays for my happiness and mental wellbeing. I love when I get to make something truly amazing and show someone the mirror (we like to call it a “mirror moment”) and they LIGHT UP and are shocked and amazed at how beautiful it cool their design looks on their face. I’ve learned how to manage a team, how to work with others as part of a team, how to reach out and find events, and how to teach and build others up, how to use technology in supporting my business, how to use my social media platforms to promote and reach out to the community, how to empathize with people in abusive situations, and people who are deep in grief, and so much more. Thanks to all these things that happened to me, I am who I am today.

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

I had to let go of my anger. Growing up with an abusive parent and inheriting her anger was something I needed to overcome. As a child I was angry all the time, I never made friends until high school, where I met someone in still best friends with to this day, and it’s because I realized there’s no point in being angry.

I can now confidently say I am not an angry person, but I’m also not someone you can just walk all over, when another company attempted to slander mine, I blocked them, and filed a complaint. When I was mistreated at my previous company I attempted to stand up for myself, but I didn’t get angry, and I wish I had, now I’m trying to find my own moderation. I’m standing up for not only myself, but my friends now.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Word of mouth has been our best friend, but where the heck does that even start? Well I started at community centers, I made some quick cheap business cards on vista print, worked some community center events, then started asking around for vending events.

Another one is Facebook and next door events. I am constantly doomscrolling the events pages, messaging the creators of events and asking if they need a painter, following event pages like WTF (where’s the food truck) and other such pages.

Lastly vending markets, large ones. We are at the Railyards Market every Sunday, and the Downtown Growers Market every Saturday, where the foot traffic is typically 4000 people, and the vendor fee is very reasonable.

Other large venues like State Fair and Zozobra are not as easy to get to, and theirs is a large vendor fee, but the payoff is worth it in my opinion.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dot.cards/local_locas_facepainting
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/local_locas_facepainting?igsh=dmx1b29hN21xNmp5&utm_source=qr
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1CXhRscui8/?mibextid=wwXIfr
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@locallocasfacepainting?si=2h9S0AV92GBBbaZY
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jynxvoncleaves?_t=ZP-8zn8od8YmDe&_r=1

Image Credits

All photos taken by Jessie – owner of Local Locas Facepainting. Local Locas logo created by Diamond Martinez Photography