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

Jessy, appreciate you joining us today. Do you wish you had waited to pursue your creative career or do you wish you had started sooner?

I wish I had started it much sooner than I did.

I had been interested in creating art for most of my life, but I was discouraged from a career as an artist by people who thought that art should be a hobby and not a profession or life calling. I didn’t take art classes through high school and, though I took a few classes at a local museum during my first time in college, I set art aside to pursue a career in animal medicine instead. I don’t regret that life experience, but I do regret setting creative pursuits aside entirely.

When my life circumstances changed and I needed to pursue a different career path, I felt the tug to pick up my art and photography again, and turn something I thought could only be a hobby into something more. So I went back to school at 31 years old and did the work to graduate as a double major in Photo-Illustration and Studio Art, because I wanted to try it all and so I did. And while I do regret all the time I could have used creating something beautiful, I have every intention of making up for lost time now.

Jessy, 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?

In terms of my art, I work in a variety of media. I spend a lot of time doing macro photography in nature and experimental photography with UVIVF (ultra-violet induced visible fluorescence). I also create jewelry and do photo composited pieces. Professionally, however, my work has primarily consisted of photo editing projects for clients. My skills in Photoshop have enabled me to assist a variety of clients with enhancing and compositing images with varying degrees of complexity. With my help, they are able to transform the images they have into the images they need.

Although photo-illustration has been the focus of my professional work so far, I do intend on investing more time in jewelry creation pursuits. At some point soon, I would like to begin selling my unique, hand-crafted pieces on a larger scale. So you can certainly look for that in the near future!

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

Nothing has to be perfect, and every project looks like garbage as you are making it until suddenly it doesn’t.

Growing up, there was a lot of expectation in academics and other things to do things absolutely perfectly. I struggle a lot with perfectionism now, and it’s difficult for me to try something new for fear that I’ll be bad at it. Staring at a pile of random props or dealing with only half-formed ideas for a project was crippling at first, but deadlines are deadlines. Whether training in school or working in the professional world, you have to finish on time, and every project that gets finished has to start somewhere.

It took awhile, but eventually I got past that need to be perfect in everything and just started creating. Through that process, I came to realize that every project is a mess until the end. Even if you only have half an idea when you start, sometimes that’s the best way to create. Throughout the process, the project sometimes seems to just finish itself and you end up with something truly beautiful that you never could have envisioned at the start of it all.

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

Inspiration can be found in everything, and everything can be beautiful if you stop long enough to see it for what it is. Having trained with some excellent teachers, I’ve learned to appreciate technique and skill in every kind of art. I love to view the work of my peers and be inspired by their talent and imagination. I love to just look around me and see a million tiny beautiful moments that most people would consider ordinary until I capture it in all it’s glory and show the rest of the world the beauty that can be found in such moments. Every shape, every pattern, every form can be turned into a work of art if you stop to notice how beautiful life can be.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.setinframe.com
• Instagram: @setinframe
• Other: For my more artistic endeavors: www.oybart.com Instagram: @oybart