We were lucky to catch up with Jhon Drawvolta recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Jhon , thanks for joining us today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

I came up with the name of my company, Inventive Endeavor Inc. by thinking about my overall long term goals. I understand that as a visual artist my work can be repurposed in many different ways. I can take a 2D drawing and turn it into a three dimensional figure. I can also take one of my Procreate images and animate it. That short animation can then be turned into an entire animated series. I try not to limit myself and my work.

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

My visual artist journey started at four years of age when I would sketch at the kitchen table in Queens, NY. Once I was in second grade I would sell my Bart Simpson drawings for twenty five cents to my schoolmates. As a teenager I would create logos, tshirt designs and paint the occasional mural for family friends. While in college I sold hoodies, tshirts and sweat suits with graphics that I created to people in my neighborhood. After college I took a job creating logos, cd and dvd covers for a hip hop company that replicated and duplicated cds and or dvds for music artists and djs. In my spare time while I was working there I was creating custom sneakers and apparel for myself, my friends and various stores in Queens, Ny. Soon after I would purchase a silkscreening machine and create a street wear brand named Nohjcoley. I would go around the five boroughs of NY soliciting store owners to put my shirts in their stores. After leaving the hip hop company I began doing clothing design for another company full time. While at that clothing company I started creating graphics with NohJColey on them and putting them wherever I could. It could have been a sticker on the train or a poster on a store in soho. Once I started going to art galleries and meeting other people that were doing the same thing I decided I wanted to be a fine artist. I would work my nine to five at the clothing company and then go home and stay up until three am working on my art. I did this until I was laid off from my job at the clothing company because of the 2008 housing market bubble . After being laid off I decided to make my art my full time priority. I would adhere paper to walls, but soon after I began making three dimensional interactive sculptures that I would install in the public spaces in NYC. For the next five years I would show my work in various art shows, be featured in books, magazines and on prominent art websites. After experiencing a ton of prejudice due to my ethnicity I wanted to create art on my own terms so I began my first apprenticeship as a tattoo artist. It has now been 9 years since then. In 2019 I opened my first private studio. As of December 2021 I have moved into a larger unit where I sell apparel that I design. For the last three years my focus has been to produce a superior product and service. That includes tattoos, articles of clothing and digital prints. Since beginning my first apprenticeship I’ve noticed that the overwhelming majority of tattooers don’t necessarily care about the overall service and product that they’re producing. I believe since I started out as a fine artist I see the importance in the quality of the final product whether it is permanent or not.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Once I decided that I no longer wanted to be a full time fine artist I needed a new source of income. I came up with two options. My two options were either going back to school to obtain a better degree or learn how to tattoo. I chose to tattoo because over the years as a fine artist I was able to create a style of making art that I could call my own. A type of visual language. I really wanted to show this language to the world in as many forms as possible. While I was a tattoo apprentice I had to work some really demeaning jobs. It really humbled me. I went from being someone who would sign people’s books; to someone who was cleaning filthy windows to install vinyl letters on. I had worked so hard to reach a very specific level as an artist and I walked away from it. I would always stay focused on my goal to become better visual artist and tattoo artist. I think when we’re trying to reach our daily goals we tend to forget to look back and take into account where we started from. Nowadays I try to take a moment every few months to reflect on the progress that I’ve made from the previous year.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

Being ridiculed for being a person of color in the fine art world I chose to make a pivot in my life. Before I started tattooing I had a feeling that I would experience similar treatment in the tattoo industry. Being in the corporate world I believe that racism is a little more subtle due to the fact that you can sue your employer and it’s extremely common. In the tattoo world things are a lot different. There is no Human Resources, you’ll just be let go if you complain about the harassment. In most cases you wouldn’t even be hired in most shops due to your skin color or even gender. In my experience these incidents range from being called an “undesirable” to be having someone say your work is stunning before physically meeting you to then meeting you and not wanting to even do a consultation within seconds for no apparent reason. Knowing and experiencing how prejudice the industry can be has caused me to want to provide opportunities for POC, LGBTQ folks. or anyone that is frowned upon in this world that is looking to have a career in the tattoo industry or folks that are currently working in the industry.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.jhondrawvolta.com/
• Instagram: jhondrawvolta
• Twitter: jhondrawvolta
• Other: Tictoc: jhondrawvolta