We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Joelle Cipriotti a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Joelle, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Owning a business isn’t always glamorous and so most business owners we’ve connected with have shared that on tough days they sometimes wonder what it would have been like to have just had a regular job instead of all the responsibility of running a business. Have you ever felt that way?

I am most definitely happy as a business owner, I have two businesses Cip of Joelle and BriJoLNE Assisting and Handling Services. I am able to work on my own schedule and can balance the two different jobs really well. If I find I am low on creative energy, getting out of the studio for a weekend and attending a confirmation dog show helps me refresh my energy and look at my paintings in a different perspective when I come back. Often I do think about having a steady income from a regular job, but then that interrupts the free time I do have control of to work on my paintings. I have had a regular job, I bartended for a winter, but I felt like I had no energy to paint after work, and not doing what my soul absolutely craved to do just brought about drained energy. I did think about working at Michaels this year when I was stressing about money, but then I thought about how my energy would be used for the craft store, rather than working on my own craft, and honing in on what I want to create in this world. Honestly, how my energy is used is really important to me because we don’t have a lot to spend, and I would rather spend energy on what I love doing, than supporting someone else’s business as an employee. Sometimes I do imagine the amount of extra income I would have from a normal job, but my faith overrides my brain. I know all the opportunies that come to me will never miss me if I have faith, trust, and pixie dust in what I am doing, I will always be supported by the Universe/God/Creator.
I feel like a lot of people don’t chase their dreams because they feel they will not be provided for, but over the past 3/4 years of going on this adventure to live out my dreams as an artist, I have never once not been able to provide for myself. Some people try to put me in this “struggling artist” category, but I refuse to claim that energy. In 2023, I was able to afford a personal trainer and the food I needed when going through my bodybuilding journey, and I am still able to pay rent and afford what I need through my two businesses. Though I do think about the extra income I could be having from a regular paying job, and the nice things I could get for myself, I still feel like I have everything I need in life. Though things may be tight, I am blessed with opportunities everywhere in the Art world or the Dog world to earn income.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My name is Joelle Cipriotti and I am the creator of CipofJoelle, my art business, and BriJoLNE Assisting and Handling services, my dog business. I have been showing dogs in conformation dog shows since i was 10 years old, interning and assisting Professional Dog Handlers each summer and competing in Junior Showmanship until I aged out at 18. I have also been creating art for the same amount of time, always taking all the art courses available in school. In High school I focused on Photography, but once I no longer had access to a darkroom, I began painting in 2019. Experimenting and playing with all the mediums I had access to, I began creating emotionally charged artwork to depict how I was feeling. I knew many people in life hide away their emotions, or feel like they were alone in these feeling. I wanted to create more so not only I would feel less alone, but so others wouldn’t feel as alone. I now create work about my own mental, physical, and spiritual journey to help others through theirs and ignite inspiration to keep moving forward and to keep creating.
The business I prioritize is CipofJoelle, the Dog shows is what I have done to keep more of a steady income flowing when Art sales are low. Cip of Joelles products are Original Artwork, Prints, Stickers, and T-shirts, Orginal art can be on the more expensive side, so offering Prints and Stickers is a way for me to offer my artwork at a more affordable price for those who resonate with it. BriJoLNE on the other hand is a service for Dog Handlers to hire me as an assistant at shows, or for people who want their dog handled to hire me as the handler in the ring.
I am most proud of my art business because putting myself and my creations out for the world to see has inspired many other people to go after their own dreams, or I have simply inspired others to create more in their own lives. The main thing I want people to know about my brand is that I want to inspire people to shine their light, be their most authentic self at all times, and to create, because we are all creative beings! Some people approach me saying ” I could never do that”, but the truth is you are your own first limiting belief with that mindset. I have dedicated years of my life to improving my craft, so of course the results are impressive. With consistency of showing up for yourself you can truly do anything you set your mind to. When I say you can set your mind to do anything, I mean ANYTHING! I have a successful art business, I have done a Body Building Competition, got on an actual stage for it and placed, and recently I have even gotten sober from everything. I feel like I am the type of person that once my mind is set on a goal, I am achieving it. I want to show others that the limit is what they put on themselves, and I refuse to limit myself from anything I want to accomplish in this Lifetime.

Can you open up about how you funded your business?

I have bootstrap method my entire art business! I knew back in 2020 that I wanted to be an Artist. I stopped telling people “I want to be an Artist” and started telling people ‘I am an Artist”. I would work dog shows for my paycheck and started investing into prints and stickers of my artwork, then started buying thing I would need to vend at markets. I recognized there was a demand for my artwork when I would share my Art and people would say “Oh I would love a print of this”, or “These would be awesome as stickers”. I listened to the feedback from my community! When I created the prints and stickers, people showed up to support me and bought my work! It was thrilling that what I was creating people actually wanted to have in their home. I also opened up Dog Portrait commissions to people in my Dog Show Community and they also showed up to support me!

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

A lesson I feel like I had to unlearn was my worth as an Artist. Which was something that actually catapulted me further into following my dreams, and I tell this story often because it was so vital I experienced this. Essentially, I was talking to another artist and I was explaining I had just got a commission to do a 3 headed, photorealistic Dog Portrait, and that i sold it for $150. I was super proud of myself! I sent the final result to the other artist and he said, ” I would have sold that for $50, how did you even get a commission?”. I was hurt by this comment because I had just spent 13 hours on this rushed commission before commission and you have the audacity to say its only worth $50. In my head I’m thinking “Do you even value YOURSELF as an artist?? Because you must not.” I then created the piece that started my entire art journey called “Don’t Steal My Light”, I made it because this person lowered my own worth and was trying to steal my light as an artist because he didn’t value himself. I’ve since learned my time, my knowledge, my materials all add into the worth of what a piece cost. This interaction triggered my own determination/spite of Okay now I HAVE to make it as an artist and you’re going to be left in the dust. I know my artworks worth and absolutely no one can tell me what my prices are or should be.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cipofjoelle.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cipofjoelle?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cipofjoelle
• Other: Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cipofjoe?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc

Image Credits

Jon Alonso
Instagram @exp.image