We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jon Ross. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jon below.
Jon, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
Yes, I am currently working full-time as a visual artist, it is possible to work full-time or even part-time as a creative and make more than just a decent living. It requires quite an investment, just like any other business, starting out you’ll need to dedicate your time, along with all available resources to pursue such a career path, although, like any other business, in due time you can build a scalable operation, similar to what I’ve done.
My situation is a bit different than the typical artist’s journey. my previous business was in manufacturing and after selling that in 2017 I was able to focus on my passion for artwork full-time. I decided to invest in starting an in-house print shop, allowing me to create prints of my artwork while incorporating manufacturing practices that allowed us to produce enough art prints, at limited costs to then begin distributing to local stores for an affordable price. I spent the first few years growing my inventory of work, establishing suppliers, and achieving certain requirements to obtain low costs on supplies to then pass on that discount to allow the art prints to be sold at a very affordable price, allowing anyone to obtain limited artwork, hand signed by the artist for a very low price. this along with a large variety of prints helped with expanding to stores of all types all over Utah, selling my art prints in displays, mostly on consignment. My previous history of manufacturing did play a major role in developing my current business plan. We plan on becoming something of a modern hallmark of sorts (the holiday/greeting cards company) although using modern pop culture artwork instead of catchy phrases. we hope to set up small art print vending displays in over 50 new locations across Utah before the end of next summer, with such a large selection of over 200 prints currently available, we can tailor the art prints to each store’s specific customer demographics to ensure the art prints will sell. this allows a wide variety of stores to host our art print display.
Jon, 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?
I am a mixed media artist, who specializes in traditional art. Sketching, inking, markers, pencils, and paints on canvas, paper, and wood panels. I offer commissioned work as well as my own freelanced work of all different styles, sizes, and mediums. My artwork is inspired by things that occupy my attention at a higher level of importance. From Fan art, personal experiences, pop culture, global issues, nature, and subjects I find inspiring, whatever I take away from a specific source becomes a priority for expression. My artwork is a display of over 25 years of experimentation. It represents the struggle and endurance a young artist requires in order to progress and advance professionally in the art realm. Thousands upon thousands of hours, strenuous nights, blood, sweat, and tears have poured into the experience I’ve gained as an artist over my career. Art has always been a passion, regardless of what job I was pursuing, or what business I was founding, art was always something I have participated in. It wasn’t until recently I realized it’s what I need to do in order to achieve my own personal happiness. It’s something I feel like I must share with this world. My art has a certain technique developed mainly over years of hardship, I had to learn how to draw and paint lying down while being bedridden at different times in my life. I strive to chase after realism but due to my physical conditions my art has more of a “sketchy” feel to it, luckily in this modern day in age my art seems to be widely accepted as a pop culture/urban type of style, something new, something different, which I embrace and enhance in new and different ways each day.
I sell my artwork along with my art prints in storefronts all over Utah. I also do a few shows from time to time and am currently working on rebuilding a newer website with more features including wholesale options. I believe what we are doing sets us apart from other creatives, offering art print vending displays in stores on consignment seems to be new, at least in Utah for the most part. We hope to see this grow into a sort of collection-type demand, where customers will collect limited series art prints.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
in 2010 I started a consumable business that grew into quite a large manufacturing operation that I, along with my business partners at the time, sold in 2017. during the process I became bedridden, and lost the mobility of my legs due to a spinal injury, over the course of two years I had lost millions, basically, everything I had built from nothing, I was also awaiting spine surgery and knew this was the time I had to make a serious pivot. I took what little I had left from selling the business and decided to invest everything I had into my artwork and to start pursuing something that inspired personal happiness. In doing so, although it was not easy, I spent the first year learning and researching how to make prints in-house, and then once regaining mobility, I started hitting the streets going door to door from business to business asking them to allow me to setup a small art print display and offering a percentage to the shop owners in return, Doing this along with creating a massive amount of artwork to create prints from, over time the business grew and it became clear that my decision was the right decision that needed to be made.
Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?
When I first started, I wish I knew more about the business side of art and how to actually bring in money and create a passive income stream… luckily I had previous experience but to all other artists out there wanting to sell their work but not sure how I advise you to look into consignment. Offer store owners the ability to host your artwork without the risk of paying for it. advertise it for sale within their store, if a customer buys your artwork, you simply have the shop pay you out for that specific item, and give them a percentage to keep in return. Using this method I set up stores all over Utah with my print displays, and visit every other month or so to collect payments and restock the displays. this is something simple and scalable that anyone can do, you just need to learn about it.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jrartworks.net
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jrartworks/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jrartworks
- Linkedin: @jrartworks