Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karen Yost. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Karen, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

Being able to make things has saved my life over and over again. I have suffered from anxiety and depression my entire life. The peace that I find while I create is the thing that keeps me alive and keeps me wanting to be alive. I stopped doing regular part time jobs in my early 20’s once I was able to make a living wage with my art. At that time, I was a children’s book illustrator. I still wasn’t making quite enough cash, so I supplemented that artistic endeavor with another. I have always been a metalsmith (learned at age 13 in summer camp), so I made jewelry to sell locally in the East Village Boutiques in my neighborhood where I was living in NYC. I knew at this point, finally making ends meet, that I could always sustain myself with my art. I never wanted to do regular work again.
Working as a creative fulfills me in a way I never found in any other kind of work. I often think of how utterly miserable I would be in an office, and get immediately grateful that I can live from my art.

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

I learned metalsmithing when I was 13 at an amazing summer camp. I was obsessed with making jewelry, and continued to do so at home with beads when I didn’t have a studio with torches at home. I am also a painter and sculptor and wasn’t sure which craft to make into my business. I started as a children’s book illustrator. I did that for almost 10 years, and grew tired of waiting for editors to “pick me” for work. I simultaneously started selling my jewelry to boutiques in the East Village of New York City where I was living. This was both more lucrative and artistically fulfilling for me, as I could create whatever I wanted.

Now, my brand Anomaly Jewelry is all about expressing one’s quirky aesthetic with humor, thought, and beauty. I make affordable, every day wearable pieces that make you look weird even with a black t-shirt and jeans. HOw could you not with a 3 headed baby on your neck? I am proud of being entirely myself in life and in my artwork. I embrace the strange and find it beautiful and have found an audience that does the same. I do everything in my business, and aside form an occasional intern, do everything from designing my packaging to hand carving the wax that are the models for each piece of jewelry I cast. I am so proud of what I have built. The brand is a distillation of a huge part of myself as a human. I will be able to work on the growth of this business with earnest love until the day of its dissolution.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When I am creating (jewelry, a mural, decorating a lamp with rats) I am in a peaceful part of my brain that I just can’t access any other way. I liken it to meditation with my eyes open. Being in the process shuts up my anxiety, overthinking, and sinister thoughts, all of which I battle in daily life. Another very fulfilling aspect of being an artist is making something until I think it is done. There is a clear beginning and end to the process that feels good the whole way through and is SUPER satisfying to see the end product of. In real life, nothing is this much in my control. I try so hard in life to do all the right things to get the result I want and still come up short. There’s too much chaos for my small part to work the way I want it to. However, in my art, I have the power to finally make things look and say precisely what I want them to.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

The biggest lesson I had to learn in my artistic ride has been too ignore my viewers. That I cannot imagine what I think they would want and then make that. To be true to my own vision and feel like my voice is worthy, interesting, cool. A lot of this just had to do with growing up. I am 48 now and the most myself I can imagine to be. I am so proud of this, as I began life hating myself deeply and fully. I hope to be the Grandma who looks like she’s batshit crazy. I want to be so much myself and cool with it that you can’t call me anything but strange. What’s more lovely or interesting than that!?

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.anomalyjewelry.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/anomalyjewelry
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/anomalyjewel
• Other: www.tiktok.com/anomalyjewelry

  email: [email protected]