We recently connected with Lisa J Fasol and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Lisa J, thanks for joining us today. Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

This feels like a relevant question to me currently since I’ve been recently looking into the possibility of going back to school to study medicine. My father is a doctor and although he never pressured me or my siblings to go into medicine, I have always wondered what would have happened if I had followed in his footsteps.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have been creatively employed since graduating art school. While I’ve had some fun projects and am currently working on something really exciting, I still can’t help but feel stuck as well. I see friends and former classmates advancing their careers and doing great things and while I’m able to provide for myself I am also not sure what my artistic future looks like.
I still love art, both consuming and creating it, and I always will. I’m just unsure of where my work fits in the world, who wants to consume it, what I want to say with it. Or maybe I’m just thinking too hard about it. Maybe it’s ok to just make art? I do love being an artist and don’t know what else I would do if not creative work.
But I think I will always have that nagging thought of “what if” so let me take the med school entrance exam and I’ll let you know how it goes haha

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Lisa and I am an Austrian-Filipino illustrator. I feel like I draw because it’s a way for me to capture the ways in which I interact with and experience the world. I like connecting to people with silly drawings. Sometimes I feel insecure about the lack of a grander mission statement that should drive my practice but I think even just sharing art to show to people, to illicit responses as simple as “I like this”, have value for me. I’m sharing a piece of myself and sometimes people connect to that and that’s all I can really ask for.
But also, since creative indecision often plagues my personal work, I like to instead bring my client’s ideas to life, both visually and narratively. I find that working within certain limitations really drives me to be more motivated because of the challenge of having to think of creative solutions for sometimes non-creative “problems”. Additionally, I really enjoy the collaborative aspect of working with clients, since they can give me a perspective I hadn’t considered but in the end makes the work better.
Besides my illustration work for clients I also have been getting into hand-sewing quilts which is so much work but so rewarding in the end. You really get attached to something when you’re pouring in days and days of work (and blood & sweat) into it. I’m usually quick when I’m drawing, so learning this new skill and the time & patience it takes to stick with it until it is finished has been a great and humbling experience. It’s been very counterintuitive to learn this “slower” skill but it has made me feel closer and more connected to my work.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

To be completely honest, I think most of it is just luck. I’m actually not that social media savvy myself. My posts are few & far between and I should probably work on it more. But in my experience, sometimes there will just be one post that suddenly pops off. When I joined twitter back in the day, I posted a lot starting out and never gained much of a following other than people I already knew. Then there was this one personal drawing I shared that got so much traction and suddenly I had thousands of followers.
So I think my advice would be to just post the things you want to post. Don’t bend to what you think your audience wants and just draw what makes you happy. I’ve struggled a lot with this as well but I think ultimately, you will be happier gaining a following that is there for you & your work, not for the work you think they want.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist for me is the joy my work can bring to others.
My grandmother recently became bedridden and I started making a quilt for her. It was the biggest quilt I had ever attempted and with each stitch I became more attached to it. In the end, I made a quilt I was so proud of that I almost didn’t want to give it away. But when we arrived at my grandmother’s house and gave her the quilt, she started using it immediately and my aunt (her caretaker) told me later that she refused to use any other blanket that wasn’t my quilt. And I can’t even explain how it feels that something I made and grew so attached to and was so proud of, became a treasured object for my grandmother.
I struggle a lot with liking my own art so it feels super rewarding when something I make and end up being proud of is loved and appreciated by others.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.lisa-fasol.com
• Instagram: @lisafasol
• Twitter: @lisafasol (i don’t post here anymore)

Image Credits

Lisa J Fasol