We recently connected with Molly Kempson and have shared our conversation below.

Molly, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. 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?

I have been making a living from making and teaching art for 11 years at this point, and I attribute to some advice I was given in graduate school: “make good work, show up when you say you will, and be easy to work with.”

As a self-employed artist, I make and sell letterpress prints and teach linocut carving and printing classes. I also have worked for others for most of these 11 years facilitating art-making with a wide range of people. I worked in hospitals with an incredible organization called UF Health Shands Arts in Medicine for eight years, teaching hospitalized patients how to make art and meaning out of their experiences. I taught non-major art students at a major university for ten years. I also have a background in elementary art education and I was able to teach part-time at a small school and make, market, and sell my personal work.

My biggest regret was not going down the art education path sooner. I was able to get into a funded graduate program that allowed me to take MFA level coursework, which is where I fell in love with letterpress. It also helped me learn that art education doesn’t need to be a full-time job in public schools, it can happen as a self-employed artist starting a workshop series or with a grant at a non-profit. Teaching has allowed me to take creative breaks when I need to, to be pickier about commissions and projects, and feel financially stable in my work. Working with other people gives me energy to take back to the studio.

Molly, 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’m a letterpress printer who makes work about the American South, its history, language, architecture, and wildlife. I’ve been drawing animals since childhood, and as I grew up I learned about the vernacular architecture of my home state of South Carolina. All of my work involves carving linocut illustrations, and some of those illustrations are set with lead type for text to create posters and smaller art prints. I do not use any digital techniques and my presses are from 1917 and 1956, so I spend a lot of time oiling and spoiling them.

I suppose what I’m most known for is really tiny detail on my linocuts – its a medium lots of people learn in school. but it’s usually used for flat, graphic shapes. I prefer stippling on it to create midtones to create three-dimensional forms without having too many colors and layers of ink.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had started collecting an email list years before I did. I put all my eggs in the basket of an app that keeps shifting its algorithms, instead of a list that I own. I love being able to move between newsletter providers and contacting my customers directly instead of hoping they come across a post or story.

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

I recently had my art trained for AI and started receiving AI images clearly lifting from my work in my own algorithms. They even had me fooled – I was wondering who was making work just like mine.

It’s pretty jarring to see work that would take sixty hours of meticulous carving get spat out in a second or two. I’ve had to figure out where I stand with AI, and for me that means not uploading my art to companies that will train on it – which is most social media. That won’t stop scrapers from checking out other sites, but it’s a start I feel aligned with.

It’s pushed me to revamp my own website, build more personal relationships with those who love my work through my email list, and focus more on in-person selling. I still announce things on social media, I just no longer put my art there as I am not comfortable with it being used to train AI without compensation.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://spottyboypress.com
• Instagram: spottyboypress
• Other: Mastodon: https://mastodon.social/@spottyboypress