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

Nicole, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Getting that first client is always an exciting milestone. Can you talk to us about how you got your first customer who wasn’t a friend, family, or acquaintance?

I guess this depends on what a “first client” is. I have been an entrepreneur at heart my whole life. As a small child, I helped out in my mother’s book store and saw small business in action. By the age of 7, I had my own paper route and did the business side of my big sister’s paper route for a fee. In High School, I got paid to do drafting from various people. As an adult, I was catapulted into my own architectural company when the construction company I worked for closed and the subcontractors asked me to continue to do the Architectural plans for them.

Early on in my illustration career, I joined SCBWI (Society Of Children’s Writers and Illustrators) and created a profile on the SCBWI site. From this profile, I landed my first illustration job. My client was an author who worked at the American Embassy in Iran who had written a children’s book manuscript and was looking for an illustrator. This was before zoom days, so we met over Skype to chat and review art. It was exciting to have my first children’s book project and it went so well. He was an amazing client and gave me a lot of creative freedom. While I was happy to have my first book project, it was even more exciting that he was half way across the world and chose me out of all the people on the SCBWI site to illustrate his special book. I still have a page from that book framed on my wall to remind me of my first children’s book illustration client.

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

My brand has evolved naturally over the years following my passion, respect and love of nature. I’m the happiest when I’m outside surrounded by the beauty of the wild. Branding almost created itself from this happy heart center into whimsical, heartwarming, nature inspired art. I strive to connect people in positive way with nature and show them the value of how the environment works seamlessly if allowed to balance and support each facet. Likeminded clients seek my services out which has lead me to many fulfilling jobs. For example, I’ve illustrated several garden books and even a fun yet educational book about how the magic of poop can help a farm flourish from animals to crops.

The location of my studio and my classes help connect people with nature. Students learn to observe what is going on in the world around them. How light changes in the forest and what details make a goat not look like a dog. How water flows over rocks, and bugs crawl on a leaf. The stages of plant growth and what companion plants and insects need each other to survive. My summer art camps are held outdoors among the ferns, frogs and under the cool canopy of the forest. Kids are able to connect with and observe nature all day. We even have a segment during camp where teams compete in a sculpture build using only natural items from the forest and certain structural criteria. Even our global art and yoga retreats focus on observing, sketching and painting the unique places we go while relaxing the body and mind with yoga.

In order to make real changes to our environment, we need to feel connected as a community of people and with nature to truly understand how everything works better together. I hope to inspire this lifelong passion, understanding, and curiosity in my students, clients, and the general public through large and small scale projects as well as the classes that I am a part of in a fun, positive, whimsical way.

Have you ever had to pivot?

My career has gone through many pivots over the years due to family and world economic changes. Straight out of college, I started work as an Architect for a construction company. I saw first-hand the many environmental pitfalls construction creates and after a few years I opened my own Architectural company with a focus on historical preservation remodels and environmentally responsible Architecture. Business thrived for 10 years and I absolutely loved it, but around 2008 when construction loans became very hard to get and the economy plummeted, my Architecture business started suffering. The contractors whom I regularly did business with were sadly going under because their clients couldn’t pay.

At the time, I had been doing some residential and commercial mural work on the side and my mom suggested I pivot more to Fine Art. After some brainstorming of how to best do this in a sluggish economy, I decided to rent a retail space and open a gallery in Seattle. My kids were very young so it worked well to bring them to the gallery to hang out and “help” me in the gallery. The Gallery had a solo artist exhibit space as well as space for group art shows. There were exhibit openings with live music, live painting, and poetry. I also offered art classes which gave my kids some fun things to do with other children while they learned to create and sell their own art. It was such a fun experience for 5 short, but amazing years.

While I loved the experience, I rarely had time to work on my own art and my kids were outgrowing the Gallery. I decided to build a private studio space in the woods where I could expand my classes, add in camps, and most importantly, work on my own art. I was close to home and the kids school which was much better for us.

My art style pivoted into whimsical, nature inspired children’s illustrations which I have been happily doing for 10+ years. After illustrating nearly 20 books, countless book covers and random signs, banners, label/packages projects and developing a stationery line, I wonder if it may be time to pivot again. With the surge of AI generated images, people are opting for free AI even thought the quality, expertise, creativity and personalized service isn’t there. I will not use ai. I believe it is not moral, breaks copyright laws and hurts the value of artists. It cheapens what we do and lowers the standard of quality. We shall see where this all goes. I believe in watching for open doors and taking them when the timing is right. This has served me well in my career journey over the years so I always keep an open mind and listen to my inner voice and client’s needs to see what is in store for the next chapter of life.

Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?

One of the services I offer is a global Yoga and Art Retreat. My business partner, Patti Shelton and I take small groups of people on unique experiences around the world to do yoga, meditation, create art, and go on personalized excursions. Many years ago, Patti, then an art student of mine, approached me with an idea for me to partner with her to do retreats. I loved the idea and our venture was born. We literally sat down with a globe and said “Where do we want to go?!” Since then, we have taken clients to places like Costa Rica, Morocco, Sardinia, and will be going to Kenya October 2024. We love unique, eco friendly, once in a lifetime trips that take our clients to places they can get personal with the locals and have behind the scenes experiences.

I love partnering with professionals to bring my clients more experiences and to expand my clientele. I often partner with other public and private venues and artists. Over a year ago, I partnered with artists and dear friends, Stacey Almgren and Rohini Mathur whom I originally met through the Woodinville Arts Alliance. We are in our second year teaching Creative Flow, A Year-Long Art Experience where we take turns teaching a monthly on-line class exploring various techniques and mediums. Each one with a focus on having loads of fun while learning important techniques. We have also teamed up to work on large-scale murals for both city and private entities.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.monahanstudio.com
• Instagram: Nicole Monahan Illustrator
• Facebook: Nicole Monahan
• Linkedin: Nicole Monahan

Image Credits

Photographer of my bio photography: Carol Hook