We were lucky to catch up with Olivia Stober recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Olivia thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. When did you first know you wanted to pursue a creative/artistic path professionally?

Deciding to pursue a creative path was sort of a slow burn for me. It wasn’t something that I set out to do when I started creating art, but something that slowly revealed itself as the most desirable path. I’ve had a lot of jobs that run the gamut – from the coffee industry to teaching yoga, from the nonprofit sector to social media marketing – and nothing really stuck. Even as a small kid, I never could relate to the feeling of having a “dream job”. I never had career aspirations and I felt lazy and lost for for a while after I graduated high school. In what I semi-fondly refer to as my quarter life crisis, I moved from my hometown of Portland, OR to San Diego in the summer of 2020, and this is when I started to harness my creativity.

I was unemployed, alone (thanks COVID!), and absolutely inspired by my new Southern California surroundings, so I started painting all the time. After a couple months I started teaching myself the linocut printmaking process and I immediately felt such a sense of belonging with that medium. The whole process just excited me: I loved conceptualizing a design, carving the block, and being able to see the final print right before my eyes. I started posting my prints and process videos on Instagram and my coworkers and friends were really supportive from the get-go! I soft-launched my shop online but it took a while after that to work up the courage to sign up for a maker’s market.

I finally pulled the trigger in January of 2021 and signed up for my first in-person event! I think I made about $80 at that first market, which was enough to encourage me to keep signing up for more. I love the community and energy at pop-up events and its such a joy to be able to meet all kinds of people who resonate with and support local artists and makers! Seeing people relate to my work and being able to introduce them to my process and inspiration is so life affirming, and that is ultimately what has validated my decision to pursue a creative path.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

It’s funny because I was actually introduced to the art of linocut printing on TikTok! I kept seeing videos of printmakers creating the most bold and fun designs and the different applications of block printing really thrilled me. I bought a Speedball starter kit and dug right in (literally), trying over and over again to carefully carve out images and stamp them into life. At first there was a lot of trial and error involved (there still is!), but as I got more and more comfortable with the process I started letting loose with my illustrations.

The most important thing to me is that I make art that I think is fun- Keeping my art fairly unserious and silly is an important part of my ethos. I tend to be someone that can get stuck in feelings of sadness and dread, and one of the only ways I can get my head out of that space is to create something that connects me to joy. It’s a practice in nonattachment for me to disconnect from the end product a bit and simply enjoy the process of creating, which is where I feel most like myself. As I enter my mid twenties I feel like for the first time in my life I’m getting to know who I am, and allowing me to express myself freely is really helping me discover what brings me joy and purpose.

At my core, I want to create things that bring myself and others feelings of levity in the heaviness of life.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Every day I’m working to unlearn the lies I’ve been fed surrounding productivity, work, and my value as a person being tied to my career. Growing up, I felt a lot of dissonance with the idea of a “dream job,” nothing ever resonated with me even as a small child and when asked what I wanted to be when I grew up I usually just made up an answer. The truth is that I wasn’t surrounded by any professional creatives, so I simply didn’t have any framework for how a life without a traditional 40 hour a week job looks. I attended public schools that placed a lot of value on STEM fields and heavily encouraged students to pursue futures in those fields, and once I realized that I didn’t fit into that category I kind of checked out. It took me until I was 24 years old to even begin to grasp the idea that I could pay my bills as a creative. We are very much taught to lose ourselves in our jobs. That we are most valuable as people when we are making money for other people. I do think that I am really jaded and disillusioned by the current system, as we all watch the rich get richer and the middle class continue to disappear in America; but I think this disillusionment has forced me to look inward and think about what I really want to spend my life doing. I don’t have to pursue a traditional career, and I don’t have to place my focus on climbing any corporate ladders. I am allowed to exist in a way that brings me joy.
This is a process, of course, and unlearning the beliefs that limit me is an ongoing journey.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think the best thing that could happen for creatives is a Universal Basic Income. I think that creative ecosystems would really thrive as a result of working people having their basic needs met – many people cannot even access their creative energy because they are working 3 jobs trying to scrape by. The system is not in favor of independent artists, and it takes a position of financial privilege to even think about pursuing a career as an independent creator. Personally, I see that I wouldn’t be able to dedicate nearly as much time (if any) to my creative pursuits if it weren’t for the fact that my day job is flexible and fully remote. This is a super privileged position compared to individuals that work 40+ hours out of their home! I know that the concept of a UBI is still a really radical idea to a lot of folks, but I’m choosing to believe that the tides can still turn when it comes to our current economic and political system.

Contact Info:

• Website: oliviastoberstudios.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/oliviadstober

Image Credits
Ty Fox Photo Allison Davis Photography Emma Goes