Shoutout LA Interview
Q: "Hi Janessa, how do you think about risk?"
A: "There is a great risk in being an artist on any level. Even just the decision to take my first real art class in high school and then to leap into my future by attending art school felt like a risk. It would have been much easier to stay safe and do the “normal college” thing with state schools and frat parties. I was a straight A student who could have gone in any direction, but I felt a calling toward my career in art.
I risked experiencing all the criticism of my art. I risked not being “good enough”. I risked facing my own fears and insecurities on many levels. But all of those risks seemed completely worth it compared to the idea of remaining in mediocrity and monotony of a life without art.
So I moved across the country, alone at age 18. I still remember the culture shock of going from Tulsa Oklahoma to Baltimore, Maryland. I attended one of the most prestigious art schools in the nation, which happened to be in one of the highest crime cities surrounded by extreme wealth and extreme poverty on every corner. We were constantly at risk of being mugged or having our cars broken into as we learned to watch our back in a way I never comprehended growing up in Tulsa.
I had scholarships, grants and student loans. I worked in restaurants and did work study programs to pay my bills. I had 6 hour long studio classes that expected 6 hours of homework outside of class. When I look back at those years I wonder how I ever managed to get it all done, but somehow I took on that risk of being an independent artist and came out stronger as a result.
In the end it was all 100% worth it, as I attained my degree in 2004, a Bachelors of Fine Art, and went on to figure out life as an artist beyond school. I was no longer an “art student” so I had to step up and become a “real artist” whatever that meant? So I continued working in restaurants for many years as I also took jobs doing anything creative I could find.
I worked as a fabricator in the exhibits department at a zoo. I worked in wood shops and metal shops. I worked as a fashion model and did freelance work of all kinds. I was in many art shows and managed to sell some art but it was never enough to be a full time working artist. I travelled around the U.S. for years looking for answers of where I was meant to be and what I was meant to do.
I finally settled in on the beaches of Southern California in 2008. As our economy was crumbling from the real estate bubble and social media seemed to be changing the world around us, I decided the time was now… or it would be never. I started with Venice Beach and later relocated to Huntington Beach where I still reside today.
It was while I was living in Venice that I met my true love, a surfboard shaper who is quite the creative artist in his own right. Together we formed a partnership in business and life and we continue to support each others dreams as we survive the turbulence of small business ownership amidst the covid era shutdown and now the post pandemic inflation.
We have talked quite a bit over the years about how miraculous the events of our life together have been. Although we have been through some very difficult times, somehow our risks have all turned to rewards as we reap the harvest of our decades of hard work, creativity and faith in a power much greater than ourselves.
Now I have embarked on another new journey, as a newly published author and artist coach. It was a huge risk to write a book at all, sharing some very personal parts in my story with the public in hopes of helping other artists on a similar path.
The experience of writing and publishing my first book “ARTworkaholic” also led me to offer myself as an art coach and creative business consultant to my fellow artists.
It has taken a while to understand how my path led me here but I am feeling both inspired and more confident than I have in years as I embraced my full identity and rebuilt my own professional artist website at janessabookoutart.com to share all my fine art and creative services in one place."
Click the link below to check out the full interview with me, published in August 2024:
https://shoutoutla.com/meet-janessa-bookout-artist-author-and-art-coach/