Artist Bio
Janessa Bookout's Artist Bio
Janessa Bookout
Professional Artist, Author, Art Coach, and Small Business Owner
Currently based in Southern California, Janessa Bookout is a thriving artist and author who merges her passion for art with a commitment to empowering fellow artists. As an artist coach and small business owner, she shares her expertise and inspires others to build their own creative practices and/or careers.
This is the story of how she got here:
Originally from Tulsa, Oklahoma, and Albuquerque, New Mexico, Janessa was always creative and excelled academically while also working several part-time jobs, including serving as a YMCA summer camp counselor. She graduated with honors from Booker T. Washington High School in 2000, where she found her calling and the courage to begin her artistic journey.
Janessa pursued her dreams through earning a substantial scholarship to the Maryland Institute College of Art, which allowed her to move to Baltimore at age 18. There, she studied traditional fine art while also exploring digital technology, industrial fabrication, and liberal arts. Balancing her studies with restaurant work, she earned her BFA in Sculpture, graduating with honors in 2004.
After college, Janessa continued to create her own fine art while taking on roles as a creative fabricator, fashion model, and waitress. After traveling across the U.S., she relocated to Southern California in 2008, where she lived near the beach and developed her portfolio from a studio in Venice, CA.
In 2011, she joined forces with Dave Moore to establish their small business, DMZ Surfboards, where she managed office operations while also exploring surfboard fabrication techniques that enhanced her artistic practice. Janessa actively participated in solo and group exhibitions across Orange County and Los Angeles, showcasing her distinctive art.
In 2016, Janessa spent a year owning her own boutique surf shop / art gallery in Sunset Beach, CA, before transitioning to full time art gallery manager for Tumbleweed Arts in Laguna Beach and Rockstars of Art in Corona del Mar. She also worked remotely as the website developer and admin/manager for Michael Godard Art gallery in Las Vegas for several years.
In 2019, she stepped away from retail gallery management to embrace a project management position at Newport Awning Company, a custom fabrication shop, where she continues working today. She is also still actively managing DMZ Surfboards with her partner, Dave Moore, as well as her own business, Janessa Bookout Art, from her home office in Huntington Beach, CA.
A dedicated "ARTWORKAHOLIC," Janessa encapsulates her journey in her book titled "Artworkaholic: Confessions and Life Lessons for Independent Artists Building Their Own Creative Career Path." She wrote and published this first book in 2023 and began coaching fellow artists around the same time.
Today, she continues to create art from her home studio and her website offers her private collection of fine art for sale as well as commissions, art lessons, artist mentorship, and creative services of all kinds as an "artist, author and art coach".
Despite her busy schedule, Janessa cherishes her time off, basking in the beauty of Southern California's beaches and mountains. Janessa always looks forward to achieving more ambitious goals, while also reflecting in gratitude on the incredible progress she has made already.