We were lucky to catch up with Jessica Hollander recently and have shared our conversation below.
Jessica, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
I am so fortunate that I get to live my passion as far as career, which mostly eliminates any work ethic problems. There are of course some tasks I dislike and therefore put off, like accounting and cleaning my shop, but I enjoy almost all of the other work. If someone had told me twenty years ago that I would be capable of being this devoted and working this hard for such a long time, I’d definitely be surprised! But it just flows very naturally for me in that respect.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
I am fundamentally a figurative oil painter, but after spending my 20s doing large-scale, full-body portrait paintings from life, I realized that there was no way to make a living doing that. I also had realized at that point that I needed to find a way to make my painting my full-time job, and while praying for an idea to do that, I stumbled upon the craft of putting my paintings on ceramic tiles using heat transfer. This was so exciting for me and led to me pivoting from thinking about painting only as a fine artist to looking at the art from a design perspective as well. I began to focus on botanical subject matter because I loved the design potential in the shapes and colors. From those little ceramic tiles, my whole lifestyle brand bloomed. I also have always had a passion for interior design, so this was a way to fuse my interests – I adore designing home decor from paintings. What I think is truly special about my collection of products is that they also incorporate my spirituality and they are all intended to carry healing energy channeled from nature.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
When I began manufacturing products overseas, I was absolutely terrified that I didn’t possess the necessary savvy to know how to vet and communicate with manufacturers. This was an area of my work that had a steep learning curve for me, so it’s really fascinating to now have no fears whatsoever in this regard. Definitely super impactful to know how to find and work with all of these wonderful factories over the years!
I started by selling my products as a NYC street vendor, which was priceless as far as being able to interact with my customers and learn from their reactions to my work. I think my courage in getting out there without shame about the venue helped me so much.
I think what keeps me going through all of the myriad challenges of having my own business is really my tenacity. You can’t imagine when you begin a journey like this all the challenges that lie ahead, so absolute passion about what you are doing is probably the most important ingredient.
What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?
My primary challenge thus far is marketing my products. I don’t necessarily have the know how to make the right choices in this department and spend my resources wisely. I am definitely on the lookout for a partner who would really understand and appreciate my work and therefore have a talent for marketing it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://indiaandpurry.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/indiaandpurry/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/indiaandpurry/
Image Credits
Alexandra Grablewski (for all product shots)
