Meet Jennalee Butch

We were lucky to catch up with Jennalee Butch recently and have shared our conversation below.

Jennalee, thank you so much for joining us today and appreciate you talking about a sensitive topic. It’s unfortunately relevant to so many in the community as layoffs have been on the rise recently, and so we’d appreciate hearing your story and how you overcame being let go?

A few years back I was fired from a job I thought I loved. It was pretty much my whole life and I was absolutely devastated. In that time of my life I only painted once in a while since I was always at work. The day after I was let go however, I picked up my paint brush and started painting like crazy! With this new time on my hands I even started posting my paintings on social media and to my surprise people wanted to buy them! I had been so consumed in a corporate job that didn’t care about me, I was letting it drain me of my creativity and my dreams. I didn’t have the self esteem or confidence to pursue art before but once it became my only option for income I put my all into it and now it is my full time career.

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?

Currently I am a full time artist. My focus is in painting, mostly acrylics and watercolors. The themes I tend to lean towards are on the darker/spookier side of things which help me express both my traumatic memories and my more sentimental nostalgia. It’s a wonderful feeling waking up everyday and getting to be creative. Because I sell my art primarily through social media I’ve been able to connect with people from all over the world. There is this super special community I’ve found where other horror lovers and creatives come together and support eachother. I’m super stoked to be apart of it.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Maybe this one might be a little obvious but passion was definitely the first quality that started me on this path. I say passion but honestly it might be more like Obsession, ha. From an early age I had an interest in art, it helped me cope with my trauma, it made gave me a sense of self worth. I spent so many hours practicing drawing everyday, it was all I wanted to do.
Another skill I’m thankful to have is discipline. Working totally for myself, I have no one to lean on but me, no one is going to pick up my slack. Even on days when I am not motivated or I’m feeling uninspired I force myself to do anything at all towards my career. If I can’t manage to pick up my paint brush, I’ll do a print order, I’ll do networking on social media, prep canvases, anything to stay productive in any way at all.
The last quality I’ll talk about is one I’m still working on and as corny as it sounds it’s believing in myself. I’ve had a lot of people in my life fill my head with doubts, I’ve compared myself to others. It’s extremely difficult some days to even post one of my paintings on social media, the anxiety of “is it good enough?”, “will people like it?” Can be just so overwhelming. It certainly helps finding people who believe in you as well but if there’s no part of you that believes you can do it, you probably won’t even try.

To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?

This is a pretty complex question for me. I grew up with two sets of parents, much like a lot of kids do now a days. My households were polar opposites of eachother and I spent a lot of time at both.

My dad is a musician and I learned so much from watching him chase his dreams. He taught me persistence and dedication but he was also really honest with me when it came to my art. If he thought something I made wasn’t good enough he had no issue telling me. Making him proud was a huge priority for me and I’d work so hard to gain his approval.(I still do) My step mom, we all say in my family is our business manager. She spends hours and hours watching videos and researching ways to be a successful artist/musician. When I really began doing art professionally she helped me to find events to sell my art at and she interacts with my social media posts to help boost the algorithm. She always pushes me to find new ways to grow my following promote myself.

I get a lot of my inspiration from the time I spent with my mother and step father. In both good and not so great ways. It tended to be a very toxic environment, a lot of violence, addiction, and neglect, causing my art to be an essential coping mechanism/outlet. That being said, my mother and step father both loved music and horror movies which are strong influences on my art style. They were also the biggest fans of my art, like they truly believed I could be an artist even from a young age. The paintings I thought were garbage, they would hang on their walls, and so in that way they gave me my much needed confidence. I lost both of them earlier this year and it’s been a living nightmare every day. They continue to inspire my art through their memory and my excruciating grief. I hope I am still making them proud.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Etsy.com/shop/jennuhleesgallery
• Instagram: @jennuhhlee