We recently connected with Jessica Poundstone 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?
In the past, my work ethic used to come from fear and anxiety about not meeting my own standards, and not achieving what I wanted to achieve. My work ethic now comes from absolutely loving what I do. When you love what you do, nothing really feels like work. I feel so lucky to be in this situation at this moment in my life: I never take it for granted that I’ll be able to continue to work as a full-time artist and author, but I certainly hope I will!
Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?
I am a full-time artist. (It’s still hard for me to believe it!) Most of my work is abstract and color-focused work that I create either digitally and print as pigment prints, or on canvas with acrylics. I have loved art ever since I was a kid – both looking at it and making it. I didn’t go to art school because that didn’t seem like a “practical” choice; instead I studied humanities and writing, which eventually led me to work for advertising agencies and other clients as a writer and creative director. I was always making art on the side, but never considered making that my full-time occupation until the pandemic. People started to take an interest in my work, I started selling it, and things really ballooned from there. Since that time, I’ve had the chance to place my work in places I never thought it would go, including in Louis Vuitton stores around the world; in the Mean Girls the Movie Musical (in Regina George’s room), and on a Virgin cruise ship to name a few! My latest project has been combining my love of art, dogs and humor to make a book called “Museum of Dogs: A Romp Through Art History for Dog People,” published by Chronicle Books. The whole process of putting the book together was such an amazing learning experience that I am so grateful to have had! I hope I get the chance to work on more books; I’m also currently focused on finding partners to work on on creating products featuring my designs, as I hope to bring my love of color into people’s everyday lives.
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?
Three qualities that feel important in my journey have been curiosity, bravery, and an understanding of the basics of running a business.
Curiosity is second nature to me, but letting myself explore whatever I’m interested in at the moment has not always been an easy thing to let myself do. The more you can set yourself free to explore, the more you will learn about what you like and don’t like; what lights you up and what doesn’t. To me, curiosity is a path to both self-knowledge and empathy, which is so important in so many facets of life.
Bravery often means something as simple as not being afraid to look stupid! Asking questions, questioning the status quo, knowing when to get help, and challenging myself to do things that scare me are all acts of bravery. (I started performing improv a few years ago: I cannot imagine my life without it now, but I was terrified when I first began taking classes!) Bravery also means being willing to rebound from setbacks, try new things, and trust myself. One of my favorite quotes, which comes from playwright, actor and filmmaker Andre Gregory is: “There is no such thing as failure: everything leads to something.” Trusting that that is true is also a form of bravery.
And finally, having an understanding of business — which came from working in the corporate world for many years — has been extremely helpful in structuring and running my own business. From serving my clients to deciding which revenue streams to pursue to setting up my website, my understanding of how businesses run has been invaluable to me.
As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?
One book that’s been very important to me is “Wishcraft,” by Barbara Sher. In it, she leads you through the steps to figure out a) what you like to do and b) how to do it 🙂 It sounds simple, but — particularly if you’ve gone down a career or life path that hasn’t turned out the way you had envisioned — it can be very hard to take the time to reassess and change direction. One of my favorite recommendations from the book is to set a goal, then write out all of the things you would need to do to make it happen, until you get to something you can do today. The act of taking one small step immediately is incredibly satisfying, and helps build momentum toward creating a new reality — both internally and externally.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.jessicapoundstone.com & www.museumofdogsbook.com
- Instagram: www.instagram.com/jessicapoundstone & www.instagram.com/museumofdogsbook
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicapoundstone/
Image Credits
Christopher Dibble
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