We recently had the chance to connect with Eppie Bailey and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Eppie, thank you for taking the time to reflect back on your journey with us. I think our readers are in for a real treat. There is so much we can all learn from each other and so thank you again for opening up with us. Let’s get into it: What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about your customers?
Oh!!! This question surprised me! I was just telling a friend of mine how magical our customers are!!! I have tried to follow back the people who have followed us on Instagram, and somehow I have already followed our quota. Instagram will only let you follow 7500 accounts (so mean)! I see a lot of the things our people share and our customers are beautiful and madly creative! It surprised me how good it makes me feel to see people I am captivated by being captivated by OUR work! Seriously, sometimes our comments back and forth are like a love fest. So I guess I was surprised to learn that we attracted such cool people!
Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
Hello, I am Eppie Bailey a disciplinary artist. Quite simply that means I am a creative that has used my original ideas to produce visual art, writing and music for market. My business. The Professional Bohemians is a brand partnership with two of my sisters Tiffany Cataldo and Julie Barrett Habel, who are also creative jacks of all trades. We focus on wearable art, a way to showcase many of our visual art and crafting skills, by designing images for DTF transfers and print on demand items that we might then embellish, and by sculpting pieces of Art to offer as jewelry. We design first and foremost for ourselves and other creative, expressive people. This has allowed us the freedom to prioritize designs that motivate us to explore, while remaining unique and exciting, one of a kind, and supportive of creative freedom in expression and style.
Appreciate your sharing that. Let’s talk about your life, growing up and some of topics and learnings around that. Who were you before the world told you who you had to be?
That’s an interesting question to me, in that the phrase “before the world told you who you had to be” makes me wonder, was the world wrong?
As a child I was an observer. I am still more apt to watch from a safe distance, the things happening in the world. Due to the way my mind works, I tend to feel a perpetual disconnect. It leaves me feeling that I do not understand some of the things others find so apparent they can feel comfortable in their certainty. Sometimes I feel like a cautious mouse, anxiously darting out of my hole for a piece of cheese. I prefer to bring my cheese back to my hole, to consume it in the quiet and safety of my own space… to use the energy it provides to create something new. The world does not applaud that type of creature. It rewards the bold and the shiny. Absorbing some of the world’s expectations has arguably made me a little bolder and shinier. I have allowed myself to be a little of what the world told me I should be. I think I am better for it. Am I wrong?
I have an intimate understanding of how not having a typical mind has often made the world a difficult place for me to thrive, but I am also grateful for its beneficial challenges. I think the key is to allow myself to be challenged where success IS beneficial and not at a cost that negates that success. I can choose where to embrace the challenges or where making myself feel responsible to the world’s expectations is simply compliance.
When did you last change your mind about something important?
My mind is always changing. I do not know how a person can be a parent and not have their ideas and beliefs forever challenged. There are so many things that I told my older sons that I do not repeat to their younger sisters. I used to believe you had to be friends with everybody! My poor sons tried. Now I believe you have to be kind to everybody, but friendship is a gift.
I would say, as an artist (and a parent) the most important thing I have changed my mind about is how I am responsible in expression. I would’ve said that, to be a responsible artist we must always speak our truth. I have changed my mind about that. As I have grown older, I do not believe we should (or that it is even appropriate to) always speak my truth. I’ve matured to understand that my truth is not the same as the truth, and that my truth is personal and precious. I have the absolute privilege of unveiling it in places where I feel safe and supported, of not sharing where I feel challenged. I am not called to be a martyr of my truth and I do not owe a martyrdom to anybody. I can choose to share my truth where it forges connection and understanding. I can be true to myself without pushing myself onto people who are not ready to hear the things I have learned… things that may never be needed by them, or part of their personal journey. I have changed my perspective from ‘I will always speak my truth’ to ‘I will always speak the truth and I do not need to always be speaking.’
I went through a long period of time where I didn’t say anything, from the sheer relief of that new perspective. I am starting to find my voice again. That is something important.
Alright, so if you are open to it, let’s explore some philosophical questions that touch on your values and worldview. What’s a cultural value you protect at all costs?
This brings me back to university discussions. I would have to say individualism. My mind reasons that if decisions are always made to best serve the collective, there are so many individuals that are consequently harmed.
It is very important to me that minorities have a voice, and I believe there cannot be any societal ideal reached at the expense of others.
I have strong feelings about the importance of freedom of speech centered around that conviction. I believe that if we are not free to think, and then to freely express those thoughts, we are denied the right to autonomy. Personal autonomy is VERY important to me. A collective, where individuals are denied the right to freely collect, is worth no more than a crude, inefficient, utilitarian machine.
Before we go, we’d love to hear your thoughts on some longer-run, legacy type questions. Are you tap dancing to work? Have you been that level of excited at any point in your career? If so, please tell us about those days.
OH!!! I finally AM tap dancing to work every day!!! …Like from my couch to my work table… You mean figuratively right?
I LOVE what I am doing!!! I am so excited to sculpt and design things for the people who are buying our pieces. I look at their posts in my social media feeds and feel so lucky to attract creative, playful, big hearted people of all ages. We have writers, clowns, students of circus arts, theater folk, musicians, crafters, artists, poets, and thousands of magical personalities, sharing things that make them joyful. I am constantly reminded I am part of something bigger… this huge segment of the community that exists solely to make the world better using our gloriously diverse, meticulously honed gifts.
I love working with my friend Steve Quelet, writing and performing original music. Since the pandemic people are on fire to get out and see live music. It is so exciting to get to experience that energy.
I also get to serve the community through affiliations with several county and state organizations. I am so passionate about the Arts in rural America and creative entrepreneurship.
I wouldn’t say I tap dance to my part-time job, cleaning offices for my niece’s business, but that job keeps me in shape for all the other tap dancing I have been doing lately! Honestly it’s rather therapeutic and I appreciate the break from focusing on my business.
I still have one child at home and she cannot be counted as work!!! She homeschools me… and her siblings and father keep me focused on family as a foundation for all my ‘things.’
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.theprofessionalbohemians.com/home
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/professionalbohemians
- Other: TikTok@professionalbohemians
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