Meet Jamie Scheppers

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jamie Scheppers. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jamie below.

Jamie, 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?

Looking back, my work ethic was very intentionally shaped as a child by my parents and the activities they enrolled me in.

First came dance, which started almost immediately after I got out of diapers, and continued until midway through college. I did MANY other activities growing up (piano, softball, voice lessons, musical theater, academic camps, etc…), but dance is always the one that I think of as shaping my personality the most. At one point, I was spending more than 20 hours per week in dance classes or musical theater dance rehearsals. And that was on top of an AP college-prep course load, and other extracurriculars. I have no idea when I slept…

Those countless hours in dance taught me how to come to class on time and prepared; how my actions outside of class (stretching, sleeping, eating…) affected my performance; how to keep pushing myself without getting discouraged by corrections; how to work together with a team AND how to stand out as a soloist when appropriate… To some, I was prancing around in a leotard and tutu, but to me and my classmates, we were athletes training for competition and the endless pursuit of perfection… All those hours spent honing our minds and bodies taught us focus, discipline and work ethic like no textbook could ever come close to!

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

My painting practice started off as a fun hobby as I worked at my family’s beer distribution business. Over a span of a few years, I began to hit some pretty major career roadblocks, and it didn’t help that those challenges came during the early months of the Covid pandemic. It seemed that everyone was facing burnout from the stress of it all, and I was no exception. During that time, I began to spend more and more time on my painting because it helped me unwind after work. By the end of 2020, I had even decided to start a side-business of selling jewelry made from my stress-busting after-work watercolors. At the end of 2022, I walked away from the family business to focus solely on my art business: JL Scheppers Art.

My fear of regret had grown far stronger than my fear of failure.

I spent 2023 trying to do all of the things myself as I set off to build an “empire” selling watercolor jewelry and encaustic paintings. I took classes, attempted to learn Google Analytics, set up a photography studio, tried to sell products wholesale, pushed myself to get better at social media, sold at craft and vendor shows more weekends than not, and tried to keep up with juggling all the plates by myself. Unfortunately I found that I was just chasing a different flavor of burnout, and trying to hold myself to a new standard of unattainable perfection.

The worst part was that I didn’t have a good reason WHY I was making art. That made it nearly impossibly to market my art, and left me wandering aimlessly without any meaningful goals. That’s why I’ve taken a vastly different approach in 2024: I’ve been focusing on healing and figuring out my WHY.

This year has been one of relaxation and very deep work on what I want my life as an artist to look like. I know that I want to intentionally shape my creative life so that it both feeds my soul and speaks to my patrons in a meaningful way. I know that art has the power to move people, but I have to figure out what I want to say before I can really hit the gas on that next chapter of my art journey.

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?

Looking back, I can think of many things that helped me get to where I am today, but here are three that stand out as universally helpful to anyone on a mission:

First and foremost, I’ve always believed that I can learn to do just about anything (barring physical limitations…). So when it came time to set up an e-commerce website, I simply dug in and figured it out. With YouTube and Google at my fingertips, there was no excuse to not at least try to figure things out for myself. And if I did need help, I was already in the best place to find it!

After that, I give a lot of credit to my ability to think independently. If I simply regurgitate back what I’ve learned, I’m not creating anything new, and isn’t “creation” the whole point of the creative lifestyle? During my intentional pause this year, one of my goals is to figure out how I want to contribute to the art world in my own unique and meaningful way. Thinking independently is at the very root of that process.

And the third quality that I think has gotten me this far on my journey is a commitment to mental health. Make no mistake, mine hasn’t always been in peak shape over the years, but I’ve learned to push through those difficult times to find my way back to the brighter side of things. As an adult, I’ve struggled with depression that comes and goes in waves, but I’ve learned what helps me and what hinders me in that battle. I’ve learned to appreciate and celebrate the good times, and I know deep down that the hard times are only temporary. My art, and especially the Rainbow Waves Collection, has become a way to process that mental health journey.

So my advice to people is to always be learning, but to think for yourself. And through it all, take care of your mental health so that you can get the most out of life!

What do you do when you feel overwhelmed? Any advice or strategies?

When I’m overwhelmed, like I’ve been at many points in my life, I think it’s important to get away from the noise, recenter myself, and get some perspective on things. Over the years, I’ve found many tactics to do this, but they all involve removing distractions and finding stillness. Being overwhelmed is nothing more than being bombarded by too many deadlines, obligations, people and thoughts all screaming for your attention. By focusing on quieting and calming my mind, I can send those attention-seekers back to a metaphorical waiting room where they wait their turn to be called in so I can deal with them one at a time in the proper order.

Practically speaking, this can mean yoga, hiking, gardening, cooking or any number of activities that require focus and don’t involve my phone. Those activities will usually quiet down the noise for me, but there’s always meditation if I need to get more serious about shutting out the distractions. I like to do that by floating in an isolation tank because it ensures that I will give my brain the time and space it needs to find the inner peace I’m searching for. Once I’ve tamed my overwhelmed mind, I can get pen and paper to sort things out into an orderly list, or put in time with a journal to do some deeper thinking and strategizing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://JLScheppersArt.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlscheppersart/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JLScheppersArt

Image Credits

Jamie L Scheppers