Meet Jey Austen

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

Hi Jey, thank you so much for making time for us today. Let’s jump right into a question so many in our community are looking for answers to – how to overcome creativity blocks, writer’s block, etc. We’d love to hear your thoughts or any advice you might have.

As a creative, I didn’t realize how much mental health matters until later in life. When your cup is empty, how can you pour from it? With ADHD, anxiety, and depression, I absolutely hate the neurotypical advice of “just create a little every day, and you will slowly perfect your craft” – it usually comes from a white man in a black t-shirt who has never experienced true loss in his life.

My therapist constantly tells me to put on my own oxygen mask first before I help others and this applies to creativity. REST. I fill my social calendar so much and then my best friend who sees me at every live show told me one day “I forget you’re an artist and actually, like, talented.” She didn’t mean it in a bad way, but it made me realize it had been months since I created.

First I had to get my brain right – therapy, adjusting my meds with my psych, and making sure my basic needs were met. You don’t realize how hard basic life habits are until you’re deep in a depression spiral. Making sure I’m eating 3 meals a day and 2 snacks, getting 8 hours of sleep, drinking enough water and practicing basic hygiene – as a work from home artist and designer, these basic things are HARD.

Another part of filling your cup is surrounding yourself with art. Go to museums, take a walk through a mural-filled neighborhood. We can’t always be focused on output, we have to get inspired. Watch an art film, scroll pinterest, open those dusty art school textbooks. Doesn’t matter -where- you get your inspiration, but find things that make you go “I could do that” and then,,, do it.

Once your bases are covered, you have to give yourself TIME – actual unstructured time. Cancel your plans. Leave your phone in the other room. Throw on some music that makes you feel something and just do it. Recently, going through the end of another failed situationship, someone shared with me FKA Twigs’ music for the first time. The feeling, emotion, pain, dance, art direction, just EVERYTHING. I was floored. I didn’t talk to anyone all weekend. I put my phone on DND and subscribed to youtube music so I could watch her videos uninterrupted. Then I painted. I didn’t even have a clean canvas, I just painted over some thrifted art, and did nothing but paint the entire weekend.

Perhaps the most important part of this – SHARE YOUR WORK. As I was painting, I posted progress on my insta story. Even though it was personal and more like art therapy, I needed to share my process. I don’t want anyone to forget I’m an artist, let alone myself. I’ve had friends text me months later “thank you for always sharing your art, it motivated me to start my own” and that made it all worth it. We don’t make work in a silo – invite your friends to body double and work on your art together. You don’t have to do it alone. Happy creating <3.

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

I am a designer, artist, podcast host, and just generally a person trying to make my corner of the world a better place.

Based in Austin, Texas, I am a freelance designer for Big Tech. I work in Design Systems – which is a fancy way of saying that I make sure when you see a button on an app or website that it looks the same every time, follows a specific set of rules, and is accessible so that everyone is able to read the text and interact with the button. Instead of just designing apps, I design the style guide on steroids that app designers and developers pull from to make apps. I’ve done so many types of design in my career – created brands, websites, apps, and everything in between. I love that I’ve never had to pick an industry, sure I work in tech now, but I’ve also designed for high-end restaurants, theme parks, higher education, etc. My career is non-linear. I went to school for film and theater, and used to do carpentry, welding, pyrotechnics, makeup art and costume design before deciding I actually wanted a paycheck and to occasionally go to the doctor.

When I’m not designing, painting, sculpting, or attending art shows, I cohost a podcast called How Gay Thou Art with Clint Keller. Each episode is an hour long comedic well-researched deep dive into niche topics in Evangelical Christianity such as Christian theme parks, adult toys, furries, and textbooks. While I am a non-binary artist with no connection to religion now, it took a ton of therapy as someone raised in cult-like faith healing churches in Waco, Texas, and I want to peel back the veil on that world to give context to why Evangelicals target the queer community.

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?

Creative mentorship and networking – any chance I get I am at the next design conference, Creative Mornings, or burlesque figure drawing. I love it because I’ve met so many creatives – ceramicists, illustrators, sculptors, painters, filmmakers – who problem-solve in ways I would have never imagined. Nothing like asking your 100 most artistic besties for feedback on what you’re working on.

Learning anything and everything – there’s inspiration everywhere. I’m work from home, and hate sitting at my desk. 9/10 times when I’m designing, I’m watching youtube documentaries about ancient witchcraft, how DNA works, or use cases and drawbacks of generative AI. We live in a world where all the knowledge you could ever ask for is at your fingertips, if you just have the time to consume it, so I try to take advantage of that as often as possible.

Share your work. How will people know what you do if you don’t tell them? Social media is great for this. Even if you don’t like what you’re working on or aren’t sure about what to do next, just put it on close friends, ask the audience of creatives that you’re building around you. But don’t just take – give constructive and actionable feedback when asked. We’re a community after all, mentor and be mentored, we don’t exist in a vacuum.

As we end our chat, is there a book you can leave people with that’s been meaningful to you and your development?

Austin Kleon’s series Steal Like an Artist and Show Your Work. They were exactly what I needed when I was feeling unispired, He focuses on creative inspiration and explains that nothing is a new idea, all work is a response to something and we just may not know the references. Take from multiple sources and create new works based off your favorite work that inspired you – then don’t forget to share that work!!

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