I came across Jess and Mel at the inaugural event for RAW artists Kitchener-Waterloo in November 2016. I enjoyed their work and Mel's live painting at the event. I'm always looking for new artists and creatives to connect with and I put out a call for suggestions. Laura Munz (Paint by Munzy, previous blog interviewee) suggested Jess and Mel. We met earlier this month and had a lovely chat. Read on to find out more about this artistic duo.
1. How did your business Jess and Mel come to be?
Jess:
We're at Laurier. We're Laurier students. We both went into this class called Entrepreneurship 200. We were in a group meeting together. After our group meeting, we ending up splitting off and talking. We talked about what our interests were.
Mel:
I found out that she was a photographer and she found out that I was an artist and it was just two creatives with the same values and same mindset. We just clicked.
Jess:
We knew we wanted to make a business, we didn't know what, but we knew we wanted to combine our crafts of photography and painting. We knew we could make something new and different.
Mel:
This was around September of last year. We decided to just do this project called the Art of Movember, because Movember was coming up. We found 10 random guys at school, we asked if we could take their photos and I painted them. That was our first art project. It was really cool. We actually sold a couple, but we thought we could do something more collaborative. We literally had the idea at the same time. Why don't I paint on top of her photos, instead of using her photos as a reference. Everyone does that. It was more collaborative to do that. That is how our style was formed.
2. Do you ever have any artistic disagreements?
Mel:
Jess does all the photography. I don't really touch that. I just let her be. She obviously knows more about photography than me.
Jess:
Same with the painting. I just let that be. I saw Mel's work and I was blown away. I showed all my friends, all my family. My aunt actually commissioned a piece from her. We like each other's styles, we trust each other.
3. You're both self-taught. Do either of you feel that you've missed out on anything by not taking the traditional route of formal art education?
Jess:
I took some photography courses in high school. Other than that, my grandfather was a photographer for the Air Force and he has a huge portfolio of photography, so a lot of the things I've learned have come from him. Pretty much self-taught. YouTube videos, stuff like that.
Mel:
I actually prefer being self-taught. I think that if I went to art school, I would be way more focused on the theory, the technical side of art and it might hinder my creativity. Sometimes it can be limiting. They make you do this, they make you do that. Being self-taught and also being at a business school allowed me to see that art and business go hand in hand. I think that a lot of art students don't understand that being an art student is also owning a business.
Jess:
I enjoy being self-taught as well because I learn a lot about myself and how I learn. I took every single art class in high school and I would bomb every single art history test. I wouldn't even try. I loved Monet, and Van Gogh, but I couldn't wrap my head around all the art history they were teaching us. I was getting so fed up in art class. I wanted to just paint.
4. You're both students and have your own individual art businesses in addition to Jess and Mel Art. How do you balance everything?
Jess:
We don't know. This whole week has been 8 am until 1 am. It's been crazy with school. I also have a part-time job. I totally believe that education is important, but for myself, I feel that it has been holding me back in a sense. I'm going to take this year off and focus on Jess and Mel and make some money. I think I've just been frustrated being in school.
Mel:
That's our biggest struggle in life right now. It's exam season right now too. We'd much rather be doing art stuff than writing 12-page papers and exams. We have to allocate time for school and it's kind of depressing doing that. It's taken me five years to finish. I wanted to spread out my courses so that I could split my time evenly between art and school. I didn't want to drain myself. I feel like a lot of people feel like they have to rush through school. What's the rush? Where are you going? Spreading out your life helps with the balance.
5. Who or what inspires you?
Mel:
For me, I had an art business before I met Jess and a lot of my inspiration from that comes from my own culture, black culture and what I see around me. My personal art is a reflection of what it means to be a black woman in the 21st century. With Jess, we really focus on the community. A lot of our art is community-based: what it means to be a good community member, what inspires our community. We do a lot of cityscapes or historical buildings.
Jess:
I think for me, my inspiration comes from my grandfather. He did so much. At 13 years old he had his first publication in the Globe & Mail. I think his drive to succeed...I see that in my family, my dad made his own business and went to school to do something he really wanted to do. I just have the drive to succeed and do well and be comfortable and happy in life.
6. What has been the highlight of your artistic career as Jess and Mel so far?
Jess:
We just went to a marketing conference about a month ago and we met Gary Vee. That was amazing.
Mel:
As Laurier students, we have this opportunity to be a part of this program called Launchpad. It's an entrepreneurship hub based out of Communitech. They help you validate and grow your business. They were the ones who were able to send us to that conference. Out of Launchpad we were also invited to do Nuit Blanche last October. Laurier has an office right downtown Toronto where Nuit Blanche was happening and they do an event every year. We were asked to be their Nuit Blanche exhibit. We went down and took a skyline shot of Toronto and we printed it out on this huge 3' by 6' canvas and the night of Nuit Blanche I painted it live.
Jess:
It was an amazing experience. I had actually never been to Nuit Blanche before. I had always wanted to go. This was such a great opportunity. Launchpad has been an amazing spot and support system for us.
7. Have there been any disappointments?
Jess:
I don't know if I would say disappointments. We did try to see if The City of Waterloo or THE MUSEUM would want our Corduroy Road piece. We brought our original to THE MUSEUM and showed them what we created. We knew they would have a piece of the Corduroy road. They loved the art, they were very interested and they were going to give us a quote...
Mel:
But the thing is, they wanted all of our reproductive right and copyrights.
Jess:
What they offered us was $300. We said no, we cannot do that. It costs $300 to even make that piece.
Mel:
We wouldn't have been able to reuse or reproduce the image.
Jess:
That was kind of our biggest disappointment. I wouldn't even call it a disappointment, it was a learning experience. That was interesting. We knew that we would be able to make way more money on in it.
Mel:
And that it was worth more.
8. What's the best artistic advice you've been given so far?
Mel:
We've been given a lot of advice in terms of the business side. How to market yourself as an artist, how to keep your creativity as an independent, how to value your work. Laura Munz has been mentoring us. She's been helping us a lot. She's been helping us with how to get our work out there in the community. (You can read my interview with Laura here).
9. Do you have any advice for aspiring artists and creatives?
Mel:
I would say that a lot of creatives tend to hinder themselves. They want to be an artist but won't know where to start putting out their work. I would say if you think your work is not that great, or not good enough, the only way to get to that point is to just start putting it out now. When I started, I turned my personal Instagram page into my art page and just started posting every day the art that I would make. Back in the day, it wasn't that great, but when you start putting your work out there and people start responding to it, that will motivate you to do more. That motivation will push you to start developing yourself. That's what will grow you into what you want to be. It doesn't make sense to wait until you think you're ready. In reality, you'll be waiting forever. Just do it. Life will just push you in the direction that you want to go.
Jess:
We are our own worst critics. Even with my photography, I wondered if it was any good, but just put it out there. There are going to be people who love a photo that you literally hate. That's happened to me where I've done a photo shoot and I loved a photo so much and their favourite is so much different. Everyone has different perspectives and I think that with photography, it's getting really hard to be your own. Everyone has a camera. Our phones are cameras. Everyone can produce an amazing photo, but I feel like going back to the basics is going to make you a photographer that stands out. My grandpa just gifted me with a film camera. Going back to those old school roots, I'm excited to figure that out. He taught me a few things, he gave me the manual. I have a 50 page manual on this camera.
Mel:
It's really about staying grounded. Figure out who you are as an artist and what it is you want to tell the world.
Jess:
What drives you?
Mel:
If you stick to your core values, that will help to drive you as a creative.
10. What's next for Jess and Mel?
Jess:
We actually to applied to something in Waterloo and we are crossing our fingers that we get in. If we get it, that would be our next big project.
Mel:
We just want to keep creating. One of the biggest things that has been so hard for us is finding time with school and our own things, to just create art. Now after exams are done, we'll have more time to create.
Jess:
We definitely want to do a KW series. So far we only have the Jane Bond and the Corduroy Road. We want to explore the whole region.
