Jocelyn Elizabeth: Painting on the Weekends
Did you think of yourself as a creative kid? What did you do for fun?
Yes, I think I’ve always been creative in different ways. When I was younger I was very interested in calligraphy and hand lettering, though I didn’t know it was a potential career path at the time. I’ve always loved song lyrics and quotes and would spend time writing them out in my various journals with different inks. My grandfather was an art teacher so I spent some time learning to draw by tracing cartoons at his drafting table. I also loved learning French, taking photos with my Polaroid camera and singing karaoke, and played the flute until halfway through college. I played sports through high school (cross-country, basketball, track), loved playing board games/card games, and spending time outside. I never really thought of myself as an artist, though - If you had asked me back then, I would have said either one of my two brothers would have been more likely to grow up to be an artist, though I don’t think I was really thinking of it as a career option at all.
Tell us about a day in your life, how do you fit in creative moments?
I was laid off from my corporate career at the end of 2023, and am still figuring out what comes next, so I have more open time right now than I did when I was creating while working full-time and parenting. It’s funny because I thought that would mean I would spend much more time on creative projects, but in actuality, I found it easier to fit in creativity when I knew I had to schedule it into my day very intentionally. As a mom, there is always something to fill the space - my son home sick, appointments, toys to pick up or old clothes to donate - so I learned that I need to implement my own structure to stay creative. Before I was laid off, I was very burnt out. I’d been waking up at 4 a.m. to get to the gym and back home before my husband left for work ~6, taking care of my son and getting him off to daycare, working a full-time job either from home or spending 60+ minutes commuting each way (only ~13 miles into Boston!), dealing with a neck injury, and then working on my creative business after my son went to bed, waking up with him throughout the night, and repeating the whole thing over and over.
A typical day for me right now is waking up without an alarm, which typically means between 5:30-6 a.m. My son is in Kindergarten this year and usually wakes up shortly after me. We spend the morning together - he likes to watch a show while he eats breakfast and I get his lunch ready, and then we are typically throwing a football or baseball or basketball around in the house (or the backyard once it’s warmer, though he would gladly play sports in the snow). We are lucky to live close enough to his school that we can walk there together. Some days we’ll leave earlier than we need to and take the long way to spend more time outside. After I drop him off to school, I walk home - sometimes I go directly, but especially when it’s nicer out, I’ll stay out and walk. One thing I like to do to fit in creativity is to bring my camera. I was a photographer before I was a painter, and love taking macro nature photos so can often be found crouching down between trees or photographing tiny flowers that grow in the cracks in the road. My husband gets home ~2 p.m., and my son gets out of school ~3, so I try to schedule the majority of work I want to prioritize between 9:30-2:30 when I know I’ll be able to focus, and have the most energy. What I’m working on varies by day - it could be writing a poem or essay for my studio journal/newsletter, making art in my sketchbook, working on a commission, photographing work to send to my licensing agent, or emailing galleries or interior designers. Sometimes it’s job searching, networking calls, working on a book proposal, organizing my office or studio, or updating my website. After my son gets home, 3-7:30ish is usually spent getting snacks, playing sports, driving to activities, making dinner, coloring or playing a game, or otherwise spending time together before getting ready for bed. Bedtime has been moving later and later lately, so it’s entirely possible I fall asleep while putting my son to bed, but I try not to, and then from ~8:30-9:30/10 typically read. I’m working on getting away from screens before bed as I can suffer from insomnia.
When I was working full-time, most of my studio time was late at night, but now I try to spend at least one weekday and a few hours on weekend mornings painting. In the winter, my husband watches our son on Saturday and Sunday mornings so I can have the uninterrupted time to do that. As the weather gets warmer, my son will have more activities and I’ll trade studio time for watching him play soccer and baseball.
Here are a few things I’ve found helpful in the midst of a busy schedule to make sure I’m fitting something creative into each day:
- In 2021, I did a 365 project. It started as a photography project (take 1 photo per day), which helped me get in the habit of taking my camera everywhere, but it turned into a make something everyday project. I used an app on my phone to upload a photo of whatever I’d made into a little calendar so I could look back and see what I’d created.
- I have a daily sketchbook practice. I admittedly miss days, but try to make sure I have 15 minutes everyday to make something in my sketchbook - a painting, drawing, collage, poem. I like to do this either before my son wakes up, or as soon as I get in the door from dropping my son off at school. Once I start, the hardest part for me is stopping at 15 minutes, and since I have the time right now, sometimes I’ll stretch it to 30, but I usually have to set a timer to make sure I move on to my next activity.
- I enjoy taking creative classes, virtually and in-person. It helps me to have structure of someone else giving prompts or assignments, and accountability with peers in the class.
- I went to France for an artist residency in 2024. I applied for it while I was still in my full-time job because I was never able to have an extended period of time to dedicate to my art. I was there for 2 weeks and had the most amazing time and freedom to create.
- Work on art projects with my son, who loves to paint. One of my favorite things to do is to take some of his art supplies out into the backyard and sit on a blanket together. I let him paint over some of my old canvases and even if I’m not making my own work, it feels like a great use of creative time. I do want to do a painting series that we co-create so have this on my list for warmer weather or a future artist residency as there are a few we could attend together.
- I’ve also recently made changes to how I’m releasing original art so that I can spend more time painting and less time on the administrative tasks related to selling art. Instead of regularly updating my website with work, I’ll be releasing original art only 2-3x per year for 2 weeks only. At the end of the 2 weeks, any work that remains in inventory will be repurposed into something new. If interested, you can read more about how I’m working here.
Who would you love to collaborate with? What’s a dream project for you?
This is maybe a little out of left field but I would love to collaborate with a musician to write song lyrics. I don’t have formal songwriting experience, though I’ve read books and looked into Berklee’s programs, and dabble alongside my poetry. I love the idea of working with someone like Kelsea Ballerini, Gryffin or Paul Jason Klein of LANY to write music (plus, could have my visual art on the album cover)!
How would you like the world to see artists and mothers?
I think artist and mothers are both undervalued. Especially since being laid off, I’ve been thinking a lot about how we assign value in a capitalist economy and how we could do so differently. So many of the artist and mothers I know are people who are improving their communities, often through unpaid labor: they may work or own a small business; volunteer for the PTO or charitable organizations; generously donate their time and expertise; put beauty out into the world; grow gardens; raise children to be empathetic and caring human beings; support their spouses; engage in conversations about change, help friends in need, among other things. This isn’t to say that no one else contributes in these ways, or that all artists and mothers are under resourced, but many are. Everything has a ripple effect, and the long term impact these things have is so much greater than the tangible value aligned to them.
If you had a million dollars to make the world a better place, how would you spend it?
I haven’t done the math to see how far a million dollars could take these things, but I’d spend it on things like:
- Purchasing work from other artists
- Providing unrestricted scholarships/grants to artists from under recognized backgrounds to use as needed to support themselves and their creative practices (cover basic needs, attend art residencies, cover the cost of showing work, etc.)
- Donating to mutual aid and charitable organizations that are aligned with my values
- Sponsor memberships to other small businesses that support the local community and/or artists/parents. For example, local CSAs (Community-Supported Agriculture), neuro-affirming child led play therapy centers, fitness centers, etc.
- Open some kind of physical space (a storefront/gallery/studio hybrid-type situation) for artist parents where we could have child-friendly art classes or mini workshops with childcare
Jocelyn Elizabeth is an artist, writer and mom (of one just turned 6-year-old!) based north of Boston, MA. She creates vibrant and expressive mixed media paintings with a focus on abstraction and natural coastal landscapes. Her work explores what it means to be alive from the interconnected lens of the human experience and natural world and she is interested in how we can live differently and better alongside the earth and each other. You can find more about her on her website or join her behind the scenes by subscribing to her studio journal.
Nebula Notebook is a place to meet kindred spirits, get inspired, and learn how to find ease and joy in the creative process—even when life is bananas. 🍌🍌🍌
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Thank you so much for the feature! I love reading this series!