Today we’d like to introduce you to Lola Jovan.
Hi Lola, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Remember the Family Circus cartoons? When the kid rambles and wanders and roams all around before getting to his destination? That’s my story.
It wasn’t until I was nearly fifty that I fell into art. Before that, I spent decades in commercial lending and corporate banking, running small business and large, figuring out what I wanted to be when I grew up. A friend dragged me to an art class and I never looked back.
Discipline, relentless practice, gobbling up courses and opportunities and fearlessly going forward because I did not have a formal art background, so I didn’t really know any better. Thank goodness! I had an inner daredevil but no inner critic (yet).
I landed a spot in a gallery in North Carolina pretty quickly. Then I was off to international residencies. My own website, festivals, numerous shows and more galleries, a blog (which continues today) and some book illustration. I kept track of every piece I created after one mentor told me I needed 400 to be any good. Today I am at 2300.
Ultimately I landed on the west coast, in Oregon. I have scaled back everything to those venues and events that I know work best, including my website. And a new book! The combination of painting and blogging over the years landed me a book contract with a small imprint in South Carolina.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It never is, right?
I think in the art community, artists can be very hard on one another. There isn’t always a spirit of generosity and community amongst artists. It can be highly competitive and snarky. But once I learned that, I figured out how to keep myself open and generous without being worried about what others think.
Art is a fairly lonely profession, as we spend so much time on our own creating, planning, figuring out tech and materials and strategies. I think social media and online connection has helped alleviate much of that. Plus it is the way to sell art in the modern world!
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am currently primarily an oil painter. As with the rest of my career, I meandered from pen and ink to mixed media to acrylic to watercolor to oils, and now I have some pen and ink work back in the mix as well.
Most people know me for the peculiarity of my art, for the odd emotion I try to capture and for the wide variety of genres I create in: abstraction, portraiture, illustration, fantasy art and figurative art.
There are words behind each piece created – a quote, a poem, some lyrics, a thought – all expressed to give voice to the art.
We all have a different way of looking at and defining success. How do you define success?
Success means waking up excited about creating, whether it is paint, ink, words or ideas. I never run out of inspiration, and that makes me feel highly successful.
This month the years of painting and writing came together with the publication of MonstroUS: There Will Be Blood by Wayword Books. It is my first book contract as an author and illustrator both, and it is, to me, the height of success. Both my writing and my art reached this point simultaneously. How wonderful is that?
Pricing:
- I am a prolific painter, so much of my art is very affordable.
- I don’t stock prints, as I prefer to sell original art.
- Many of my collectors have multiple pieces, because it is not a huge investment.
- I enjoy pricing my art so that most can afford it.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lolajovan.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/lolajovanart
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/thewanderingsoflola
- Youtube: https://YouTube.com/@lolajovan
- Other: https://www.waywordbooks.com
