A Conversation with Jennifer Rizzo (Creativity Over Coffee)

It’s time for another installment of Creativity Over Coffee – you know what that means! This is our very first Creativity Over Coffee of 2024. So grab your coffee (or tea) and join us!

Creativity Over Coffee

I’m so incredibly grateful to introduce you to my friend Jennifer Rizzo. I couldn’t think of a better person to launch the 2024 Creativity Over Coffee series with. Jennifer is an amazing artist and creative and just opened a retail shop and studio in Lisle, Illinois. I wish I lived closer because I’d love to shop and take classes at her studio! I’ve been friends with her for years and years through blogging and was honored to be in several of her Holiday Housewalk Tours. I learned so many things about her and her background. So much of what she says in this conversation resonated with me and I’m so excited to share it with you!

Without further ado, meet Jennifer Rizzo!

A Conversation with Jennifer Rizzo

Thank you so much for deciding to join me for coffee and chat about your creative process. When I had just graduated from film school in London and couldn’t find work, I found inspiration through the many biographies I read from the library. I used to go there each week and take out more.

Many people believe they are not creative. I hear this all the time. It is my hope with these conversations with my talented friends that I hope to inspire my readers to believe that they truly are creative. That creativity is just sitting inside of them waiting to bubble over.

Hi Jen, you really are so creative and I know our friendship goes way back to our blogs – you create beautiful interiors, work with all kinds of mediums, create your own products and you’ve just opened a new shop! Can you share more about your creative path with my readers?

Jennifer – Thank you for having me! My journey has definitely been a long but interesting one! I should have gone to art /theatre school, but it wasn’t really seen as a “real job” at the time. So I went to college, not really knowing what I wanted to do, and I ended up becoming a firefighter/ paramedic. The one thing I always came back to in my leisure time was making and creating art in everything from drawing to crafting. It was always a refuge for me. When I finally decided to retire and get married and have a family, I needed some additional income and started doing craft shows. I would paint picture frames with mason jars before it was cool. Lol. Looking back, they are pretty terrible.

I was asked by a friend to paint a mural and her son’s wall, and I enjoyed it so much, and it went so well that I actually kicked off a mural and furniture painting business. From there it just kind of led into blogging, making art and handmade goods and selling it at shows and markets, wholesaling, art licensing, book writing and art workshops.

I realized I needed to pull it all into one umbrella in one place and open a retail store where I could have everything I do under one roof. It has also led to other opportunities including business consulting for creatives. Because I want to help people take that step forward.

I had had a retail store with a partner pre-pandemic that I ended up leaving and now opening a new retail store and workshop space, finally coming back to where I need to be, and feels like where I should be. In having this space, for the first time in years, I am actually able to start creating for myself again and really exploring what kind of art I can make.

We’d love to hear more about your new shop and plans you have for it! Many people feel like it’s too late to start or have a new dream. Can you talk about this? You’re offering some classes at the shop too right?

Jennifer – Yes, I offer art workshops with everything from mixed media to watercolor and acrylic. I’ve been teaching art classes for almost 15 years now and love it. I love the feeling when someone doesn’t think they can make art and does! It’s like they’ve opened a whole other world.

It’s never too late to start a new dream! I am 51 years old, soon to be 52. With one in high school and my other kids at college,I knew it was time to really start over. I’ll admit for a while I felt like I should just roll over and turn into a crotchety old lady. I mean, we have college debt, we have some personal debt, but my husband and I talked about it and we finally said, why am I waiting? Am I going to wait till all our debt is gone? In this economy that’s not gonna happen for a long time and with the way we’re going with college that’s not gonna happen for a long time. I needed to invest in myself. Am I going to wait till I’m another 3, 4, 7 years older when they’re done with school? Am I going to wait till I’m too old to enjoy it? When this space became available and it fit within most of the parameters of what I needed I took the money I had been saving and just took the leap of faith. I didn’t want to spend my golden years wondering if I should’ve stepped out all those years ago. I kept thinking what would my 70-year-old self say to me? She would say get off your booty and go for it. And now I have a small, retail destination that is open three days a week Thursday through Saturday that allows me to fill the space with handmade, New, locally made by other artists, and art goods. I offer workshops taught by myself and other instructors. And I still teach workshops, offsite as well.

When do you feel most creative or happy?

Jennifer – I am most creative and happy when I’m creating, and when I am painting. When I am painting, in acrylic or watercolor, I just lose myself. It’s the one thing I have to actually make time for because running a business does take a lot of time away from that. There are so many minute moving parts that need to go into place. And of course I still have my family that I want to make sure I allocate enough time for them as my priority too.

I feel exactly the same! Who or what inspires you?

Jennifer – I’m inspired a lot by other artists. I’m inspired a lot by nature. And honestly sometimes I’m inspired by seeing a pile of cardboard boxes I’m wondering what I can make from them, or an old jar. I think if we get quite enough there’s inspiration everywhere.

What advice would you give to people who want to teach art or hold workshops?

Jennifer – If people want to start or teach workshops, the first thing I would say is make sure you’re adequately insured. Ha ha ha. Once you know that that part is covered, you can move ahead. Really though, start by planning a project teaching, something that comes easy to you, and gathering a few people together. I would host a few paint nights with friends beforehand to see if you even like it, and just to get a feel for the flow.

Oh, that’s great advice! What’s your favorite color?

Jennifer – My favorite color is a deep, ochre yellow. There’s something about it that draws me in every time. It’s not a great color for me with my complexion but I love wearing it.

How has social media helped your business? Do you feel like there’s any draw back to it?

Jennifer – Social media has helped my business a lot, especially my physical brick and mortar. I have to watch the pitfall of getting on it for fun and then spending hours when I could be doing something creative instead. But nowadays social media is an important part of any business. People don’t know what you do unless you tell them and this is a way to tell them for free.

What’s been the most challenging and rewarding aspects of being a creative entrepreneur?

Jennifer – For me, the most challenging aspect of being a creative entrepreneur is finding the money. That’s not something that’s always come easy to me. However, it has taught me how to bootstrap, and really become a creative thinker, and how to make something work. And that’s where the reward comes in. Finding the solution and knowing that I could do it without all the cash flow. (Though it would be nice sometimes.)

You know many people don’t talk about this and I’m glad you bring that up. What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps or who would like to start a creative business?

Jennifer – Starting a creative business if you want to follow my footsteps, it means just starting. It’s about getting off your bottom and just walking it out and doing it. Taking all these little baby steps, one in front of the other and sticking to a path. You may not know if it’s the right path, but unless you start going that direction you’re actually not gonna have any idea because most things are not very clear until you’ve explored them.

Listen, I’m just an ordinary girl. I’m no more special and more talented than anybody else. In fact, there are people who are so much more talented than I am. They’re better artists, they’re better business people, better a lot of stuff. But because I have just stepped out in faith, I have been able to do some pretty cool things. None of us are more special than the other, it’s just a matter of doing the work. We all feel inferior, we all feel inadequate. I feel inadequate every day at so many things that I do. But if I didn’t do them, what else would I do? Sit on the front step and wait for life to just pass me by? There are so many things that make us afraid. What will other people think? What if this fails? The thing is… who cares what other people think, this is our life. Don’t admit failure before you even try. Honestly, I’ve had lots of failures and heart breaks. There were things that I thought were gonna be the most amazing experience or opportunity ever, and they ended up being the worst! While they have taught me some really hard lessons, I’ve never regretted them, because many of those hard things actually made the next thing better because I already had experience even if it was a terrible experience at the time. Lol. Because of my experience of opening a store the first time, the second time was actually pretty easy.

So, if you wanna start a creative business, just start doing it. You don’t have to spend a lot of money. Start small, start with what you have, and grow organically.

Oh, Jen, great, great advice! Just start and try! Growing up I was a huge follower of INSIDE THE ACTORS STUDIO. At the end of the program, they would ask the interviewee these questions:

What is your favorite word?
I don’t have a favorite word but my word of the year right now is anticipation. I feel like there’s a lot of things coming up for me this year that are going to be good. At least that’s what I’m hoping for.

What is your least favorite word?
I don’t have a least favorite word though “moist” ranks pretty high in the list.

What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Things that really get me going creatively spiritually emotionally are textures especially in nature. There’s something about a walk in the woods that really helps me connect with lots of aspects of that side. One of the stipulations of me finding a new studio space was that it had lots of light and windows. This place I have now has amazing lighting and window spaces.

What turns you off?
I have a hard time with darkness. I really struggle from January through March. It’s very dark and gray here and that really has me struggling cradle even with all the extra vitamin D pumped into my body. I also don’t do very well with boring, repetitive tasks. It just kind of totally makes me feel dead inside.

What is your favorite curse word?
What is my favorite curse word? I look sweet, and innocent on the outside, but really I can drop an F bomb like nobody’s business and use it as not only a noun, but a verb and an adjective.

What sound or noise do you love?
I love the sound of running water like a stream. Or rain. To me that is so relaxing.

What sound or noise do you hate?
I cannot stand the sound of traffic, which is hilarious concerning I live about a mile from a major tollway.

What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
If I had to do a second profession, it would be in the medical field. After I left paramedic school, I had considered going to medical school and at that point, just felt too tired and worn out. If we were in the Multiverse, instead of the path I went down it might’ve been a doctor or physician’s assistant.

What profession would you not like to do?
I’m not a good factory worker. Repetitive tasks make me fitfully unhappy. I know there are some people who don’t mind them at all but that’s not for me.

If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
I echo what Erma Bombeck said “When I stand before God at the end of my life, I would hope that I would not have a single bit of talent left, and could say, ‘I used everything you gave me …”

Wasn’t that just the most amazing and inspiring conversation? I couldn’t think of a better creative to kick off 2024. Jen touched on so many facets of being a maker, a creative, an entrepreneur and a small business owner. Thank you so much for sharing so much of yourself and your story with my readers!

Be sure to follow along with Jennifer Rizzo:

If you’d like more Creativity Over Coffee you can read the full series here.

Photos courtesy of Jennifer Rizzo

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