About

Welcome!

I'm Jo, I've always enjoyed making different kinds of art like drawing, painting, writing, beading, and experimenting with jewelry. I also love reading and playing music. But none of that paid the bills, so I never took it too seriously and made sure I always had a "real" job.

I earned a degree in audio production and spent years working in audio engineering, production manufacturing, and technical coordination. I've always been drawn to the intersection of art and science.

I landed a job in audio production working for someone I respected. It wasn’t perfect but it made sense, it was a great fit, and the owner became my mentor. Then the company shut down after my mentor passed, and that was it. I couldn’t picture working for anyone else, nothing else out there felt worth chasing anymore so I stopped trying to pee up that rope.

This art shop is my decision to take everything I have learned from my experiences over the years, combine it with the work ethic I maintained to keep a steady job, and create my own job for myself. I have lots of ideas and plans in the works for pieces that heavily align with my work background, and some that don't. 

I named this studio Failed Art because failure is built into the systems we live in, especially for artists…not because I screw up a lot. We’re told our time isn’t worth anything, our work has no value unless it can scale, go viral, or turn a profit, that if we’re not constantly succeeding on someone else’s terms then we’re doing it wrong.

This studio is my response to that. I make things with care, skill, and intent because I believe that the act of making still matters. I take the time and effort to learn and grow to ensure that nothing I make is careless, because it’s okay to not have the answer, to change our mind, to admit we're wrong and keep going. 

Failed Art Studios is a rejection of the idea that failure makes you less. It's also a rejection of the idea that success has to look like mass production, or that honest work only counts when it fits neatly into a job listing. I like to make high-quality art, and I got tired of asking permission to create it.

Why on earth did I choose to make bookmarks? I'm a book nerd, I have a book collection most would think impractical, but I don't care. I've always liked to make my own bookmarks, so I thought it would be a great place to start small and work my way up to the more ambitious and expensive projects I’m planning. 

Thanks for taking a look at what I do.

Jo