Meet Jamie Pomeranz | Mixed Media Artist Specializing in Fluid Art Techniques

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jamie Pomeranz and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jamie, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
I have been working for myself virtually my entire adult life and my goal has always been the same. To have the freedom to enjoy my life.

I remember in my early 20’s I was interviewing to be a production assistant for a very large advertising agency and during the 2nd round of interviews, one of the many bosses said to me, “you’re tall. The love seat in the lounge is going to be uncomfortable when you sleep here”. The message was clear. Forget a social life, I’d be lucky to see my own bed regularly. That was not going to work for me.

Fast forward a couple years and I’m a one woman army running my own tee shirt brand handling EVERYTHING. Design, sales, marketing, production… anything that needed to be done, I did. I worked non-stop trying to build an apparel company that would allow me to work less, while simultaneously COMPLETELY losing the ability to enjoy the present. There was NO real life outside of the tee shirts. On top of that, I had started designing the tee shirts to give myself a creative career, but almost none of my time was allotted to being creative.

When my son was born, I was forced to slow down and overtime getting back to building a tee shirt empire became less and less appealing. At the same time, being a stay at home mom felt like its own 24/7 grind. In need of a new type of life balance, I looked for a new creative outlet which I found in alcohol inks. I began posting my new work under the handle Devils May Care, the same name as my tee shirt brand. After I invented a unique technique painting roses with a hairdryer, my account blew up and suddenly I was being offered new opportunities to work with art supply companies, lead workshops, and license my work. The pressure quickly started building to work all the time and create fast art for social media. I forced myself to remember the reason I started creating again was to give my life balance and I didn’t want things to completely swing in the other direction like before. My desire to be a girl boss with an empire had dwindled and I had a redefined measure of success. As long as I was financially comfortable, being at the tippy top of my field was no longer my goal if it meant I couldn’t do anything else. Fortunately, at this stage of my life and career I’m able to be selective about my clients and set boundaries on my work hours. I’m able to prioritize the creative parts of the business and find more passive income opportunities from sources like royalties so that I can spend more time doing the things I enjoy with the people who are important to me.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I think what makes me different from a lot of other artists that built their career on social media is that I refuse to stay pigeonholed into one style or media. You hear all the time to “find a niche” but mine is being medium hopper and actually I consider myself more of a maker than an artist. Obviously there is overlap but I just like to make things. I am constantly experimenting with new mediums and adding techniques to my skills tool belt even if I don’t quite know how I am going to use them. That way when inspiration hits me, I hopefully know how to execute the concept. My success as an artist via social media can probably be attributed to the skills I learned building my first business, a tee shirt brand. When I shut the brand down, what I was most bothered by was the feeling that all my efforts and dedication over the last decade had been for nothing. Now I know that without that previous experience, I never would have been able to build what I have now. Owning my own company taught me all the typical logistics of running a business, as well as a myriad of other skills that can’t be quantified such as having a thick skin, recognizing what opportunities should be PASSED ON, and time management. Those skills in combination with being unapologetically myself in my posts and speaking to my followers the same way I speak to my friends has given me a unique voice that people are able to relate to. I encourage people to create on their own and nothing makes me prouder than seeing the butterfly effect of my posts. Putting all the pieces together wasn’t easy but inspiring people to create while building a living for myself is truly one of the greatest rewards I never expected.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I live about 10 mins outside Manhattan so the things to do are limitless! Assuming I was guiding another artist, I would most certainly have a long list of museums and exhibitions to check out. Some of my favorite of the larger institutions are Moma and The Met. These museums are classic New York, and it doesn’t matter how many times I’ve walked around, I always discover new things. I also love wandering into random galleries downtown as they are always changing shows. Stone Sparrow located in the West Village is one of my favorites with their dark and edgy curations. After a day of art nothing beats sitting outside at a restaurant or chilling in Washington Square Park and people watching. There is such a spectrum of nightlife to enjoy. If you’re a trendy person we may hit Gospel or The Box, into music? lets see a show at Mercury Lounge and if you’re more of a dirty dive bar type then we are hitting the infamous 7B Horseshoe bar. There will also definitely be A LOT of pizza. I’ve been a Prince Street Pizza loyalist since they 1st opened but its hard to go wrong with that anywhere in NYC.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I was a little lost after my kids were born and hadn’t created anything in a number of years when a great friend of mine, Erica Boynton (@eb2creative), told me that she was coming over for a night of wine and whining. In addition to a couple bottles of red, she showed up with yupo paper and alcohol inks which I had never heard of before. When I poured the inks onto the synthetic paper and watched the colors flow I was mesmerized. My stress and tensions seemed to melt away as the colors blended into abstract shapes. I was immediately addicted. Until that night, I hadn’t even realized how much I had missed being creative. At the end of the night (and the bottles) I confidently announced that I was going to be purchasing my own inks and posting my journey getting to know the medium online with the simple goal that at some point someone send me free art supplies. That night changed everything for me. It reignited my creative spirit, it was the catalyst for a career reinvention, and most importantly, it helped me remember who I was.

Website: https://devilsmaycare.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/devilsmaycare

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/jamiepomernaz

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DevilsMayCare

Youtube: @devilsmaycare

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@devilsmaycare https://www.pinterest.com/devilsmaycare/

Image Credits
Jamie Pomeranz