Meet Jill Spector | Artist & Art worker

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

Hi Jill, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?

I launched In Favor Of, my artist-owned consultancy, in 2017 so I could remain part of a creative community and make a living. I wanted to offer something that I felt I was not, at that time, offering working alone in my studio making sculptures. How could my time in the studio, my creative time, produce income?

This was after working in tons of other artist’s studios, and working dozens of jobs in a broad range of fields doing everything from production management, textile construction, costume design, visual research, and fine art fabrication.

I asked myself what parts did I like the most about being an artist and art worker? What points in the creative process, whether in my own studio or another’s, did I find the most stimulating and inspiring? How can I continue to work with a variety of materials, making things as I did in my own studio, and still be part of the community and the conversations with the artists and designers I previously worked with? As artists, we problem-solve, we reconstruct, we break down, and we build up again—hopefully into something new that is constantly questioning itself to generate new conversations, and push everyone forward with generative and sustainable results. I LOVED the dialogue, conceptualizing, research and development, experimentation with materials, managing projects, and the joy of collaboration. When starting In Favor Of, the ethos of collaboration was always my foundation and my services are customized “in favor of” the client’s vision, capacity, and courage to manifest their next idea.

What should our readers know about your business?

My background is in sculpture and textiles. Many of my clients have reached out for support on their textile-based projects: costumes, art direction, styling, etc. I can talk about performance, sculpture, and clothing all day and am always thrilled to share and exchange knowledge with clients for each and every project. Being able to offer that support to other creative folks, and being quite transparent and generous when sharing my own experiences, builds sustainable relationships. I always find myself the most excited about the potential at that stage in working with an artist, before we make anything together. Several of my personal and working relationships taught me that success does not look one way and this is a guiding principle. It took me 20 years to understand this for myself and I will always allow space for this to change at any time. This is required in all the work I do, and I find myself proclaiming these thoughts about the artistic and creative practice to my students and clients.

It is invigorating to be an advocate and guide, working with artists and designers, ensuring that the connection between how a thing is made and its core meaning remains strong, and also always learning and generating something new together about the creative process and the world from each other.

A couple years ago my business led to a new collaboration with In Favor Of client, artist and activist Julie Weitz. For seven years I’ve had the pleasure of working with Julie to visualize, design, and produce costumes and props for her “My Golem” character. Julie was so inspired by the experience performing’s while wearing one of these costumes for her film “Prayer For Burnt Forest”, wanted to continue the ritual  practice of wearing tzitizit, and asked me if I’d make one for her, and in 2019 we co-founded Tzitzit Project. A collection of Tzitzit (a Jewish ritual garments) specifically designed for women, trans, and gender non-conforming Jews. I often find myself speechless when It comes to this collaboration with Julie – just so blessed to learn from and with each other!

Is all this easy? It’s not. However, every day I find myself enjoying the rollercoaster ride and open to the possibility of creating something new—a business, an artwork, organizing a like-minded (or not) group, and letting myself, over time, figure out how to “be easy” about it, to approach something new (because it always is) with confidence and calm. I have not always overcome challenges in the most elegant ways, learning to trust myself and acknowledging my vast experiences, and loosening my ego, were huge hurdles when starting, what took me a long time to call, a business.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

I’m running around all over the city each week and like to entertain friends near my home in Altadena whenever possible. And I would totally recommend close-to-home places; north-central LA, Pasadena, and Altadena – so I can hang out with them.

Cooking with my family for our friends would definitely be on that list. There are also lots of shops we frequent these days in our neighborhood such as Altadena Beverage and Roma Deli for “The Sandwich”, of course. For a nice dinner Agnes in Pasadena, and Unincorporated on my corner for coffee anytime. There are stunning hikes in Altadena behind my house that I don’t go on often enough, but if a friend is over It’d push me to go check out a waterfall. And then a visit to Zorthian Ranch (on a night where there’s a Feels Like Floating event (there’s a goat up there. One of my favorite art venues is Irenic Projects founded by artist Gregory Michael Hernandez in a church in North East Pasadena. A super fun and crazy thing to take folks to is the flower market and the fashion district in Downtown LA where you will find street after street of textiles, trims, beads, and feathers. Ragfinders is my new favorite spot for larger projects, you have to buy 20 yards, it’s fun to get lost in there. The Bendix Building is a couple of streets over where there are galleries, artists’ studios, and arts organizations spread out over its many floors – a favorite is JOAN. On view until April at MOCA , are two fantastic shows – artist Henry Taylor:  B-Side and close to my heart is the dancer Simone Forti’s survey exhibition. Be sure to catch a live performance of Forti’s piece Huddle.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Wholeheartedly. I dedicate this to my biggest source of support, mentorship, and inspiration: my friends, fellow artists, clients, colleagues, and my family. These all overlap by the way.

I do this for and with my family. My husband is artist and comms guru Bret Nicely. We have two kids Rosa (14) and Luke (10). They all make fun of me for talking about work A LOT, but just the other day my daughter Rosa (I’m currently her assistant as she ventures into starting her first clothing business) said, “Oh, you LIKE work.”

Although Bret and I often have had differing perspectives on where work, family, and our creative lives mesh, we always want to be sure to expose our kids to a variety of perspectives surrounding work, joy, and creative success. I am super grateful to do this together.

The idea for In Favor Of I owe to a bunch of close friends and colleagues. Since meeting in graduate school, and for over the past 20 years, artists Jennifer West, Corrina Peipon and I have learned, worked, collaborated, and celebrated with each other in some way shape or form. Both in their own unique way, as artists, educators and entrepreneurs, Corrina and Jennnifer have this non-stop determination, extreme talents, and generosity held and offered within all the work they do as part of Los Angeles art communities and they inspire the work I do as an artist, educator & business owner.r.

Over the yearsI’ve also had the pleasure of working for artist Elliott Hundley at his studio. Such an amazing experience and a pleasure to come into work each day surrounded by a cornucopia of materials and talk with Elliott about making art. It was at his studio during a conversation about a painting he was working on that I realized it was those conversations about making that was the best part of working for artists and being exposed to different ways of working and creative processes. Elliott is one of the generous artists I know and is always ready to give me a nudge.

In 2017 I created a group called Designing Women that met for two years from 2017-2019. Designing Women was a monthly conversation series for a group of women who own and operate businesses in the fields of art and design, in Los Angeles. It was comprised of Olivia Booth, Taylor Jacobson, Corinna Peipon, Brook Perdigon, Bari Ziperstein, and myself. Meetings happened at our dinner tables and were structured around the mutual sharing of experiences and guidance on topics including business strategy, finance, and marketing. The name In Favor Of was confirmed at one of these dinner meetings. These relationships definitely continue as we’ve all collaborated with eachother on one project or another. Most recently, I’ve worked with artist Bari Ziprstein on a hand-blocked vegetable printed, hand-embroidered textile based work for her exhibition “Set Patterns” at Charles Moffett Gallery in NY.

Website: https://www.infavorof.us/

Instagram: @infavorofus

Image Credits
Photo credit: Jill Spector Photo credit: Aaron Farley Photo Credit: Bari Ziperstein Photo Credit: Jill Spector Photo Credit: Hannah Faith Lord for 323 Photo Credit: Aaron Farley Photo Credit: Jill Spector Photo Credit: Tom Barratt  @Charles Moffett 2023