Paintbrushes & Microscopes: From Harvard to Creative Entrepreneur [Interview]
By: Safia Bartholomew
Tags: Creativity, Education, Harvard, Art, Painting

Advice to early stage creatives: “Look at the story of the entrepreneur, more than the story of the traditional artist”

While not all entrepreneurs are artists, all artists should be entrepreneurs according to Evelisa Natasha Genova.

For the Harvard graduate, painter and podcast host, the business of art is one she approaches with the same grit and hustle as a startup founder launching their next culture shifting idea.

First picking up a paintbrush at a very young age, she never imagined a career as a painter. “I was always drawing, but I also had a microscope and I loved science,” she tells CRY, “My inner child happens to love science and is connected to art. I am intrinsically motivated to keep that with me to this day. I didn’t think of myself as an artist. I actually wanted to be a paleontologist.”

Today, her visual art career has provided her with the opportunity to travel the world working with clients from Mumbai to Los Angeles and host her Stories of Life & Live podcast, interviewing notable figures in art and business.

Here she shares why establishing a thriving career in art is not just about inspiration and idea creation, but in adopting an entrepreneurial mindset.

Discipline is where creativity unfolds

“I am not a moody artist. I don’t base creation on my mood, feeling or inspiration. I know that can sound challenging because there’s a bit of a story or myth about ‘the artist’ but I actually resisted that from a very young age.

I always valued rigor, hard work and challenge; so even to this day, I’ve built up a business model around my art. I am painting because I commit to it. It’s through that commitment to the work where all of the creativity unfolds. But my decision making and my time management is not creative, it’s very structured.”

Don’t put yourself in a box.

“I worked for a number of years in government relations, negotiations and political advocacy. In that world, I really minimized or just did not want to have art as part of how I showed up in that world. It was sort of a secret part of life that I had. You know, I was moonlighting as an artist.

This is a bigger reflection of my own spiritual journey, but I think I judged and internalized my heart centre and leading with my heart. My heart happens to be creativity. My heart happens to be about working with young people and children. I judged it all because of my own internalized perspectives; I struggled with that. I was trying to force myself to be something that I am not.

I never wanted to be put into a box — I never liked the negative associations that came with art so I somehow thought that if I showed up in the world saying that I am a painter, I cared what people think. I would think to myself, “I’m much more hard working and intellectual than that, so please don’t think of me that way.” But now I just think, we are multifaceted human beings. I don’t feel the anxiety of being put into a box anymore because my life and my efforts reflect my values of being hardworking and ambitious.”

Take on the mindset of entrepreneurs.

“Look at the story of entrepreneurs, more than the story of the traditional artist.

I think the story of the entrepreneur and the strategies that entrepreneurs use will be more helpful, more grounded and strategic than anyone else who’s following their passion. Even if their passion happens to be creative pursuits. In fact, you will hear entrepreneurs being so passionate and successful about things like selling socks online. You just need to have that entrepreneurial mindset and let go of any false notions of the artist mindset.

Which by the way, that’s only in recent history — from the romantic period onward, there was this myth of a tortured artist soul. But historically, speaking about the Western world, artists were an important part of the economic fabric of society and it would be considered as viable a position as anything else. That’s just reflective of the time. So I think if you look at the story of the entrepreneur, the challenges and resources that entrepreneurs use, then that can be super helpful.

I also recently interviewed on my podcast, this venture capitalist Patrick J McGinnis who is also the author of The 10% Entrepreneur. I asked him to give some specific advice to creatives. He’s in the Venture Capitalist world and he started that expression FOMO — he’s literally the founder of that. He had some amazing advice on how to have a bridge job or be working and be 10% entrepreneurial and slowly transition to 100%. In our interview, he gave really great advice to creatives and artists.”

Keep your day job (for as long as possible)

“Being a former employee allowed me to have no pressure with my skill set, my passion and my talent. I think that’s really important because it allowed the growth to come very naturally. I didn’t have an agenda. I did not set out to become a painter per se, so I actually do put a lot of value in being self reliant (especially as a woman in our society). Be self reliant, have a good sense of money management, be an employee and let your talent grow. Take risks that your life doesn’t depend on; initially anyway.

From there, it organically grew, and I was able to learn what people really desired from me in my strengths. Then I used a lot of entrepreneurial resources. There’s a lot of transferable stuff from that — developing a business plan, creating a strategy. It’s kind of dry but for me that works really well. That’s the kind of thinker that I am.

Ask yourself the tough questions

“I would say, in all areas of life, if impact is something that you really care about — and that is something that I do care about and value in whatever pursuit I do —then constantly evaluate yourself. I would ask myself, “what are my strengths?”, “what are my weaknesses?” and “how can I serve the needs of this world?”.

I think for a long time I was trying to work in areas where I would have impact and leadership but it was a mismatch to my skill set because it was more in an environment that required me to be super technical, rigid or in a form -filling type of environment.

When you ask yourself these questions, you can align your values and needs really well. Which can help you to better choose a bridge job or even understand how to better market your products or service in alignment with your natural skills and strengths. I think it just allows you to be more in the flow and that’s what I would do.

CRY

For more of Evelisa, follow her on Instagram or visit her website.

Starting July 11, Evelisa will launch a new course on “Art and Science” for grades 4–6. Click here to register.