Meet the Maker: Meg Jacovino
Meg Jacovino has been drawing on and off for as long as she can remember. About four years ago, something in her shifted.
“When my daughter Indy was born, I found myself with a little bit more time. I’m a surfer. I’m not the best surfer, but I’m a surfer. I feel very connected to the ocean. While I was recovering from childbirth, I missed the ocean so much. I wasn’t allowed in the water for six weeks.”
For Meg, life imitates art.
“I draw a lot of surfer girls. I draw a lot of girls with flowing hair. I like drawing girls who seem kind of wild and connected to their femininity and the ocean,” said Meg.
She stayed near art her whole career before becoming a stay-at-home mom.
“I’ve been drawing for as long as I can remember. I went to college to study art at the University of Delaware. I ended up with a degree in photography, but I always loved to draw. After college I worked for the Philadelphia Museum of Art doing collections photography. I felt like I was in the shadow of what I wanted to do,” said Meg.
She needed a change in career.
“I decided to go to hair school. I did that full time until my daughter was born almost four years ago and I loved it. It fulfilled a creative urge. During that time, I was picking up drawing and putting it back down and picking it up and putting it back down.”
Meg creates simply.
“My style is super clean. I draw with pen and paper. I use micron pens. Just black and white usually. More recently I’ve done some stuff digitally. I’ll go on the computer and color my work. I’ve done some illustrative logos,” Meg said.
She bought an iPad right before COVID hit.
“I’ve started to use Procreate (an app) and I like it more than I care to admit. I really like being able to blow up drawings as I’m working because I can get crazy details in the hair,” said Meg.
Meg’s work is available at Peace of Wood.
“The summer before I got pregnant was the summer that Peace of Wood opened. I had been drawing a little bit but not much. I wanted to motivate myself and reach out to the owners and said ‘Hey’. I sent some images of my work and the owner, Kristina, she was very receptive. She was like ‘Oh my gosh, come see me, bring me what you have.’ She took what I had and put it up for sale,” said Meg.
Peace of Wood helped Meg sell her work to more people.
“Kristina urged me to open an Etsy shop. They asked me to be a part of a small festival in town. That kind of motivated me to start creating prints of my work. It all happened organically but Kristina and Marshall from Peace of Wood were major influences for me to get me going,” Meg said.
Meg took her art around locally and up to Asbury Park. This helped her to network.
“Meeting more and more people and putting more on Instagram and people reaching out through Instagram. Instagram has been very helpful for me and helped me to connect to the ideal audience – people who surf and are connected to the water,” she said.
Meg’s work is available on her website too – www.megjacovino.com.
“I sell mostly prints. I typically will scan my work in and edit it in the computer and make high quality reproductions. I have an archival printer at home. I make t-shirts. Last year, I made a bunch of enamel pins. I’ve done tote bags. Last year I did bandanas. I sell stickers, too.”
Meg’s daily routine is a bit like her drawings, flowing and free spirited with the ocean as major inspiration.
“If I have a lot of commission work and stuff I will probably not surf. I’ll drop her off at school and come home. If the waves are fun and my friends are surfing, I’ll probably go. I’ll just sit down and try to draw. I’ll make a cup of tea,” said Meg.
If she’s not drawing, Meg may be off creating art with Indy.
“My daughter and I do a lot of sand drawings. As she’s getting older her attention span for drawing is a lot longer. She’ll sit and draw for an hour. I want to start to be able to do work while she’s working,” Meg said.
If you’re thinking about starting to sell your artwork, Meg has a message for you.
“Keep putting your work out there even though it feels scary. I let myself be so scared for so long to even make my work,” said Meg. “It feels really good to finally have the confidence to let the voice be heard.”