Episode 8: Weaving Together Your Professional Experiences and Artistic Pursuits with Acclaimed Painter Jill Krutick
Join your host Betsy Bush as she speaks with artist Jill Krutick. They discuss Jill's journey from Wall Street analyst to acclaimed artist and painter, her desire to be financially independent regardless of her career, and why she works to showcase other artists as well.
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Transcript:
Betsy Bush (00:51):
So many of us dream of what our lives might have been like if we'd followed our artistic passions rather than pursue careers that bring us financial rewards. I'm so glad to be talking to artist Jill Krutick today.. She left a career on wall street to devote her time to her painting. And she's found that skills she honed in the business world are helping her succeed in the art world. Jill Krutick, welcome to the latest version I am so glad to have you on the show today, because to me, what you are doing really exemplifies what this podcast is all about. You know, when we talk about taking midlife pivots or reinventing ourselves, or going back and finding those early passions that we had left behind at some point and want to return to, hour story is really inspiring. And, and, and not only did you do it just as, you know, satisfy your own, you know, desire to paint and, mursue those artistic passions, but you've done it at a level that has been, hery successful. And so I I'm really interested in, in talking to you about, mow you did that and, hou left a 17 year career as a financial analyst, mo become a full-time artist. I'm wondering if you can tell me a little bit about what that earlier career was like, and maybe what life was like for you as a full-time, hall street person, or however you would describe yourself.
Jill Krutick (02:37):
Well, first of all, thank you so much for having me. I'm so delighted to be here with you today and talking about my journey. It's it's been a fun, exciting one and completely unplanned. It's just been a great adventure, but to begin, you know, the days on wall street were very I was a stock analyst specializing in entertainment and leisure companies. So I got paid to go down to Disney world for analyst meetings and paid to go on carnival cruise ships to help them launch their new ships and the Queen Mary too. So I was very fortunate, but at the same time, the level of intensity was as high as you can imagine. I raised my two children while working on Wall Street but I always made an effort to be home for dinner and therefore all the important school events and other life cycle events. So being in research, I actually had some level of control over my time. But coming home and then working late into the evenings was a very common occurrence. So not to mention all the travel attached to it. So it was a very intense time, but rewarding at the same time.
Betsy Bush (03:56):
It also sounds like a big responsibility. Like if people are looking to you to, you know, do I buy this stock or not? And, you know, you come out with your opinion and maybe people buy stock and, you know, really, depending on whether your analysis is correct or not.
Jill Krutick (04:13):
Yes, there was a lot of responsibility attached to it. And all the brokers through the system were listening to your point of view. There was a Salesforce that went out to all their clients with the opinions that I'd have on my particular sector, because I was the expert in that specific sector. And it was an unusual sector because it covered so many different sub industries. So covering entertainment and leisure companies meant being an expert on the film industry and the video game industry and the cruise industry and the toy industry and the motorcycle industry, and go on and on and on to so many different industries, but it was a common thread with all of them relate to consumer products. So it was a lot of fun, but intense.
Betsy Bush (04:59):
And in, in moving into your artistic life, it's actually, you, you were always a painter, you were, you were artistic as a child and also very musical as well. I'm wondering if you think that that early artistic training prepared you for the kind of analysis jobs that you were later doing was, was there some kind of through line for you for that?
Jill Krutick (05:27):
Yeah, I mean, I just naturally was interested in both areas. I guess I was both right and left brained so to speak, but yes, I played piano from the time I was six years old onwards. And we got to play Carnegie recital hall when I was 18 years old, music was actually playing piano was really an amazing passion I had as a young child practicing up to six hours a day. And art was something that I enjoy too. And my parents were art lovers and took me to many museums here and in Europe. So I grew to love the arts and also painted, but music was actually my number one love. But I knew that I wanted them to be companions through my life. And I did have an intense desire to be independent financially from my family. And so I went to Wharton undergrad and knew that if I graduated from Wharton, I could be independent. And that's exactly what I was. And I took a very business-minded approach towards that, but I always wanted to have the creative side involved in what I was doing, which is why I was very fortunate to have the entertainment and leisure stocks to cover as opposed to insurance stocks. And then after Wall Street, I went on to work in the music industry for six years, helping take Warner music, group, public running, investor relations for them. So again, combining music and business. So I was on the corporate side of Warner Music and there for the public lifecycle of the company before I then launched into artful. You know,
Betsy Bush (07:05):
I, I think about kids or maybe even parents these days who are maybe, maybe are less interested in their children being artistic because they think, oh, what are you going to do with it? She'll be a starving artist someday. You're not going to be employed, you know? And that may be there should be more of this kind of interest in encouraging young, you know, young children and young people to see art as a viable, well, maybe not a viable means of support, but something that can accompany. I love that that term you used accompanying you through your life as opposed to something that you closed the door on as you go on to be, you know, a grownup or, you know oh yeah, I'm going to put away that's childish thing and I'm going to pursue a life as an adult and the two are not going to meet each other.
Jill Krutick (08:04):
Yeah. I mean, it's I was very financially driven for some reason as a child to be independent. So for some reason I connected the dots early on and maybe it was something my piano teacher said to me, which was, if you want to pursue music, it should be the only thing you want to pursue. And I had so many interests and it wasn't that I didn't have the skill. I, you know, I may or may not have had the skill. I don't know. But the point is, is that I had such a broad pallet of interests from business. And I took an economics course in high school that really resonated with me, which is what drove me into the business direction that I knew that I would always want to combine it with business. And that was truly my goal. So was very fortunate. In fact, my first job out of school was at CBS records. I worked at Columbia House Record and Tape Club for two and a half years as a business analyst. So there again, it was a combination of combining the music interests together with the business interests. And that was actually the first job that I took right out of him. Interesting. Then,
Betsy Bush (09:19):
Is that where you got your MBA as well? Where did you get your MBA?
Jill Krutick (09:23):
Yeah, I pursued my MBA at NYU at night while I was working full time. So I did it over a lovely six year period to get married in between have mono in between. I had a few things happen in between, but I got that MBA, which despite having an already an undergraduate business degree, it was really more of a personal achievement than anything else because it was a footnote in my wall street career where Nope, none of my bosses actually even recognized it as it, as it changed your mind status. So really wall street was what have you done for me today?
Betsy Bush (10:07):
Interesting. So, so at some point though, you decided you were, you were working for, you'd been working for 17 years, obviously you'd been very successful. Did you, did something happen? Was it like, was it a sudden thing where you decided that you'd want it, you like this is it I'm I'm I'm I've had it, I'm going to do my art now, or was it something that you'd been planning for a while? How did, how did that pivot take place?
Jill Krutick (10:35):
So it's interesting. The, the move into art was completely unplanned. So after the 17 years on Wall Street, then I did six years in the corporate world for Warner Music. And as that job started to get a little bit easier, of course, working in a corporate setting for me was a little less intense than a Wall Street setting. So I started having a little more time at night and I started to paint at night and my kids were teenagers at the time. And my life plan was always to be around when my kids were in the teenage years, I want to be home or really close by during the high school years. But that was sort of my long range plan, which we all know those things don't necessarily happen. But at that point, I started to take some art classes at night at the Art Student League. And I started participating in some local art shows. And ironically, when I left Warner music, they provided me outplacement services. And this is after the company went private. They no longer needed me to be, you know, an investor relations professional vantage point.
Betsy Bush (11:44):
Because there wasn't any stock if it was privately held.
Jill Krutick (11:48):
Precisely. Exactly. Uand the, and the manager of the office said to me, Hey, Jill, I know you like to paint. Why don't you put up some of your work in our offices? Uso I said, what a great idea. And so I took probably about 25 paintings. I put them up on two floors of their corporate offices and the paintings started to sell off the wall. Oh my gosh. It was just like a crazy thing that happened. And then I, you know, was just enjoying, participating in different local art shows,utaking the art classes. And I remember saying to my husband, you know, I'm just going to paint for a while before I decide what I'm going to do next. And he's pulling out clippings from the Wall Street Journal. Hey, I hear electronic arts is looking for a board member you really should apply. And I remember saying to him, no, I'm going to really pursue my art for a period of time. And I did, and I painted, I had a small room in the house, which route to a bigger room. Then I took over the family room and then I outgrew the house and started making 10 foot paintings and eventually moved into a professional studio. So what started as a, you know, an idea developed into a real business over the last 12 years,
Betsy Bush (13:06):
I'd love for you to describe your art because to me, it's, it's very sophisticated. It's not like you see it like a local art show where someone's doing a landscape or a, you know, a still life or something like that. What you're doing is I would say to my eye, very sophisticated, abstract art, and it's clearly caught the eye of collectors. People are collecting your art. You've, you've had a couple of shows in museums, the Yellowstone art museum in Billings, Montana, the Coral Springs museum in Florida. So you, you, you made this break in 2011 and less than 10 years later, you're already being exhibited in museums. I mean, that's, that's really incredible. Can you describe for, for my listener, what your art looks like? And I should also say we'll have pictures on our website the latest version podcast.com. And of course your website is also Jill Krutick Fine Art.com. So I encourage everyone to go over and look at Jill's art, which is incredible, but try to describe for me what your art is about and what people see when they look at your paintings.
Jill Krutick (14:35):
Oh, thank you. Yeah, a beautiful question. So my artwork is a reflection of all of my experiences whether it be family eco adventures, it be covering iconic branded consumer companies on Wall Street. Whether it be reading storybooks that made such a great impression on me as a mother songs, doodles, music all of these things influenced my work and I characterize my work as, you know, color and texture and balance, and really trying to reflect light and dark in my canvases. And I actually put together about seven different series of paintings or styles of paintings from atmospheric works to more geometric works to more sort of swirl style works. So they've really evolved over the years and while I continue to develop each of these different styles they all sort of come together in a way. So you're picking the best of each of those styles as you continue to develop as an artist. But my, my career as an artist you know, a lot of it, I think when there I've been able to achieve having a few solo museum shows, I have another one coming up. This month later at the end of the month down in Virginia at the Longwood Center for the Visual Arts. I think a lot of this happened because of my networking skills. So a lot of what I learned in the business world, I was able to then apply to the world of art because the art world it's crazy. It's like a mosaic. It goes in all different directions and it's, it's very hard to gain traction. And it's really about, you know, developing relationships with other like-minded artists. So for example, there's one artist in particular, Steven Manolas, who was a banker. He was my he ran real estate finance when I was a young analyst at Solomon brothers and he became an artist and we reconnected years later and it turned out he did abstract work as well. And through that association, he's introduced me to his friends and I've introduced him to mine. And through that, I've met art critics and curators, and that has led to different opportunities. Well,
Betsy Bush (17:14):
Aren't there a lot of you out there, Do, you know, formal formerly Financial wall street banker, whatever types who have turned to art as a second career or second act?
Jill Krutick (17:32):
The, there are a lot of people who have very advanced business backgrounds that are now delving into the arts. Another show I'm participating in right now, it started this week, running through the month of may is called the MVO ad art show. And this is a show strictly for advertising professionals who love art and who participate in art. And this is a billboard show down at the world trade at the Oculus center. So you can see it up on the big football size, jumbo Tron downtown. My artwork, Trapeze and Clockwork. And those works will also be for sale digitally Prue, artsy. So there's a lot, you know, networking is really the key to being a successful artist. The traditional gallery model is very difficult to succeed in it's, you know, less and less shelf space as you might expect given these times. And then they have a roster of artists that they're promoting. And it's very hard to become one of those, you know, select few, especially if I don't have an MFA degree a really formal art training, I'm mostly a self-taught artist. You know, taking classes at the art student league. Most of it is inventiveness, you know, trial and error, trying new ideas, you know, learning from other artists. So it's it's a world that really is truly a networked model to be successful.
Betsy Bush (19:05):
You know, I was going to ask you about your lack of an MFA, because that is the, the, the traditional ways, you know, the, the gallery owners, you know, come to the student shows and they decide who they're going to, you know, promote an exhibit and, and making that connection as a student and the MFA, I guess it's the aura around that, that particular degree which you didn't have, but obviously you had something else which was other skills, the networking and that sort of thing. What, what else do you think that you might've brought with you skill-wise from your other career?
Jill Krutick (19:45):
It's being an entrepreneur you know, as a stock analyst, you're basically an entrepreneur you're running a franchise. So I have to decide which entertainment companies are the ones to be featuring which managements at which events with which kind of, you know, questions and communications. So you're branding yourself as an analyst. I would write industry reports specific, you know, detailed reports about different events going on for companies. So that kind of entrepreneurial thinking and marketing and packaging is all absolutely essential to being a successful artist, you know, using Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn and all these different channels. And I just recently launched an Etsy store, so trying to make things more accessible for people at different price points, offering scarves and other consumer products bedding that relate my artwork. So it's really trying new ideas and being open and flexible.
Betsy Bush (20:54):
Amazing. And the scarves and the bedding and things like that. There, you can get to that, your Etsy store on your website, just such a, an inventive, you know, you have a portfolio of different, different ways for people to come in and enjoy your work at different levels. Do you also sell I want to call them posters or prints.
Jill Krutick (21:16):
Yes, we do custom prints all different sizes or size to, you know, whatever people need. We have, you know, greeting cards, you know, active wear and the bedding is actually super popular because which is very interesting and people try the, you know, the pillow cases and then they graduate to the duvet covers. So it's, it's a lot of fun and just designing those products is, is super fun.
Betsy Bush (21:46):
I bet. Oh my gosh. We're going to see, we're going to be seeing your you're bedding in some of the catalogs, I bet, that are coming out.
Jill Krutick (21:55):
Yeah, I hope so. I hope so. Yes.
Betsy Bush (21:59):
I had the pleasure of visiting your studio a couple of weeks ago. You were actually exhibiting some other artists as well as your own work, but what was fun for me was SI was being in the studio and seeing your table with all your pots of paint and work on work, you know underway and just, just thinking, oh my gosh, how much fun it must be to come here and work and just, just be an artist it's, it's like living the dream and you have, you know, this beautiful, interesting triangular space with big windows that look over on to you're in Mamaroneck. And you look over on to Mamaroneck, very interesting busy neighborhood shopping street. It kind of makes me think, oh, I wonder if this is what Greenwich village was like, you know, 60, 70 years ago, you know, where it was, you know, still a very neighborhood-y place. It's a kind of a mixed neighborhood with immigrant stores and customers. And there's a lot of foot traffic and it's very lively. And I think it must be a great place to, to be an artist working where you're not isolated. You feel part of the, the rhythm of the street there.
Jill Krutick (23:27):
Absolutely this location I've been in for about three years, it's across the street from Metro north Mamaroneck stop. So it's very accessible for everyone coming up from Manhattan. And it's also because the space, which was custom designed by Keller Eaton, who is the architect that I share a space with next door super talented architects created this space which has like 10 foot tall closets for me to store really large paintings, I put in a hanging system. So I can easily change out the look and feel of the gallery. So while I do come work here seven days a week, and you're right, it is a really fun, special place to come to. But I can show other artists and I've just embarked on that in my space, and I'm working with Shem art network who represents lots of different artists in the artists groups. And I had an Aspen art curation for my first group, and it was delightful having a dozen super talented artists from across the country and being able to showcase them in a near Manhattan option in a lovely gallery style setting. So it's, it's been really rewarding and I just absolutely loved the space.
Betsy Bush (24:45):
That's I don't know, that's it's so again, entrepreneurial right, finding the next way to take what you have and, and come up with another iteration of, of whatever it is you're, you're doing. It's, it's, it's remarkable.
Jill Krutick (25:03):
That's exactly right. Because again, it gets back to the networking piece and that's why I've sort of reached this point. Having had some museum shows and trying to now expand out even further globally. And that's why if I bring in an artists groups that I can exchange my space for other artists overseas or other galleries overseas that want to show their artists here in New York. So it creates this back and forth and shared capacity that makes a gallery less critical to the success of any artist.
Betsy Bush (25:40):
That's so interesting. Um Jill, you know, I always ask my guests for three pieces of advice that you would pass on to others who are contemplating a similar journey. And I'm wondering if you can share some of that, your, so share your wisdom. Of course, you've been sharing wisdom. I'm wondering if you have anything.
Jill Krutick (26:01):
Yes. I mean, I think among the most important things is to be very open to new ideas. I think that's very critical. And when I say open, I mean to try to the power of, yes, I believe is very substantial. So I didn't need to bring in other artists into my space and showcase their work. I could easily carry the space, just showing my work, but I think that, you know, someone came to me with the idea, they brought me the group and it made a lot of sense. And frankly, it turned out to be a total win-win and that wouldn't have happened without saying yes. So I think being open to new ideas is really important. Also being flexible. So in the same vein of trying new ideas, so trying an Etsy store trying open having virtual exhibitions for different ideas and also networking I think is, is very critical to anyone's success, whether it be in the world of art or outside of that. And I use alumni networks very extensively. I believe that's a very important avenue that sometimes people don't think to really, you know, take the potential for,
Betsy Bush (27:19):
Of course you were in a position where you could make this break and maybe you were in a position where you didn't have to worry so much about, you know, where's my next paycheck coming from. Do you have any advice for people who are contemplating this, but maybe are a little bit more worried financially what the impact of making such a move might be?
Jill Krutick (27:45):
I think it's really important to pursue one's passion. And I mean, I had a lot of different interests, so it's not so crazy to think that I might've started in business and then ended up in art because I, I actually believe each experience builds upon each other. So I would very much urge people to pursue their passion and and to be very open and flexible about doing that, because I think you can weave it into whatever you do. And that's kind of the path that I took by weaving in all my interests, whether it be entertainment or music or art, it was always, you know, with me, despite the fact that I was in these intense business roles. So I encourage people to be very open-minded. So even though I wasn't painting full time I was still learning about the world of entertainment. So obviously there's a, you know, it's a give and take, and I think that if you can be open-minded and pursue your passion, I think there's always a path to find.
Betsy Bush (28:53):
Wow, that's great. Jill, thank you. I think we've reached a great point where we leave our listener with some wonderful information. And this has been a great conversation. Again, I encourage our listeners to go to see Jill Krutick's art, which is absolutely wonderful at Jillkrutickfineart.com. And of course I'll have a lot of information on Jill on my website, which is the latest version podcast.com. And I really want to thank you Jill, for taking time out to talk to me today and I look forward to following your, your career and I hope to come over and see some more. Fantastic.
Jill Krutick (29:38):
Thank you so much. I really enjoyed our discussion. Thank you.
Betsy Bush (29:41):
Thanks a lot, Jill.