Please join us in celebrating this month’s spotlight surface designer, Janet Federico. We know you’ll find her story inspiring!

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I have always been creative but it never really had an outlet. I was raised in a 1st generation immigrant household and creative pursuits weren’t valued so they weren’t encouraged. I was in my 30s before I ever attempted to create with intention and that was in the form of writing. It would be another decade before I pursued art.

Tell us a little bit about your design journey.

It all began with a Zentangle. After being diagnosed with PTSD in 2016, I was desperately trying to find a way to practice meditation except I couldn’t sit with my eyes closed without devolving into a panic attack.

One day, I was walking through Michaels and I saw an end cap full of Zentangle supplies. On impulse, I bought a bunch of pens, tiles, and a book. Even still, I waited a while before putting pen to paper. Like most people, I thought I needed an art background to make it work.

When I finally found the courage, I realized all you needed was to be able to draw a line, a circle, or a squiggle. I was hooked. It was also the first time in my life I could remember concentrating for any length of time and having my mind clear of everything but the paper in front of me and the pen in my hand. I had found my own form of meditation.

I had also been bitten by the art bug and began seeking out tutorials and teachers to learn how to draw shapes and forms. I invested in an iPad and Apple Pencil. The rest, as they say, is history.

Owl Medicine was born in 2020 when I realized that your average greeting card aisle doesn’t cover trauma. So, I created my first-ever line of greeting cards. Today, Owl Medicine has grown beyond my wildest dreams to include art licensing, my own line of products, and even gallery shows!

I found surface design in 2022 through the magic of the Skillshare algorithm. A class by Jennifer Nichols was suggested to me and after taking it, I was thoroughly addicted to pattern-making. Since then, I’ve been refining my techniques and developing my style while finding my niche in the marketplace.

Do you have a favorite portfolio design or client collaboration?

My favorite design in my portfolio is called Waiting. It’s not my best design, I think I’ve refined my technique since it was created, but it has special significance to me.

My husband had suffered a massive heart attack that caught us completely off guard, especially given his young age of 54. We had to wait three days for what turned into a triple-bypass, open-heart surgery.

While I waited, I turned to my one tried and true coping mechanism. I began to draw. But, this time, I was too overwhelmed by the situation to give in to my usual perfectionism which has always hampered my creativity. I gave myself free rein to simply put marks on paper and allow the design to develop organically.

When I saw the end result, I actually got choked up. For the first time, I saw my own work as beautiful with no qualifications. It was a transformational moment for me.

What or who are you inspired by?

I am inspired by geometrical forms and patterns in nature. I love florals, but it’s the geometrics that I come back to time and time again. A favorite artist team of mine is HYBYCOZO. Their use of sacred geometry absolutely fascinates me. I’ve begun learning Arabic geometry and am happily falling down that rabbit hole.

Outside of geometrics, I love vintage styles such as Indian Florals and Chinoiserie. I am addicted to Bärbel Dressler classes and have begun studying William Morris and other vintage pattern makers.

Do you have resources you’d like to recommend?

My go-to brushes are by Lisa Glanz. I especially love working with her Gouache and AquaReal brush sets. I highly recommend Bärbel Dressler’s newsletter. And I can’t recommend Amanda Grace’s two courses on pattern design enough. One is for Procreate and the other is for Photoshop. These two courses unlocked my pattern-making skillset.

What advice would you give to surface designers who are struggling?

I recently was given a book on writing, One Continuous Mistake, by Gail Sher. As I read it, I realized it completely applied to art as well.

I re-wrote her Four Noble Truths of writing to fit art and would offer these to anyone struggling:

1. Artists create art.
2. Creating art is a process.
3. You don’t know what your art will be until the end of the process.
4. If art is your practice, the only way to fail is to not create.

What do you like to do outside of surface design?

Outside of surface design, I am a wife, a dog mom to two Labrador mixes, an amateur chef, and I teach workshops on using the creative arts to process trauma.

When I’m not in front of my computer or a group of students, I am usually in the kitchen. I taught myself to cook in 2017 after being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s disease and adopting the Autoimmune Protocol diet. I enjoy adapting my favorite recipes to be gluten and dairy free and enjoy hosting my friends and family.

When you look back at your design journey so far, what are you most proud of?

I think the thing I’m most proud of is not giving up. There have been so many moments on this journey where I felt like I just couldn’t do it. I felt like I was just drawing other people’s compositions as I took class after class. I felt like I didn’t have my own style, I was just borrowing more accomplished artists’ styles. Then one day, it all clicked.

I made a decision to do something that felt right to me but wasn’t specifically instructed. Then, I made a decision to use a set of brushes in a way that made sense to me but was not specifically instructed by the creator. Before long, all of these small decisions led to me finding my own style and way of creating.

Where can we find you?

Website: www.owlmedicinedesigns.com
Instagram: @owlmedicinedesign