Today we’d like to introduce you to Jeff Hendrickson.
Hi Jeff, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
After growing up in Southwest Ohio, where I was always the kid who asked a lot of questions and took things apart to see how they were built, I did one year of college in West Virginia, three years in civil service, and then moved to New York City to study fashion design. That job gave me the great opportunity to travel around the world, experiencing different cultures, and working with some of the most kind and generous people I’ve known.
15 years in the fashion industry as a textile artist and menswear designer taught me a lot about life and business – lessons I’ve carried through to my current career in tech. And while I’m very thankful and fortunate to be working with such a great company and again traveling the world-leading design thinking workshops with major corporations, it’s the off hours when I’m building my brand as an artist and event producer in Cincinnati.
Laughing Raven Studio is my art brand. I started painting while in college in NYC and then with marriage and kids, that took a back seat temporarily. In the past 10 years, I’ve been working to hone my craft and have participated in shows in Brooklyn, NY, Washington, DC, and here in Cincinnati. Through Laughing Raven Studio, I curate an Artist of the Month program at an art-themed bar and gallery called Arts on the Avenue, in historic West End, home of the beer and pork millionaires in the late 1800s to early 1900s.
And that brings us up to now and what I’m spending every spare waking moment on – Cincinnati Alchemy Fest. I created a cocktail bitters brand about 5 years ago called Tao Bitters, and I was doing some work with Arts on the Avenue, so I approached them with the idea of doing a cocktail competition, art show, and music festival.
They agreed immediately but, as luck would have it and certain situations changed, we had to back-burner it then. So now here we are, trying to rise from the Covid-19 ashes, and Alchemy Fest is back in full swing. We have many bartenders registered for the competition and have one of the queens of Cincy cocktail culture – Molly Wellman of Japp’s – as one of our judges. We’ll have the street blocked and many crafty vendors out front, while inside we’ll be working our way down to the Fall 2021 winner of the first-ever Cincinnati Alchemy Fest.
My partners and I are doing everything we can to produce a community event that will grow as the years pass into one of the premier events in Cincinnati. West End is a forgotten part of town and we believe that what we’re doing can help change that, by showing other small businesses a way to get in there and get started. Please wish us luck.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth roads never make strong individuals. Yes, it’s been tough, with money and finances going up and down, sleeping on couches in somebody’s basement after my wife and I split so that I could pay the rent and feed my two growing boys. I took jobs where ever I could get them, once leaving my boys behind to move to NYC to do a clothing line with a former Fashion Institute of Technology classmate, but traveling back every six weeks for our boys’ weekends.
Lost a house, lost many jobs, and lost a car. I seemed to be the guy who went to work for companies that were on the verge of getting bought out. Four different times in my career I’ve been the recipient of a pink slip because the new owners wanted only their people. So, you dust yourself off and keep on going, on to the next, better situation.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As a visual artist, I’m looking for mood and feeling all the time. My paintings abstract, nonrepresentational, and sometimes geometric, and very controlled in terms of space and line. I started perfecting my own art form a few years ago that combines photography with generative art. I write code that creates different forms of line art and through a process of pulling apart the photograph’s pixel by pixel, I then recreate them by interweaving the code art to multiple layers, using different transparency settings that completely transform the original photo.
As a fiction writer, I always strive to make my readers think differently and to open up to new views of life and the possibilities that can come forth from that view.
I’m also an educator and to me, that’s a very creative endeavor. As mentioned earlier I’ve led major corporations internationally in design thinking sessions. I turned that passion and knowledge into an online course and now also a book. In that role, I again like to make people think but I do that in a very calculated and stealthy way.
And… I’m also a product creator. I have a line of healthy organic teas, a line of cocktail bitters, a soccer training program, and I also have a podcast where I interview men and women so that together we can all teach younger people coming up in the world how to act and react in business and life.
Do you have any advice for those just starting out?
Listen to my podcast! I had great mentors growing up and moving through the different stages of my career, from fashion into tech. I’ve also been a relentless learner and trier of things that were a bit scary to me. My current tech career is mostly self-taught. From just a diploma course in computers, I’ve risen to a high level in my field of User Experience.
I never tell anybody what to do though. I coach people in need of a different perspective, just like I do with C-Level execs around the world and small businesses that may be struggling for identity and ideas to move forward with.
Contact Info:
- Email: cincinnatialchemyfest@gmail.com
- Website: http://cincinnatialchemyfest.com
- Instagram: @cincinnatialchemyfest
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/events/4165629636891740
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/elitesoccerdrills
- Other: http://laughingravenstudio.com
