This is the seventh edition of JTPL Stories: a series of interviews with library patrons, staff, and partners. Continue below to meet the faces of JTPL with our Outreach Coordinator, Aliya! Click Here to read the entire series.
Meet Monica, the local artist and library patron who designed our new library card! In honor of releasing our 125th anniversary library card this month, I just had to interview the artist so that our patrons could get to know her and her art better. We talked about Monica’s love for the library, the inspiration behind her design, and her path to starting a freelance art and stationary business.
Monica (AKA cherrycupcakez) told me she begins creating all of her art by imagining the feelings she wants it to evoke. To her, the library means warmth, wonder, and possibility, and she wanted her design to reflect those feelings.
“I remember when I was a kid,” she told me, “I got an encyclopedia for arts and crafts and I taught myself to make paper mache roses just from the book. I was like: ‘I can learn things and make things that don’t exist just from looking at a book? This is amazing!’ ”
Monica used that memory to inspire her art, and she showed me four different library card drafts she created centered around kids learning and creating through their favorite books. The final design she chose is full of warm colors and two kids making a cardboard rocket ship after reading about space. She said the design is about the endless wonder and possibility that comes from a good book.
Monica’s library card is full of little details. One of our old library cards rests on a stack of books and a cute dog wears a JTPL T-shirt.
For Monica, JTPL embodied possibility for her freelance and stationary business, which is one of the reasons she was excited to partner with us. “With the Makerspace, the library planted a seed that I kept watering,” she told me. “It empowered me.”
In 2019, Monica moved to Jeffersonville from California to enroll in graphic design at Ivy Tech. She had previously been working as a medical assistant while doodling in her free-time, but she wanted to take a chance on making her hobby into a career.
She said she discovered our Makerspace when it re-opened after COVID. Just like the book in her childhood memory, the library provided a way to make her ideas into reality. With our Makerspace, she was able to turn her digital art into tangible stickers and engravings and gain the confidence to build a business selling them.
“I did the vinyl printer training with Stuart, and I realized that it wasn’t rocket science,” Monica said. “Because of that, I was brave enough to buy my own printer.” Now, she has an online store where she sells stickers, and she attends local markets to sell her art on stationary. She’s also been commissioned to create art for other organizations in Jeffersonville. “It all comes back to that moment at the library playing and having fun in the Makerspace,” she said.
While she built her business, Monica fell in love with Jeffersonville, started a family here, and recently got married. Taking care of two kids and running a business hasn’t been easy, but she says she’s excited to combine her journey through motherhood with her art. She told me: “I’m really, right now, asking myself what I want to say with my art. But I know at the heart it’s about making people smile and feel warm inside.”
Monica plans to continue to build roots here and grow a creative community through her art and the library. She would love to make an impact on Jeffersonville just as the library did on her.
You can take home one of Monica’s library cards at the desk of either of our library locations or find her other art here, online. In addition to our new library card, Monica also designed our 125th anniversary logo and library coloring book. The coloring book will be released at our 125th Anniversary Fall Festival on October 11!