feben

Feben Teffera | Founder: FabyCo

Feben is a badass. We’ve met three times before this photoshoot, once for coffee at her favorite Field Day Coffee in SLO, once for a remote interview (to be released at a future date) and now in-person at her home in San Luis Obispo. By now I’ve had time to do some research and listen to Feben’s interview with local journalist Jaime Lewis on her CONSUMED Podcast where they discuss Feben’s role in establishing the pop-up Ethiopian restaurant Ebony. But Feben and I are meeting to focus on and document Feben’s other passion and entrepreneurial project: FabyCo.

FabyCo is Feben’s first business and is going through the growing pains of a solopreneur business. After searching for a while she’s found a co-working space that will serve as her workshop for all of her crafted leather products. Before now (and during our photoshoot) she’s been using her home as a workshop. Leather scraps still litter the floor in boxes and shelves. The beauty and chaos of a creative space in transition.

Feben loves her coffee, if you follow her instagram, you’ll see. Her daily ritual of an espresso is a deep joy that she always makes time for. We start our photo session with this ritual that for Feben is a spritual and grounding way to start every day.

We spend the morning chatting as I find my flow, snapping photos of Feben and the small moments around her beautifully decorated home.

After Feben’s morning ritual of coffee and reading in her home, she packs up her FabyCo bag and locks up her door. We take a short walk down to her co-working studio where she has set up leather-working production.

She tours me around, relieved and excited to be finding new inspiration and space to grow her business. Feben is currently the only maker at FabyCo, she designs and produces every single product piece along with running the business. On top of this she runs her pop-up restaurant with a team and works to prioritize time with her son.

Like I said, Feben is a badass.

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If you are a photo producer, art director, magazine editor, or a creative individual looking for a professional photographer, I would love to collaborate with you to create images that capture the emotion and magic of everyday moments.

Please reach out today to introduce yourself [here’s my contact info], I’m looking forward to meeting you and hearing your story.

jayson

Jayson Maulé | Artist + Actor

I met Jayson on Instagram: “Hey Jayson, hope you’re doing well. I love your work man, I think it’s stellar and honest. I am working to profile central coast artists and I was curious if you’d be open to a photo shoot and interview?”.

After a few weeks we found time for a photoshoot documenting Jayson’s painting practice in his garage/studio.

The planned approach was to capture photos and followup after with a sit down interview, but it became clear ten minutes into meeting Jayson that the conversation of value was the one we were having while I snapped photos, so I quickly pivoted to recording our conversation as we both practiced our art together.

During our conversation we unearthed some insights that are worth highlighting. These insights relate directly to the creative process but could be applied more broadly:

• Striving to create balance between passions is a learning curve. Maintaining a growth mindset and willingness to work hard and be flexible between various priorities is imperative.

• Being kind to oneself is the only way to stay productive, healthy and happy.

• Just showing up is half the battle. Making time for and committing to craft even without something to work on will allow for creativity to flow.

• The antithesis of playing it safe. Being an artist today is risky, but accepting a career path that is not fulfilling can feel even more threatening to ones sense of self.

• Stepping into the creative process is not therapy, but it is therapeutic.

• Once inspiration is found and the process is allowed to flow, the results can feel like magic.

• Nature has a way of pulling us into the present in a way that few other environments or processes can.

Not only are Jayson’s paintings honest, they stand out for their tenacity and texture, the depth and use of color that he implements. They feel simultaneously dramatic, heavy, and delicate infused with emotion and charged with energy, sometimes static, sometimes dynamic.

Meeting Jayson, getting to talk to him about his painting and how he seeks to balance his various passions was a deep and sincere joy of mine.

You can contact Jayson and find out more about him via the following links:

• Jayson’s website

• Jayson’s instagram

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If you are a photo producer, art director, magazine editor, or a creative individual looking for a professional photographer, I would love to collaborate with you to create images that capture the emotion and magic of everyday moments.

Please reach out today to introduce yourself [here’s my contact info], I’m looking forward to meeting you and hearing your story.