Conversations with Olivia McCann

Today we’d like to introduce you to Olivia McCann.

Hi Olivia, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I started reselling clothing the summer after graduating from the University of Denver in 2020. I graduated with majors in Spanish and Film and minors in Art and Entrepreneurship at the height of the pandemic and was eager for a side gig.

Reselling clothes felt like an exciting way to follow my entrepreneurial spirit while applying to other jobs, and as I continued doing that and working at a Bilingual Montessori Elementary school in Denver, I craved to expand my creative practice and experiment a bit more with the clothing pieces I was finding.

In the Spring of 2021, after rekindling my love for block printing, I block printed my first pair of bleached jeans and was excited when someone quickly bought the pair on Depop. I continued making small batches of these unique upcycled pieces. Using bleach first to create abstract swirls and patterns over the clothes, and then adding my ink designs using block printing techniques.

In the summer of 2021, I did my first pop-up market at Casual Fest hosted by a Boulder band called Sunnnner at the Boulder bandshell. They invited artists to come to pop up at their concert series with their creations. I remember being excited and a bit nervous, but I had an amazing experience and loved talking to people that stopped by my booth to compliment my work or buy a pair of jeans, and I knew I wanted to do more pop-up markets.

It felt affirming to be an artist and designer sharing my work with the community, and that first pop-up market sparked a lot of excitement in me. I did around thirty more pop-up markets around Denver in the following year, selling my art and clothing and introducing people to my brand, Ephemeral Concrete. I chose the name to encompass the spirit of my creative process. Chasing that ephemeral spark of inspiration and creative whim, and following it into its physical and concrete form.

During the fall of 2022, I took a break from Pop-up markets and began focusing on fashion shows, which felt like an incredible way to showcase my work alongside other local designers in celebration of creativity, art, and fashion. As I begin this new year, I am eager to continue popping up, doing fashion shows, and expanding my brand and creative practice in exciting new ways.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Being an artist and creating your own business is not easy. It is a work in progress with plenty of grueling days, lows, and disappointments. It’s easy to feel like the process is incredibly slow-going, to wish I was selling more or reaching more people. On a mediocre pop-up day, I might sell only one or two things, or possibly nothing at all.

But the little wins, the great pop-ups, seeing someone take home and wear my work, and knowing that I showed up and put myself and my work out there make it worth it. The feeling of knowing I created something, that I continue to create that something and that I evolve with it, keeps me coming back to it. As an artist, I know I need to create, and having full control over what I create and what I share with others is very empowering.

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
Besides upcycling clothing for Ephemeral Concrete, I write poetry and have written in and filled over forty journals in the last seven years. I love creating the complex snapshot that a poem holds on only a single page, and I love being inspired by the pieces: single words. Lists of three to five to fifteen words are what I typically begin with when I write a poem.

Thinking of how these random words might relate and interact gives me the inspiration to start writing and create that snapshot, story, and multi-layered emotion. I’ve published twenty-five poems in the last several years, have sold little chapbooks at places like Mutiny Information Cafe and Trident Booksellers Cafe and I would love to organize and publish a larger collection of my poems.

What matters most to you? Why?
Being creative and connecting with others matters most to me. Getting to create in various ways keeps me feeling lively, loving, and attuned to the beauty and positivity in the world. Creativity has such a powerful element of transformation, and I think the world could use more of it to problem-solve, connect, transform and redirect trauma, and communicate.

And connecting with others in a myriad of ways, through art, quality time, through honest and open communication are integral to personal and collective well-being, and things like the pandemic, politics, and technology have made that challenging in some ways, but both art and community are incredible tools we have to move forward, connect, and heal.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.ephemeralconcrete.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/ephemeralconcrete
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/olivia-mccann-94b8b7194/
• Other: www.oliviamccann.com/poetry

Image Credits
Ava Truckey