Rising Stars: Meet Jackson Aldern

Today, we’d like to introduce you to Jackson Aldern.

Hi Jackson, we are so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hi! Happy to be here! My name is Jackson Aldern. I am an artist and designer in Fort Collins, CO, and I started Half Snake Media in 2020 to bring artists together. Half Snake Art Collective hosts fine art shows and sells artwork through our online platform. We do community events, host artist workshops, and push each other to be better people and creators. The other side of our organization, the “Media” side, specializes in graphic projects for musicians and bands.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
Oh, man. What an amazing experience it is. We are incredibly lucky to be able to do what we do. I am grateful daily for the opportunities that have helped bring us to where we are now and the lessons we continue to work on. That being said, our history does include some rough patches and sometimes comical screw-ups.

I’ll start with the obvious fact that being an artist doesn’t always fit well into running a sustainable business. In my first year as a business owner, I learned more about e-commerce and marketing strategy than I ever wanted to know. Some of it sticks. Most of it, I need to relearn every time. God help us come tax season.

One particularly painful learning experience was “The Ship Show” of 2021. Springtime. We had a whole batch of online orders get lost. 12 orders – all art prints, thank god, not original paintings – vanished into thin air. My mistake was that I had used the automated machine at the Post Office, scanning the pre-printed labels, printing my receipt, and going through what I thought were the right steps. I then rolled 12 tube shippers ominously down into the blue drop-off bin, thinking that was that.

Weeks later, a customer emailed me asking for an update on their order. I instantly had a bad feeling. Sure enough, I looked up the orders from that batch, and none had been delivered. It was a week of panic getting those orders refilled. We were super lucky that everything that got lost was replaceable, but now I always make sure that orders get shipped with help from a Postal worker, not a machine.

Thanks – so, what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
Our work is constantly evolving. If we have a specialty, it would be utilizing a crazy variation in talents and interests to bring people together and make solid work. We’ve never done the same thing twice. Every project involves embracing a new way of being an artist. I am also incredibly proud of the personal support that Half Snake provides. We are all artists, but we are people first. We talk about our goals and struggles we’re going through, be it mental health, family, school, or whatever.

Part of measuring success for me is ensuring everyone at Half Snake knows that self-care takes precedence any day of the week. Half Snake is known mostly for our art shows in Fort Collins, but I don’t think many folks know how diverse our talents are. Our ability to take on new projects and our technical capabilities in fine art and graphic design is the sweet and salty mixture that makes Half Snake the awesome crew that we are.

What does success mean to you?
I am so comfortable with ambiguity that I’m unsure if I would have a definition of success.

But here are some theories I use: Work as much as possible to afford for yourself and others the ability to create art in any medium without hesitation or distraction. Never compare yourself to others. Compare your work now to your work in the past. When things get complicated, make good art.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.halfsnake.com
• Instagram: @halfsnakemedia