Conversations with Thea Howell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Thea Howell.

Thea, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I am a visual artist who originally arrived in Raleigh to pursue a master’s in creative writing. My career developed into working for almost 2 decades in arts administration. I held various positions as an art director and also as a teaching artist.

Over the years my passions for supporting artists in their marketing, serving the public arts sector, and creative entrepreneurial interests have left my own art-making unattended. Over the course of the current pandemic, like many, my attention shifted inward and I began to notice things closer at hand. That time to think and ruminate drew my attention to my family’s habits as consumers.

I have always been careful about the ingredients we purchase and what we use both in food and other personal products, but this new insight helped me to marry that with the larger global impacts of packaging of those products and their transport and fuel usage. I started with changing my laundry detergent, then quickly spread toward our bath soap products. I started to research what it would look like if I created my own shampoo, a solid bar, and tested various formulas.

I rather quickly realized I could do it, that I could make shampoo not just for my own family’s use but also for others and that the switch wasn’t difficult. It soon became very gratifying to see and hear that others are ready to make such changes, too. I don’t think I have ever done something so casually that’s felt this rewarding and important. Here I am, just 5 months later building a business from that perspective.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Remarkably, I have felt very comfortable in this territory. It feels like the first time I’ve ever launched or chartered something so important that feels also effortless and natural in a way. But yes, there are always challenges. In the beginning, I allowed myself a 1-week window to work out all of my disbelief that the formulas would work, that I didn’t need a background in science or chemistry to create formulas, or that I’d never get it off the ground correctly.

In that period of 1 week, I allowed myself the ability to scrap the entire idea altogether and wrestle with it as much as I needed to in order to come to a conclusion- and so I did. I scrapped it about 5 times in that 1 week. I told myself that I had to live on one side of the line or the other, not in the gray area.

I told myself either I am going to have the courage to do it or I’m not. And once I let go of the worry that there was too much competition in this zero waste, natural soap market, I felt much better and haven’t second-guessed anything since. As a visual artist and creative writer for many decades now, I know very well that I am my first critic, and I’m also my first product tester, and in those roles, I also represent hundreds maybe 10s of thousands of people who might line up with my sensibilities.

As a result, I know that I’m never going to present anything that I wouldn’t want in my own household. It’s the marker for all things I’ve made thus far and all things I will make. And it’s the entire basis of why I started this and what makes it authentic to me.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I am first and foremost a visual artist and writer and for decades I have worked in the arts helping artists and creative brands with their marketing and their business design. As The Artist’s Concierge, I have become known for my unique sensibilities with the artist’s desire to communicate their purpose and function in society, paying attention to their most authentic manner and traits. I speak a different type of language when it comes to brands.

I have always had an innate ability to translate the visual into text and vice versa text into visual communication. I am really strong with analyzing and making meaning from a text (a text being anything that can be viewed/seen/observed). Arriving at an emotional response from a subject and then conveying that is the entire existence of an artist. I have worked in many arts disciplines as an artist throughout my life from theatre and dance to visual, culinary, and writing. It is most interesting and unexpected to me that I find myself creating beauty and cosmetic products, but I’m also slightly not surprised. The artist’s medium can float around comfortably when their anchors are strong and weighted.

I have always wanted comfort and wellness for people and if soap is also a way to fulfill and communicate that then so be it. I have always loved people through feeding them and for my clients through words and supporting deeds. I do see and feel myself applying so much of skills to Greeki Tiki from the visual to the culinary closeness in formulating to writing about the products. I’m very excited and open about the possibilities of where this all may take me and what it’s becoming.

Before we go, is there anything else you can share with us?
I’d also like to add that the purpose of Greeki Tiki is coming from a compelling desire for me to make more conscientious decisions about the products we buy, the packaging we use, and the ingredients we consume and apply. Greeki Tiki is not as much about soap and beauty as one would think; those are just the vehicles or modes of operation representing much larger ideals and symbology.

The real messaging of my products is in understanding how well our health and joy and subsequently our existence is connected and dependent on the same for our environment and our planet Earth. In a biblical, spiritual, and collective manner, and by enacting seemingly small but impactful changes, we need to raise our conscientiousness to the level in which we recognize this.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://greekitiki.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/greekitiki/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/greekitiki