WHAT LED YOU TO BECOME AN ILLUSTRATOR AND PAINTER AND WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?
If I had the type of mind that was really shrewd and clever about money or real estate or whatever, I would have been a banker or some kind of baller entrepreneur. As it is, I’m good with people and aesthetics, and I just needed to satisfy my curiosity, make a living, and burn off a sort of puritan work ethic I’ve always had in me. I just hustled toward the thing I felt best at, and it’s this. And I’m a pleaser, so it’s nice to make things for people and have them respond so graciously. Kind of like being a chef, but less essential.

WHO ARE YOUR FAVORITE ARTISTS AND WHOSE WORK ARE YOU MOST INSPIRED AND INFLUENCED BY? 
I love portraits — Manet, Sargent, Whistler. I guess those guys would all be classified as ‘post-impressionists’. Hockney, for being such a wit and a workhorse. I have a weakness for bright pastels, Florida / California colors. I really loved the Cecily Brown show that was just at Gagosian uptown. But my favorite art, really, is TV. Comedy. I’m having a renaissance with the Simpsons, new episodes. It’s still incredible.

CUSTOM HERALDRY IS SUCH A LOVELY CONCEPT. WHAT IS YOUR PROCESS OF DEVELOPING SUCH A SPECIAL PIECE WITH A CLIENT?
Usually it’s a phone interview, but if they’re in New York I’ll meet with the couple, which I love. It’s just sweet to talk to people at this moment in their lives when they’re so in love and have a sense of beginning. I try my best to diffuse some of the stress and silliness of wedding planning and get at something pure.

WHAT BRINGS YOU JOY?
All the different faces, body types, ways of saying things. The goodness and funniness of people. Dogs. Laughing and talking trash with my husband and my friends. Walking around the city. Clothes.

COMB OR BRUSH? 
Brush! Vigorously but not that often.

DO YOU LIKE YOUR NAME?
Yeah, I like it. I wonder sometimes what my life would be like if my name was, like, Jennifer Weintraub or something. I’m not one of those people who feels I was meant to be born in another era, on another continent. It all feels about right to me.

FINISH THIS SENTENCE: MY AGE IS…………….
33

WHAT’S FOR DINNER TONIGHT?
Probably rice and beans and avocado and tomato. I eat like I’m heading off to build a pyramid right after.