Meet Jonathan Fuller | Software Developer, Licensed Therapist, Creator

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jonathan Fuller and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jonathan, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
For me, the process behind starting my own business was a simple one, I have always loved creating things. When you can’t stop creating things, eventually you end up with a lot of them, too many in fact. Eventually the financials just don’t make sense without taking the step to give them away or sell them more seriously. Making it an official business, just helps the process along and creates the space to create again. In my case, my heart moves on its own wherever and whenever it wants to create something new, and my head has to follow along to help make it work. I have never been a business minded individual, so I was surprised when my creativity lead me to a place where I needed to start one. At first it was a jewelry and cut stone business, but now I make custom knives, stickers, painted pieces, guitar pedals and the current project I am building up to is the first full guitar build.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My professional journey has been long and varied. Renaissance man has been used to describe me on more than one occasion. Jack of all trades is another one I have heard countless times, often in an unsupportive way when people project their ideas that a person’s career should solely seek specialty in one area. A lot of people don’t know, but the whole quote attributed to William Shakespeare is, “Jack of all trades is a master of none but oftentimes better than a master of one.” Later it was truncated by Robert Greene when referring to Shakespeare in an insulting way.

When I was a kid and adults would ask me what I wanted to do when I grew up, I would never know how to answer. Not because I didn’t know what I wanted to do, but because I didn’t know how to answer that effectively. I want to do it all. Why wouldn’t I want to learn how to do everything? It seemed such a base part of who I am that I always knew breadth of ability was just as important as depth. My path hasn’t been straight, and a lot of it has not been easy, but I’ve loved it all.

I have always felt the cultural pressure of having a single career and it definitely sank in as a persistent critical voice in my head that spoke loudly through my twenties as I tried to pursue my jewelry business. I went back to school for my master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a focus on transpersonal counseling and I started my therapy practice in 2018 after graduating. I love working with people in counseling and the process of getting my degree and starting my practice was rough at times, but yet again during quarantine in 2020 I started to expand my vision and tried out coding in my time at home. I found I really missed the engineering part of my mind and fell in love with it. The process of starting a career as a software developer was also not easy. I taught myself programming and built projects in order to get interviews and prove my ability, and I can proudly say I am a full time developer now for 3 years and grateful I made the career shift. I still work in counseling, and removing the financial pressure from that work has allowed me to work in a much more authentic and connected way.

Since starting grad school in 2015, my creative side took a back seat and would come out only in short bursts whenever I had the time to give to it. Working in tech has offered a lot more space mentally and emotionally to start creating more seriously again. It has also removed one of the biggest pressures for financial success from my creative process. I appreciate artists who are more business minded who know how to walk the marketing and branding path, and that has never been what I am good at. I create because my soul needs to do it and not having to worry whether something will sell, or how to market myself has been a blessing.

I sell my art through word of mouth, art shows, as consignment in some shops around Colorado and through social media primarily. Now that I have the time and space to give back to my art again, I am going to put the bones back together to have a web store and market myself a bit more directly. Everything I make has a small piece of my spirit and I hope that all of my creations can just spark joy in someone else as it does for me.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Denver has no shortage of wonderful restaurants, bars and venues for entertainment. The music scene here is great and amazing artists both well known and unknown come through every year. The food scene is also fantastic if you know where to go. Speaking of a varied career, I used to be a master grower at a hydroponic lettuce farm called GrowHaus north of RiNo and we would sell different lettuce and specialty crops like bok choy or mustard greens to restaurants in Denver. Ill give a big shoutout to Linger as one of my favorite places to bring someone from out of town because of how amazing the location is in the highlands, the buildings interesting history and it’s varied menu of smaller plates meant for sharing. They also bought a lot of produce from us back in the day, so I can attest to their focus on quality ingredients sourced locally.

To be honest though I bring most of my out of town friends out of town up to the mountains pretty quick regardless of season. My favorite music venue has shifted from Red Rocks to Dillon Amphitheater and most artists that play Red Rocks will stop up at Dillon for a couple nights. It is a much more intimate venue with views of Lake Dillon and the towering mountains make it an incredible place to see your favorite bands. When in Denver though, check out Sushi Den/Izakaya Den for great sushi, and pearl street is just a great place to hang out in SE Denver. For a real cool market downtown, go check out Marczyk’s. I grew up in Denver and moved away for my undergraduate degree to the west coast and came back as Denver grew in 2013. I could go on for hours about all the great places in Denver, and I would encourage people to just ask locals for their favorites when coming to town.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I’d like to credit everyone in my life who has ever encouraged my creations. My family and friends have all been supportive through the years in all my different passions. Had I not also had a career as a therapist and later as a software developer, I could imagine them being less encouraging about my creativity without more dedicated business success around selling my art. All of my different abilities have been cultivated via different mentors throughout my life and there are just too many to count, or mention by name. However if you know me and had a part in my journey, take this as a direct personal thank you.

I want to thank my dad, who passed in 2021. He was a paramedic in Denver and was able to build, fix or make pretty much whatever he needed to or wanted to. He taught me throughout my life a lot of his skills across many specialties and encouraged my own confidence that I can do or make whatever I want, and how to go about figuring how to overcome any obstacle I face. I miss him and I feel most connected to him when in the workshop. Any time I fix something or build something new, I wish I was able to share that with him and I feel thankful that he taught me so many valuable skills.

Definitely have to thank my mom as well for always loving my art and loyally supporting my creativity, while at the same time being a guiding hand to help ground my passions when they get burning too intensely. She has a picture that has hung in our house since I was a kid that reads “There are two things you give your children, one is roots, and the other is wings”. I feel she has done a wonderful job of giving me both.

Instagram: sunmonk.artifex

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathan-fuller-ma-lpc-380346147/

Other: My online presence has been minimal the last few years, but I intend to change that. My old business account on instagram @SunMonkCreations is more of my personal page now, but a lot of my older jewelry and stones can be seen there if you scroll down past all the fish pictures. Sunmonk.artifex is my newer art profile that I use for sharing my creations now.