We were lucky to catch up with Richard Ingram recently and have shared our conversation below.

Richard , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?

Well, it was a coworker Madeline who wanted to support me and like my artwork the painting was maybe 10 x 12 and it was a play on the old school RTD transit system logo. She gave me a check for $75.00 and with that I was on my way to becoming a professional artist. I felt so happy that someone would want to give me their hard earned money for my artwork. It was truly a magical moment.

Richard , before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Well, it all started when I would check out my older cousins comic book stash, and I would try to re-create pictures that I found. So from there, my passion grew of sketching and jotting, and just being an artist. I create larger style paintings 8‘ x 5‘. I also do murals, my artwork is a nostalgic from when I was a kid stemming back to all of my loves from skateboarding to sports to graffiti to Saturday morning cartoons. Everything is incorporated in my work to show what I was feeling at the time. Usually brands will contact me to do a mural for them to display a message on a large wall. For example, I did a campaign for Verizon wireless which was centered about kindness. The problem I saw for businesses and brands is I give their business recognition style points, cool points and people tend to notice street art. I’m most proud of being invited to the White House being one of the chosen few to represent the Black/Jewish artistic community was a major achievement. My grandmother cried tears of joy when hearing the news.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I believe society as a whole needs to recognize thr talent of artists and give them their flowers while they’re still alive. Let’s not wait till great artist dies to recognize their work. Paying millions of dollars for their paintings once they’re dead doesn’t help. Support living artists, dead ones don’t need the money.

Have you ever had to pivot?

Right now I’m in the middle of a pivot. I have worked in the video game industry for over 15 years. I’ve worked for Disney, NBA 2K and I’ve also worked for Warner Brothers to name a few. I had to pivot as of 2022 when tons of layoffs occurred in the video game industry. I had to pivot and to pursue other things such as my artistry full-time this is why I need supporters like you guys out there to buy my artwork and help an artist live the life of his dreams.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bournrich.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bournrich
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/toingram
• Twitter: @Bournrich

Image Credits

Photos by BournRich