We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Gus Cutty. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Gus below.

Alright, Gus thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I learned almost everything I know about aerosol art through trial and error. I began painting before YouTube and all of the resources people have at their disposal today. I’m not criticizing that though, I wish I had had the ability to google how to spray paint a mural or had the tools that people have now. I learned to paint with Krylon and though it was a slower process I feel that that journey is reflected in my style today. It’s really wild watching how quickly kids can go from picking up a spray can to painting beautiful murals within a couple of years now. Everything you want to know is right there! That being said, I have always held the belief that the skill of learning is the most important skill you can hone. You can focus on learning to paint a face or learning to run a business, but if you work on getting better at learning, sharpening the efficiency and shortening the time between mistake and lesson, then you will be able to pick up on things more quickly and become a more rounded artist and human in general. You must learn!

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I began writing graffiti in 93’ as a kid in Nashville TN influenced by the local scene and whatever I could learn from magazines and books. Eventually I began experimenting with portrait painting starting with black and white cans of Krylon and developed alongside the materials. As specialty aerosol paint became available I became more interested in non letter based muralism and in 2012 decided to pursue it as a career. This year I have been lucky enough to celebrate 13 years as a full time working artist pursuing my personal art while also running a successful commercial mural business. While much of my work is based in North Carolina I often travel around the country painting and continue to participate in mural festivals and events whenever possible. While I enjoy few things more than painting my personal vision I have learned to find joy in the problem solving and challenges that client informed work provides. My personal goal is to continue to evolve and pursue the perfection of craft.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

When I say I have been a full time artist for 13 years it sounds glorified, and though I am grateful, I don’t want people to think that it has been easy. I had few resources at the beginning of my journey as to how to run a successful mural business and for the first six years I made plenty of mistakes and barely scraped by. But I had core beliefs and I stood by my word. One thing that I have always believed is that if I quote a client and that quote turns out to be too low then that is my mistake and it is a lesson to be learned on my end. I never asked for more money. So when I was asked to paint the interior of a hummus factory 23k sounded like a lot of money, and for me at the time it was. The thing is though, 23k sounds like a good chunk of change until you subtract costs and divide it by 6 months. Those were some of the longest 6 months of my life and though I was frustrated often I walked away proud of the work that I produced and the knowledge that I could execute a huge job on my own. Sometimes you have to take a hit to learn to not get hit the next time, and a happy client always tells their friends.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My personal goal in creativity is to always improve and to never stop learning. I don’t believe in attaining perfection of art or craft, I believe in the pursuit of it. I’ve always seen artists that seem to know exactly what their personal style is and what subject matter they want to pursue and I’ve just never been that way. I get bored easily and really just want to keep myself entertained so I just keep designing and painting and every now and then I get really proud of a piece but that pride is short lived before it’s time for the next one and I never want to lose that drive but I do hope to find a little bit of peace in the pursuit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.guscutty.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/guscutty/