Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Cory Mabry. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Cory, appreciate you joining us today. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I have a regulator job outside of my artwork. It can be a hard balance to maintain at times, but I also think it is beneficial in it’s own way. While I would love for my sole source of income to come from painting and drawing all day, I think the time I spend away from creating makes me enjoy it much more. I’ve had spans of time where I’ve pushed myself harder to make being an artist my sole profession, but I feel like my artwork starts to suffer at a point and some of the enjoyment starts to fade. Especially with the way social media wants to you market yourself in a rigid and calculated way. For me, I prefer doing things at my own pace and following whatever creative venture interests me at the moment. One week I may want to create an illustration that’s meaningful to me, with lots of detail and imagery drawn from various interest of mine. Another week, I might just want to paint a character from one of my favorite horror movies. I also find there’s a certain value in having time away from creating to daydream and be a little bored. There’s moments when I’ll be working or driving, and random sparks of inspiration will start rolling around in my head. It keeps me excited to create my next piece, instead of feeling like I’m just making art to make money.

Cory, 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?

My name is Cory and I create art under the name AphexArt. I work mostly in acrylic, ink, and digital mediums. My style is heavily influenced by music, movies, mythology, nature, etc. I like drawing from all of these sources to create pieces that have meaning to me. I find a lot of enjoyment in researching and assigning symbolism to the images in the art I make. Balancing dark and light subject matter is a theme I tend to always go back to with a lot of my pieces. I’m also a big horror movie fan, and love doing portraits of some of my favorite characters just for fun. I’ve drawn since as long as I can remember, but didn’t really push myself to share my work until the past several years or so. Art is what I like to do for fun outside of my day job, I need a creative outlet in my life to stay sane. Somewhere along the way people started enjoying what I made, and started wanting to purchase it. That’s pretty much how I fell into where I am now. It’s something I enjoy doing, and I’m happy to share it with the world. Being able to make money off of my work is definitely nice, but at the end of the day I just enjoy being able to create and push myself to become better at what I do.

I also teach paint-night style classes in my spare time. This has been a recent exploration of mine, and one that I really enjoy. While there are many classes like this already out there, I like being able to bring my own style and passion for painting to mine. It’s a really friendly atmosphere, I genuinely love seeing how different everybody’s paintings end up coming out at the end of each class. I get a lot of enjoyment from seeing someone leave with a finished painting after coming in saying they have no talent or creativity. I’ve never felt like I’ve had a natural talent for art. It’s just something I love to do, and have been stubborn enough to keep at it until I’m satisfied with what ends up on my canvas. Like most people, I deal with anxiety, depression, and other hardships that daily life can bring. Creative outlets like art and music have been the biggest medicine for me, and I love being able to share that with people.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

I think being an artist, like any other creative hobby or profession is a real test of your resilience. When I was first learning to paint I struggled with getting past the ugly stages of paintings. Some of those paintings never got quite past that stage to be honest. It can be hard work continuing to put time and effort into something without knowing how it’s going to come out. There were many times where I’d just think I wasn’t that good, or had ruined a piece. The hard part is pushing past that little voice in your head telling you to give up, and that you aren’t any good. Pushing past that point, even if you don’t make the prettiest painting is rewarding in itself to me. The more time I put in, the more I began to trust the process. What’s interesting to me is that all of these lessons can apply to many other avenues of life outside of art.

It also took me quite a while to become happy with my own style of artwork, as I think it’s pretty common to compare yourself to others while you’re on your journey. Especially with the internet and social media, where you can scroll through thousands of other artists’ work in seconds. At some point in my journey I realized that I wasn’t making art to compete with other people, I make art because it fulfills something within me. I think that’s a pretty important step to reach in any hobby or profession really. Sure, it’s great to be recognized by others for your accomplishments, but at the end of the day you have to be happy with yourself. Sitting down and painting while my favorite album is playing is just what makes me happy. If other people end up liking what I make, that’s a bonus.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I think giving children opportunities and resources to express themselves creatively is something that should be a big focus for society. I feel that most artists start pretty young, and that could definitely be encouraged more. I’d love to eventually start my own business or organization that provides lessons, materials, and environment for children to just play around and learn to create. I feel that it’s an innate need we all have, that is dampened and dumbed down as we go through school and into regular life. If a kid has passion or an interest in a creative field, that should be nurtured and encouraged. I believe that starting young, and showing those creative individuals that art is something valuable they can continue to pursue in their life would greatly benefit the creative ecosystem going forward.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://aphexart.carrd.co
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/aphex_art
• Other: Art Classes at Dusk & Willow Design

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