We were lucky to catch up with Adan Munoz recently and have shared our conversation below.

Adan, appreciate you joining us today. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

The toughest part of focusing on abstract art is explaining that sometimes they don’t really have “meaning” or represent something concrete.

Most of the time I get inspired by music or something around nature, but it’s not necessarily derivative of what we see everyday.

Yes there have been some slightly space inspired pieces, but because we only know so much about what’s outside of our place on Earth, those moments are what my mind’s eye created. And those were created by an internal struggle I was going through. They became my own universe where I wanted to be at the time. Away from grief, backstabbing people, overall negativity.

I used to get frustrated by people saying, “oh, I see the face here”, “is that a duck?”, things like that because it felt dismissive of just creating something that was simply colors and shapes and feeling. Now I just roll with it. Some people feel the need to see something to understand it.

Adan, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

By day I’m a regional sales manager for a liquor distributor. Just like everything else it has it’s ups and downs but I get to work with some very cool brands from all over the world. My team is incredible and inspire me every day and I’m by their side at all times to encourage them to succeed and hope that one day they’ll be better and grow further than me.

Aside from that, I’ve been painting for about 24 years. Started out of sheer boredom to be quite honest. Bored of my furniture and what it looked like so I started with inexpensive craft paints and doodling on my dresser. Graduated to posterboard with doodles that were a bit tattoo inspired. Very hippie-esque if you will.

The work has gone through a lot of changes. Now I work on large canvases. Smallest is 24inx24in upward to 60inx60in. The last few years have been very celestial, universe inspired. Pinks, purples, blues, very geometric. Those spoke heavily to my audience. Since 2020 I’ve sold about 40 pieces. Quite humbling to know that so many people are willing to add part of my mind and my life into their homes and offices.

I’m currently working some new color ways. More earthly driven but have this sense of fantasy and ethereal moments. A theme I find very important internally. Life can become so bogged down by the complacency of work and day-to-day BS. I want to create a world of imagination and a calming space.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

Sharing the world inside my head with my clients. Its extremely humbling and motivating knowing that so many have spent their hard earned money to have my vision in their lives.

We have so many choices as to what we spend our money on and how we decorate the world around us, I don’t know if I’ll ever feel complacent of just selling another piece.

When someone reaches out to me for a commissioned piece, I’m floored every time. Allowing me into their space to understand what their home or office is like and adding my vision to it all, it gives me chills every time.

Seeing people’s faces when they finally hang a piece and how much they are lit up makes my heart so full and happy.

I hope it never gets old. That’s when I know my job is done.

Do you think there is something that non-creatives might struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can shed some light?

Despite the joyous nature of most of my pieces, there’s a constant internal struggle that I’m going through.

I realized years ago that this is why I paint. Seems cliche to talk about artist and struggles with mental health, but it’s a cliche because it’s real. As creatives, a lot of it comes from depression, self-esteem issues, anxiety, loneliness. This list goes on and on.

I’ve learned that the more I talk about my own struggles, journey through therapy, and how it all impacts my work it helps so many others. I’ll say it time and time again, it’s ok to not be ok. Teaching myself a way to get out of my head and create moments of beauty and inspiration is so rewarding. It’s all helped me be a better person, husband, brother, employee and boss.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @mind_of_am3

Image Credits

All photo credits are mine.