We recently connected with Vincent Hisle and have shared our conversation below.

Vincent, appreciate you joining us today. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I know that we covered how I got into art in my first interview so I wont bore everyone with that. Frankly what speeds up the learning process for most is just “doing the thing”, and I am no different even though sometimes I think I can try things in my head for some reason. “Learn by doing” as my old MUS ED professor used to say. Its fun to scroll pinterest and think about what craft you could be good at but most people just need to get to work. That is definitely me.

I hate to say it but its really just that thing you hear about being insatiable. If you really want to do something and have decided to do it, learn whatever skills you need to get it done. I was not a good woodworker at first and my first pieces were rough in hindsight. You learn a lot from picking apart your own work and asking how it could be better. I think being really driven and determined is the biggest factor that really will drive you to learn the other skills. Is “dont give up and figure it out” a skill?

I can’t call my children obstacles, They are the world to me. But maybe we could call it lack of sleep and trying to be a present Dad. Of course once I started earning money from my art, (or music for that matter earlier in life) I had the excuse that I was “working” when I needed to paint instead of playing that extra hour of minecraft or halo with the kids.

But that gets hairy. It’s very easy to feel like you are neglecting your kids when they want to play with you and you are doing a hobby, even if you get paid and paid well for that hobby. So they aren’t an “obstacle” but they are often the reason I push work aside. Most of my clients being women for one reason or another though, they seem to understand and are typically quite patient if I just let them know whats going on in the house. You hate to make excuses, but kids get sick and require extra attention sometimes and that can be very unpredictable.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

For those that don’t know my work, I am a visual artist and musician / music educator somewhat known for my dimensional wood sculptures and paintings. I got into it by first making a few drums and really loving how wood grain looked. I used to always wonder to myself why wood always had to be stained some shade of brown, but I could buy drums in vibrant colors? Which took me down the road of wood dyes, shellac and lacquer etc.. This combined with seeing a few cardboard geometric sculptures in school at NKU school of the arts lead me into this idea of blending geometric with organic.

That is largely the trend in art over the last decade. blending the organic and authentic with the intricate and geometric. I saw other artists creating very inspiring works, and one day just decided I would try it. The rest is just your basic “lets the throw this up online and see what happens” kind of story.

I sold my first piece to a design studio who profited from procuring it for their client. I didn’t realize this was the case until much later. I had no prior experience with something like that as someone who grew up blue collar. Whoever decided to buy my piece, changed my life. I felt already that it was priced way too high (without considering how long I spent on it) because it was so much fun to create. I had no notion whatsoever about how to price art so I just priced it comparably to others making similar stuff and was shocked when it actually happened. Like I said, blue collar mindset of ” if its fun its play, and if its work it shouldn’t be fun”.

I grew up in a really open and creative family. Both parents were artistic or crafty in different ways. My Mom always had a craft for us to do, and my Dad even built a large craft table in our basement for that purpose explicitly. I think it was just how we all bonded instead of say monopoly or tv for other families. Of course we did that stuff too, but none of my friends were making paper plate ninja turtles with moving limbs and weapons etc… knowing what I know, being an educator and parent of kids who really want to play with ipads and screens in general, It was a great way for a young kid to grow their mind.

Being a millenial and growing alongside all of this technology has its benefits. I’m 36, So I remember what it was like without a lot of this technology. It is both a blessing and a curse, but probably more so to be left behind by it, or immersed in it from a young age. I think all of that in combination set me up in a specific way. Im honestly not sure.

I used to feel that anyone could do this sort of stuff, that people are all highly capable of these things. The older I get and the more I speak with people, I see that talent is actually quite rare. Not only that but not being dragged down, fear of vulnerability, overly concerned about monetization, etc etc.. scares a lot of people away from perusing their talents. Creating is something people do innately but some people learn to do it more bravely than others. They push through all the nonsense and just keep creating. As a fact that is both sad and emboldening to me.

Its hard to believe my lack of imagination for how fun it is to work with people in my youth. I was a really shy kid even into my late teens. I started teaching drumline around age 19 and I think this really brought me out of my shell. I was usually a really introverted and reserved person, but these kids needed my help and I actually felt qualified to help them. That art of public speaking had to be hewn over time but this was a huge help for me. It has made it much easier for me to close deals, reassure clients etc. as a professional. that “gift of gab” thing is huge. It’s hard for artistic types to be embroiled socially or professionally, it doesn’t really come with the territory necessarily.

At this stage in my life, I love making my clients lives easier. It hit me in my late 20s. Things just aren’t about your ego really. It’s good to have one, and part of establishing a brand is certainly exerting your ego and will on the world. At the end of the day though, every business needs happy clients. It just snapped for me one day after working with some younger instructors and being admittedly annoyed with their attitude towards the students. I realized I had been just as irreverent and turned towards the idea of providing value to the market. Value to the students and director of the band programs I worked with. As a teacher in band programs that is making the directors life easier. In the art world that is making your clients life easier. That is your job as the artist. Make the art highly appealing and don’t get in the way. Even better would be to show them the art of yours they like, photoshopped onto their wall. That is providing value that helps them make a decision, which, if it goes your way, helps you. Provide some free value – I’tll get you further than you think.

The single largest thing lately that I am focused on, is creating extremely high end work. Paying attention to every little tiny detail and making sure that if I owned it, id be happy with it. When you work with wood and paint its almost like a game of what can go wrong. Sometimes I look over pieces and get overwhelmed with how much needs slightly “touched up” but that is the game of providing extreme value to the client. It’s not just a great design, its allowing them to walk past that great design 100 x without noticing a flaw. Letting them feel they got something that was well taken care of and carefully crafted.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For a long time I thought about singer / songwriter Fat Mike’s line in a NOFX song. “I define success as not working, and I live like a king”. The idea that I could get paid to do what I love was such an amazing premise even when I was young because I knew there were people around me that hated going to work. My notions on this have evolved a bit over time though. the longer you do a job (any job) the more you realize IT IS WORK. No one feels like painting every day of their life. No one feels like doing anything every day. That is just discipline, and most will maintain it to pay their bills but they wont dream of maintaining it to learn an instrument or an art. I spoke with my Father about this yesterday. he’s been an avid music lover for years and inspired two of his children to become professional musicians. He’s wanted to play the bass guitar since he was a boy, but has always found himself too busy. Only now is he putting rubber to road since he retired a few months back, and I’ve been pushing!

I think there are different fits for different folks, but, people are also tougher than they think they are, so they can probably learn to just work in a field they don’t like but pays them well. While people are unique and talent IS rare, we aren’t snowflakes either. We just aren’t as unique as we might think, in the sense that we think we NEED to be an artist or NEED to be a plumber etc. I think the plumber and the artist could easily learn to change places in most cases and develop and find hidden aptitudes to each others crafts. I think I mentioned this in my last interview, but when my blue collar friends say they aren’t talented it breaks my heart a little because they are some of the smartest guys I know, and are brimming with talent.

So to be concise, I think its inherently just the meaning we derive from work that is the true basal reward. What we mean to the people around us is truly important to us. Some people don’t think about that or may disagree but its true. Maybe it isn’t at the forefront of your mind but your subconscious stays aware of these things and it matters. So finding meaning in what you do and the responsibilities that come with it are huge.

My kids need food, water, shelter etcetera so me getting up in the morning and finding motivation to craft are easy because I’ve learned to monetize it. To some artists the reward is that moment of inspiration, which they say cant be forced. I say, sure, but it can be coerced, and it can be pulled out occasionally if you decided to create every day. Creating itself inspires more creation, more iteration. So the sense of meaning of being a Dad, a husband, a provider is definitely the reward here.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

Pivoting in life is hard for a lot of us. I know a lot of people that find it hard to switch jobs, commit to a car payment etcetera. Change can be such a crazy catalyst for good (or bad). I think many people have stories about being fired but being happy about it. Complacence can be a real problem, and I would argue its extremely common. I noticed maybe sometime when I was in my 20’s, my parents and myself occasionally would sign me up for hard thing xyz, I would loath showing up and doing the work for a time, learn to love it and then grow immensely from the experience. I find myself telling my students that story all the time.

I always think of the bus load for my first band camp. It sank in I wouldn’t have the comforts of home for an entire week and a weekend. I had experienced that camping but I had my parents. So this was the first time I had to deal with that. I text my Mom sitting in the back “I don’t want to do this, can I get off?”. I watched her read it. She shook her head no and approached my window. Her and my Dad yelled up “you’ll be fine, you’ll see” and they were 100% right. I made friends I still have to this day 22 years later, my drumming chops got better, my sense of responsibility and group work grew immensely. That experience is largely why I still teach drumline to this day even though art pays way better and my kids want me home as much as then can get me. It made such an immense difference in my life and I want to hand that experience down.

I certainly wasted big chunks of time in bad jobs, working for bosses who didn’t care about my growth as a human, or around really negative people. You really have to reject that stuff in your life. Sometimes you can “work around” people if you need to but that almost always blows itself up one way or the other. So if I had any advice, don’t be afraid to switch things up! Don’t toss the baby out with the bathwater if you have a good thing, but if you know you’ve been ignoring red flags then make aggressive change.

Pin yourself hard between the thing you want to do, and your survival, your comfort. You WILL figure it out. Our ancestors fought lions and killed mammoths, you can switch jobs.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://hisledesigns.etsy.com
• Instagram: hisle_artworks
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100067193171828

Image Credits

NA / I own all images presented