We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Steven Bush a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Steven, thanks for joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?

I believe that my professional career started around the age of 26. This was when I graduated Milwaukee Area Tech College with a degree in Animation, something that I did not want to do. I made the decision to move to Colorado, and go to Rocky Mountain College of Art & Design for Illustration. It was then, with a larger web of connections I began to do small shows and hanging my artwork at local coffee shops, aside from school and a full time job.

Its always been stressful to juggle multiple channels of revenue. However, one seems to always help feed the other. Whether its serving/bartending or restaurant management, a normal full time job helped supplement the artistic freelance endeavors. Each year that passes though, less time is spent waiting tables, and more is spent in my studio. There’s happiness to be found in being a full time artist, as I have been now each Fall and then some. Longer hiatus’s from a normal job each time. It feels like a Pie chart, and I’m slowly making it one big ” Art Pie “.

Steven, 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 Steven Bush. Was born in Milwaukee Wi, now currently living outside of Denver CO. I have always been drawing, that was cataloged early in my life by my Grandmother. Speaking of her, this was who I received my artistic talent from. She painted, she drafted, she doodled, but most impressively, she was a Portrait Quilter. The following year, 1998 when we had won the Super Bowl, she knit Brett Favre a quilt. It was ridiculous, Big Shoulder up detailed face, scene of him tossing a bomb downfield, all with needle, thread, and fabric. She sent it to Lambeau field, and in 98′ it probably got there. So why so much about Grandma and not me? well its important. It made me realize I had gotten a gift, like she had, from her.

So throughout elementary school, middle school, high school, a 3D Animation Program I completed in 2D I was always drawing consistently. Upon beginning at RMCAD for Illustration we of course, had introductory courses. I’ll never forget in a class called Mastering the Pencil, our instructor asked everyone to give the old ” Who are you, what do you want to do ” ice breaker. I remember a student, and still remember their name, said ” Well I decided when I graduated high school, I wanted to learn to draw, to be an artist ” some other peers shared the sentiment as we toured the room. To have this perspective was so strange to me! Now with that said, there is nothing wrong with going out and receiving artistic training or attending a College of the Arts, at any age, heck! I was there to learn like everyone else. Why did this answer seem so strange to me though? Well when I started drawing at age 3, that’s when my grandmother elatedly told me ” Your going to be an artist ” My grade school art teacher assured me the same thing. It’s something I was told so often as I grew, and something I whole heartedly felt. My journey to becoming an artist has been tough, and trial-some, but I always always knew this was where I could end up.

Now I draw 90’s Cartoons and Space Flowers for millennial nostalgia at spooky conventions. Almost like a touring vendor. I feel its almost a newer niche, vending/Conn artists.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

When someone walks by my booth, and a illustration I’ve done just hits them hard. In the best, silliest, most nostalgic way. There’s nothing better then when a customer just grabs a print off the rack as soon as they see it, and its there’s. They don’t look at the price, it doesn’t matter. They just see that memory, or that character, they loved so much, but forgot in time, and get to cherish it’s silliness or coolness once again.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

My two degrees each helped me reach the point I’m at today. Formal artistic training, some social media training, both grew me as an artist. Yet, I’m not doing anything today, that I couldn’t have done in my past. Whatever that all encompasses I’m surly doing it more proficiently due to MATC & RMCAD. If we could time travel back to me a decade ago, I’d love to tell myself to just get going on all these things faster. Website, Instagram and Facebook presence. I almost wished I knew I could dream bigger.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.steve-bush.com
• Instagram: stevebushillustration