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

Adam, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I have no formal training or education in art. I did attempt an art class for a semester at a community college after returning home from a music tour with my old band, however. Half way through the professor explained to me why he was failing me: “I don’t think you are a bad artist. I just don’t appreciate your content of work.” I didn’t return to finish the remainder of the semester and figured maybe my journey of learning art laid elsewhere.

I now do art full time as my career.

Adam, 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?

I honestly stumbled into this career unplanned. I had always thought my purpose was to make music and also to perform/act. Both of these things are still opportunities I am lucky to have but art has become my main career.

While living in Las Vegas, singing and songwriting for a band, things were going great. I had written a song for a movie franchise that I loved (Resident Evil), was getting to play with bands I admired like KISS and the Goo Goo Dolls but just before we went to go sign the dotted line it all came to a screeching halt during the big economic crash in 2008 ( this was a long time ago!)
This turn of events had me pivot into a different realm of performing where I began an acting career.
All the while through these big changes I was always painting and began to attempt to sell my work during First Friday events as well as doing art for open houses for high end and unique homes.

I eventually moved to Chicago where I continued to juggle music and acting while always searching for art events. The amount of stairs and city blocks I would lug my art around is something I definitely do not miss, but those efforts make me look back with pride!
Over time I began to also show at pop culture and horror conventions.

The work I was making was for me. Well it’s always for me, but that’s what started all of it…
I have always loved nerd culture. Fantasy and scifi movies, comic books, horror films, etc etc. I wanted that stuff in my home but also wanted nice fine art so I just began to blend the two of them together.
And while, like I said, it IS for me, I also wanted someone who, even if they had no clue what the subject matter was, they would still be intrigued by it or love it like I did.

I spent time learning from others and also just trying new things. I know a lot of my technique would be deemed “wrong”, but painting with my instinct and feeling is what makes me love it so much.
I think much of that is due to the organized chaos of it all. I am in charge of most of it, but then there are so many moments which I call “Jesus take the wheel moments” that allow me to step back from every piece and think “well that turned out even more satisfying than what I expected!” I have always been an advocate of just wandering around in art. You never know what you might find. While I work primarily in ink and watercolor, I have also created many pieces using other forms of mediums that are less common such as coffee and red wine.

When the pandemic lock downs happened all music and acting productions had stopped. Some of the first events that opened back up were outside art markets. Before I knew it my art career started to take the forefront of my path. I now travel across the entire nation presenting my work at conventions, group and solo exhibitions and galleries alongside my wife Kali who helps to manage this ever growing business! We didn’t make the choice for this to be the main career and business. It just naturally kept evolving and all of the sudden we were trying to keep track of books and appearances and contracts, etc!

I even still maintain a side life in acting. For fun you can watch something called Casey Jones: Live Wire for free online. I’m exceptionally proud of it because it was just myself and some industry friends who got together to make something we loved since the filming industry was on such a hiatus.
I’ll be appearing in a very fun project later this year. I actually will be flying straight to production from an art show.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

While it has lessened over the past couple years, I used to more so often hear the remark, “I wish I could just paint a picture and sell it”. To which I eventually began replying “Ya know, somethin..me too”, which would allow me to explain a little bit about how it just isn’t that simple.

Yes I can make a painting and sell it. Sometimes it sells right away. Sometimes not. Beyond that though, maintaining art as a business means you have to work beyond just creating a painting and selling it. You have to keep growing, the painting has to be seen, you need to keep understanding your presence, you have to seek out ways and events to represent yourself. Do you need to have print work in the case the original isn’t as accessible to purchase? How are you capturing your image for print work? You need to seek out and create a relationship with a printer. If things keep growing, how are you handling your books and the business side of it all? Do you want to or need to travel to other areas and markets? How are you seeking that out? What is your booth/market/showcase representation look like? How are you funding those risks? How are you traveling? Meanwhile you need to keep finding the time to learn more about your artistic self and create new works.

It can be a lot to juggle. I don’t always go on about how much there is to do, but if people are intrigued there’s definitely a lot to pull the curtain back on.

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

Buy art. We are in a new era of life where art is available on such a personal level. I think we were kind of brought up in this Home Goods, Bed Bath and Beyond, furniture store art decor lifestyle and we are living through the actual understanding that theres so much more individualism behind that.
Got to a market, go to a convention, an exhibition, search around on Iinstagram with key words, hop on Etsy; although I do think Etsy takes heavy advantage of artist, so try to also reach out to the creator and buy from them directly. (Seriously the fee’s are just awful AND it allows you to not only make sure the artist benefits more from their work monetarily, but it also allows to you form a bit of a connection with the artist and KNOW where it came from. How many times have you asked where someone got something artistic like a shirt or jewelry or art and they respond “I got it on Etsy”? Artists will grow and thrive when THEY are recognized over the platform itself.)

Also, don’t buy AI art. I am an advocate against AI art. The first of the two words is “artificial”. That frankly just sucks.
AI art is the shortest and least passionate way to creating art. There’s no distinct artistic voice because it’s just essentially a google search prompt. Some people will use AI and then digitally paint over it. This is also absurd to me. “Artificial intelligence” is a deep rabbit hole for me. I think it has a lot to offer in various fields of our society but using it to create passionate art in lieu of an actual emotional, thoughtful human is just something I can’t get behind.
There are so many artists. So many. More than you even think. It may cost you more money to buy from that individual artist but that’s what you are paying for; individual thought and vision and heart and passion.

Buy art. From an actual working or aspiring artist. You’ll be happier and so will they. I don’t think the artificial intelligence will mind much.

Contact Info:

• Website: adamsartbox.bigcartel.com
• Instagram: adamsartbox