We were lucky to catch up with Andrew Fox recently and have shared our conversation below.

Andrew, appreciate you joining us today. Are you 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?

Because I’m a Retired Veteran of the Armed Service, I don’t necessarily need to make a living off of my art work. I’ve been blessed with the ability to put more attention into my art and the products I put out.
After I moved back home from the service, I had no idea what I was going to do for work. I got a degree in Radio and Television with the intent of being a Radio Sports Announcer. The space in that world was extremely low, and was trying to take me into some remote places that would take me away from my family. I realized that I didn’t want that. It wasn’t until I went into a comic book store and saw someone else’s work, that my wife challenged me of my own artwork. I took that piece into a local comic book store with the intent to show it off on their shelves, and the owner instead bought the item. That’s what told me that I needed to be in the art world.

Andrew, 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?

I was a Staff Sergeant in the Army and when I got out, I had no idea what I wanted to do to continue with my life. I went to college and got a Radio and Television Degree, and found that the industry was harder to get into then I thought.
In the spring of 2018, I was with my wife and sister at a comic book shop looking around, since I enjoy that genre of art. We saw this Spiderman Glass art that was…interesting. The price was a bit higher than I would have paid to purchase. The wife asked me if I thought I could do better, and with a loss of hubris, I said I felt I could. She dared me to prove myself. At that point, we went to Hobby Lobby, purchased glass, wood, paint and glue.
I had several iterations of the glass art that didn’t feel quite right, and about the 4th attempt of a glass piece, I realized that making it into a shadow box and a 3d version of the art would be pretty cool. The attempt was a Magneto Face and helmet (from the Xmen Comic Book Series) and on it was a picture of Wolverine. On the frame, we etched claw marks to add more depth to the item. I thought it looked pretty good, but obviously I would like my own work.
We took it into a local comic book shop with the intent to let it sit on their shelve for others to see. Instead, the owner outright purchased it from me to put in his house collection, and it was at that point I knew I had hit a great idea for unique art.
After going to Comic Cons for a few years after that, I realized then too that it was harder to sell original pieces to people for several reasons. Either they couldn’t afford them, or I would run out of inventory really quick, and would be on constant work to create new items. That’s when I started making prints of the artwork and putting them on metal instead of paper, so again, create a new unique item.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

The best thing you can do to support local artists, is obviously purchase from them. The next thing I would say, is don’t let your creativity stop because you can’t put pen to paper. There are artists who would LOVE to render your vision, if it helped their own creative view as well.
Word of mouth is also a key contribute to local artists. Not everyone is social media savey. Followers, reposts, shares…all of that helps with other people seeing new art.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I absolutely love when someone gets excited about the art they see, or gets created for them.
I love having repeat customers, or even people that specifically look for me at shows just because they either want to see what’s new in my wares, or to just say hi because they enjoyed our interactions.

I once was working a show here in Colorado Springs, and as I’m just sitting there working on a future piece during the quiet time of the show, I hear a lady scream from off in the distance. I then here feet running towards my direction, so I look up. There’s a lady who is fumbling in her purse, looking at one of my art pieces, asking if something is for sale. I say “yes it is, but I’m currently finishing it up.” and because I can finish my statement, she throws a credit card at me, and says “I want it, I don’t care the price!”
I actually found this to be incredibly energetic and profound about her enjoyment of my work. I took this as the largest compliment I could ever have received.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://crimsonfoxstudios.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/crimsonfoxstudios
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/crimsonfoxstudios

Image Credits

Some of these are recreations of already publicated art work, such as the Spawn, Ghost Rider, while others are my rendition of popular characters such as Superman, Venom and more.