We were lucky to catch up with Beau Bakken recently and have shared our conversation below.

Beau, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.

When I launched into a fulltime art career in early summer ’23, I suppose I took a bit of a risk. My wife and I have four kids. On paper it seems crazy. But I don’t see it as much of a gamble. I had some large murals booked to tackle in the summer. I’ve had a long progression over a decade or so of building up more and more of an art career portfolio and reputation alongside of day jobs. Also, we keep our living expenses low up here in northern Minnesota. There’s certainly a chance this plan of full reliance on art income won’t work out. If it doesn’t, it was fun while it lasted, and I’ll turn back to the want ads in the paper.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I grew up loving to draw pictures. My dad is a professional artist. As a young kid I started by trying to draw his stuff. Later I moved onto making drawings of anything around my room; toys, comics and such. I was commissioned at least once as a teenager for a custom drawing. Somewhere in my mid-twenties I was looking online to buy specific movie posters for my basement, but I wasn’t finding matching sizes. For a fun challenge I decided to paint them. The first few I painted I showed at the local county fair, and they got me a little notoriety. A few years later I was eying a large cement block wall in the center of my town with an idea of a large mural. I got the approval to paint the wall and completed my first large outdoor mural in the summer of 2010. The movie posters and outdoor mural seemed to be my introduction to the local public as a competent artist for hire. My career has slowly grown from project to project since then.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I’ve got this three word definition of art I use that may be completely originally mine, or I may have subconsciously stolen it from somewhere. Art is “expression through creation”. I would assume most of us creatives would say a rewarding aspect of our careers is being able to express ourselves in our own way. I’m not much interested in sharing about myself. I’m not enjoying answering these questions about myself in this article. I do enjoy though sharing with the world about myself through my paintings.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

I don’t in anyway profess to know the mind of God. I have a pretty good guess though that when he put me here on earth, painting pictures was something He had in mind for me to do. I could be wrong, but I think he put passions inside of me to produce creative works to glorify Him and to bring a little beauty into our world.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.artcommissionsbybeaubakken.com
• Facebook: Art Commissions by Beau Bakken