We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Brian J Hoffman. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Brian J below.
Hi Brian J, thanks for joining us today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
It must have been at some point in my senior year of high school. I was going on an informative job interview with an Art Director at a reputable publishing company. I didn’t have a professional portfolio but just what one would expect when applying to art school for college. As I proceeded to show him my various watercolors, pastels, charcoals, scratchboards, etc., a bystander on her way to an errand approached me from a distance to marvel at my 3-month long intensive ink pointillism piece of the Beatles. She mentioned her husband loved them and offered me $60 for a copy and not the original. It was a truly validating feeling and gave me an inkling that I could become somewhat successful at the art game.
Brian J, 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’m an Associate Creative Director by day and do my personal art in my spare time. The personal art is the part worth mentioning because it’s been a long road of finding inspiration/style, creative blocks, imposter syndrome, and many little successes. I’ve been making art forever. Childhood through college, then a long hiatus due to playing music in bands, and then to the 2016 election which was the catalyst I needed to start art up again to keep sane in these crazy times. I spent a year prior or so developing and exploring different styles and honed the messages what I wanted to convey. In turn, doing the work lead me to my first gallery show and then it took off from there with more shows, partnerships, and sales..
My work is often a direct response to the craziness of everyday life. Ideas come to me from everywhere because I’m bombarded by a daily stream of media, words, and images that seep into my thoughts and come out in the work — both consciously and unconsciously. My art is inspired by sexuality, society, and the macabre. While it can be infused with pretty heavy topics at times, I try to keep it fun while still being a bit subversive.
I’m proud of the fact that I’ve collaborated with a handful of great artists and have made strong connections with many galleries, print houses, collectors, and audiences. It’s not easy thinking up concepts and executions on a regular basis but you need to keep going and create more whether it’s terrible or amazing.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
I started my art account on Instagram in 2017 when there was still such a thing as organic growth and engagement. It was before Meta acquired Instagram so as you can imagine, it was a true oasis from the noise of Facebook. IG was based on photography and art which unfortunately changed due to algorithm shifts, loss of focus, censorship, and suppression of creativity. But like everyone, I started with one post and some hashtags. I built my audience by simply networking and sharing/promoting artists that struck me. My key to it is making it about the great work everyone else is doing and pushing that to the masses. It’s a mix of showing my personal work, inquiring about open calls at galleries and taking advantage of any opportunity where my work can be visible. In doing so, it was easy to create a community and audience of like-minded people who appreciated what I was sharing. Also messaging and constantly talking with people is extremely helpful. One thing that worked nicely was running auctions and free giveaways to obtain new followers.
Are there any books, videos, essays or other resources that have significantly impacted your management and entrepreneurial thinking and philosophy?
I’m not a huge reader and if I do read, it’s nonfiction, usually biographies and autobiographies about artists and musicians I like. But there have been numerous books which I’ve recently read that helped spark thought, inspiration, and philosophical guidance and concepts. Listed below:
Show Your Work by Austin Kleon
Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon
The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
Jackson Pollock by Gregory White Smith and Steven Naifeh
Edward Hopper: 1882-1967; Transformation of the Real by Rolf Gunter Renner
Roy Lichtenstein by Klaus Albrecht Schroder
R.E.M.’s Murmur (33 1/3) by J. Niimi
Contact Info:
- Website: https://brianjhoffman.com
- Instagram: @brianjayhoffman
