We were lucky to catch up with Brian Mills recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Brian, thanks for joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Looking back on where I started compared to where I am now, one of the most important lessons I’m thankful for is that learning your craft hinges on exactly that. Embrace the learning phase. It’s ok to be terrible at something your first (or second, or tenth) shot at it. That’s all part of the process, and there are truly very few folks out there who can say it took little to no effort to get to where they are in their expertise. Have patience with yourself, and free yourself from the idea that not being skilled right away means it’s not worth your patience, your energy, or your time.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
Drawing, painting, music, taking things apart and building them back up again, basically any expression of the arts have always been a part of my life and upbringing, whether I knew it or not. I never had any intent to become what I guess could be called an artist or a painter, but sometimes that stuff just kind of forces its way out of you.
I was born and raised in the South and went to Princeton University. There I majored in psychology and neuroscience and played football as well. Not much time for the arts, but even so I found myself always “working on a project”; spray painting longboards, bikes and random things for friends. I wasn’t good at it, but for me it’d always been the easiest way for the patterns, concepts, colors and ideas that decide to show up at 1am to make their real-world debut.
Fast forward to now, living in Los Angeles, CA. The story of “Freeside Mills” is based less on events and more on the idea of “Keeping it Free”. From younger years to even now, the response most would agree they’ve heard people say, or even said themselves, in response to seeing someone’s creativity expressed goes something like: “I could never do that, I’m not creative like that/don’t have the skills/etc”, and that always bothered me.
In short, Freeside Mills comes from freeing yourself of the idea that you can’t, or are not “this” or “that”. I’ve personally taken no formal classes, or done anything that would suggest a path that leads to painting or creating art. It’s simply freeing yourself from thought that what you have in your head, has to happen right away, or that artists/creators weren’t hot garbage at some point (like myself), or that your first attempt has to be perfect. Give yourself the freedom to suck at first, to learn, fail, try something new, to youtube it (learned so much there) and still suck. Most important is ultimately enjoying your process, your creativity, and the gift to be able to express it.
As it stands, my mediums of choice are all over the place. From wood panels, to skateboard decks, stretched canvas, and tennis rackets. I try to make these look and feel interesting and full of color, with acrylic spray paint, acrylic paint, and regular pencil. They may not look it at first glance, but most if not all of my work is very geometric and layered, with any piece have 2-10 layers. The pieces themselves don’t take incredible long to make, but working them up mentally is a bit of a process.
I’ve become most known for the original, commissioned works that I do. Which combine nostalgic figures, modern elements, and tailored color palettes together. Most requests look like one off pieces, or a set of pieces centered around a color or theme.
I’m most proud of putting in the work, that turned this childhood dream into a living, breathing opportunity to wake up and live in my passion every day. Words wouldn’t do enough justice to describe the feeling of being able to make art that I personally love, and giving that gift of “I really love this piece” to others. This is a dream come true y’all, and sharing that collaborative experience with clients/followers is truly sweet.
Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I love this question, because it’s really simple! I wish I’d leaned more heavily into free resources, such as YouTube earlier on. A lot of the mistakes I made and best practices I worked out, could have been avoided, or learned at a much faster pace if I’d used the resources at my disposal.
A lot of other talented and successful individuals find joy and fulfillment in helping the next person, and in no way is it cheating to google “how to make a cloud stencil for spray painting”. Their process is there, and they’re happy to share it.
Also, I’ve found that reaching out to artists directly on social media has been really refreshing. Sometimes artists that we look up to or try to emulate can seem like this grand machine, that churns out incredible work. Which they very well may be. But, in reality they’re still just people who worked hard to master their craft the same as me or any other artist. You’d be surprised at how many artists have responded to a curious message of mine, with a preferred product, tool, or piece of advice.
I’m appreciative the creative community for that, and hope it grows to be even more inclusive and collaborative.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
Even better I’ll give you two: Pride and rushing through pieces. Which have (and are still) giving way to humility and patience instead.
Very early on, it took a bit for me to get comfortable at being pretty bad at something I’d always enjoyed doing in passing or strictly as a hobby. But like mentioned before, I learned the hard way that trying to take on all the tasks that come with building this dream out into a business by myself would be really difficult. Sure, there’s a bit of an ego boost from figuring something out on my own, but it was much less rewarding than seeing the progress I’d made from asking candid questions, fully using my resources, and being honest with myself in saying “I need some help here”.
It seemed to go hand in hand with Slowing. Down. For example, really listening to every piece of advise in fully preparing shoes, or a skateboard to be ready to customize. I think other artists, creators, entrepreneurs and a lot of professions would agree, getting it done quickly is almost always second to getting it done right, with the proper detail and attention.
These have improved the quality of my pieces, and the process of making them by leaps and bounds
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/FreesideMills
- Instagram: @freesidemills