We recently connected with Cody Loher and have shared our conversation below.

Cody, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Do you feel you or your work has ever been misunderstood or mischaracterized? If so, tell us the story and how/why it happened and if there are any interesting learnings or insights you took from the experience?

Spending the early 2000s doing graffiti, there wasn’t many avenues i could take back then. Murals weren’t really a big thing yet, so as the arrests came in the resentments my family and friends had grew towards what I was doing. In the attempt to conform to society around 2014 I finally got into a studio setting to work on my illustrative work. I referenced a lot of dark imagery in a cartoon style with bright colors to get out what I was feeling. This was a mirror into myself – ultimately masking the traumas I endured growing up and putting a positive spin on it. One of my most recognizable series was a split skull concept I was doing in 2019. I used this to illustrate the layers behind my mask. The most shared piece out of that series was completed after a suicide attempt.
One if the biggest take aways I got from this years down the road was just because people like my art and share it, it doesn’t mean they understand where it’s coming from. Some do, but most don’t – and that’s okay. It was a reminder that the art I’m creating and the process I have in place is for myself – not for other people. The consumer and the content posted is a by product of my creative work. The creative process and completed piece is and always will be for me.

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

I’ve been doing graffiti and street art for over 20 years. Since entering the studio setting, I do a variety of work including: illustration, painting, logos, album / cover art, brand design, marketing strategy, clothing design, murals for businesses and at music festivals. I also have my own merch drops.
I had no real desire at first to get into a professional art setting. I was doing well with my career in the telecommunications industry and just having fun painting on the side. I was also involved in some other illicit business ventures so finically speaking I was fine. A dear friend of mine saw my illustrations and told me I should make some hat pins for an upcoming music festival around 2013. I didn’t even know what those were at the time. I made some, posted on Facebook about where to find me at the festival and sold 100 pins in about 2 hours. This opened the door for the business side of art. I took what I had learned from my day job and illicit side hustle and applied those principle to scaling my art business.

I used to try and do everything myself but learned in the last few years that’s impossible. So I reached out to a friend of mine I started with who is very businesss savvy and runs an art collective (ILL ART COLLECTIVE) and asked him to be my manager. He handles all my clients and the business side of things so I can just focus on the art.

Speaking on discipline, I think it’s very important to recognize we art artist and are brains are chaotic. Creativity, discipline and drive will ebb and flow over the years. Social media has made us feel like we constantly need to be creating. That’s a false narrative. There are going to be times in life where you can’t or don’t feel like creating – and that’s okay. The important thing I’ve told myself in the months or years where I stopped was that one day I will return to it and in the mean time just doodle and write down my ideas.

At this point in my career as an artist, I’m doing everything myself g out of love for the art and craft. Working with people who share that same vision is important to me. The must be a mission or something I can truly stand behind before I take on a project from a client. In my personal work, I’m still illustrating out my feelings and my life but looking at it from a perspective of just having fun in the process.

I really enjoy public painting, so murals and festival work are my main drivers now. Being able to interact with people while I work is very important to me. One of my favorite things is at a festival or on a public walk is someone saying “I wish I could do that” and I reply back “you can”. I then will give them a paint brush or a can, give them some guidance and let them make a few marks. It’s important that everyone knows they are creative and they are an artist. I really enjoy showing them that possibility even if it’s only a brief interaction.

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

Eventually I want to run a non profit showing at risk youth how to turn art into a business. I learned the hard way. In and out of trouble with the law between graffiti and drug dealing. I also went down a dark path of drug addiction. To be able to show the youth that there are better options out there to express yourself so they don’t have to make the same mistakes I did would be a dream come true.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I build my audience on social media through in person interactions. I don’t have a huge follower count, but what I do have is 1000s of people I’ve personally made connections with over the years. That’s always what drove my business to be able to sell out products and keep things alive. But it’s important to keep in mind that is and should remain the by product. The connection of the art to yourself should come first, relationships with others second, profit third.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: dab.slabbath
• Facebook: Snare.Art