We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Daniel Jacob Horine. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Daniel Jacob below.

Hi Daniel Jacob, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

There’s never been a time when I didn’t aspire to be an artist. As a kid drawing is all I would do, all I would think about doing, and all I wanted to do. I’d been blessed at a young age with an artistic eye and a hand that somehow knew what to do with a pencil. When I drew, I found so much joy in that. It was natural, centering, and…me. I drew all the time. It wasn’t so that I could develop my craft to one day be a professional, it was truly just because I enjoyed it so much. I aspired to maybe be a Disney artist one day but I was too young to connect what I was doing at that time as being the first step on a path to being a professional artist.

Of course I drew what I was interested in, and by age 10, I was wholeheartedly into baseball, so I was drawing the ballplayers I loved watching. Will Clark, Dale Murphy, Nolan Ryan, Jose Canseco, Rickey Henderson…all guys I would draw images of and make heroes out of .

As I grew older and started working I chose career paths that were involved in the arts but I did so in very practical way. I was an art teacher, graphic designer, motion graphics artist, illustrator, art director, etc. — all these things were art adjacent, and at times very fulfilling and creative, yes, but they were never overly autonomous. I was making art at the direction and request of others. I would do my own things on the side for creative fulfillment, but I was in no danger of making a career out of it. Not even close. I wanted to though, yes, but that was well beyond a pipe dream at that time. I had made myself accept the position I was in: I resolved to make the art that other people wanted me to make, and relegate my personal work to hobby territory. It was nothing I was going to be able to support a family with.

But still I dreamed about it. I dreamed about it every day.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My wife Areni and I run Pop Fly Pop Shop, which is a unique art project that combines the love of comics and baseball. While initially, it started out as a side project, interest and traction grew quickly, and we were able to turn it into a full-time business.

The Pop Fly Pop Shop project features one-of-a-kind art prints in the style of vintage comic book covers featuring retired baseball and football players from the past. The prints are only available for one week, and the number of prints available is based on the number of orders received during that time. We often collaborate with the players themselves on these pieces and I find that doing so captures the essence of their careers and the way they would like to tell their own story.

With these pieces I really want to tell stories with them, not simply make decorations. I’m passionate about the work and have a blast making it week after week. And with the limited number of prints available – it creates a sense of exclusivity that appeals to collectors and fans alike. We like to collect things that are special, right? We like to find those hidden treasures that no one has found.

Personally I am most proud of the fact that some of my pieces are hanging in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. As an artist, that’s an incredible honor. As an artist who’s also a huge baseball fan it’s an incredible honor that is just an undreamable dream. And if I am allowed two proud moments, I would say that being an artist on Topps’ Project100 last year was truly meaningful. From sitting on my bedroom floor trading Topps cards with my friends from school to later be making cards for the same company decades later – it’s a privilege I am still trying to wrap my head around.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Chuck Close’s quote, “Inspiration is for amateurs,” is a statement that resonates with me deeply. For many years, I believed that I had to wait for inspiration to strike before I could create something worthwhile. But as I gained more experience as a creative person (i.e. turning 40), I came to understand that “work inspires work.”

I stopped waiting for the perfect idea to come to me and instead, I got busy. I began to make a habit of showing up of just making art, even if I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired. I found that once I started working, inspiration often followed. As Chuck Close said, “The muse exists, but she has to find you working.”

By adopting this mindset, I was able to free myself from the paralyzing fear of waiting for inspiration to strike. I learned to trust in my ability to create something worthwhile even when I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired. And as I continued to show up and put in the work, I found that my creativity began to flourish.

Now, I approach my creative work with a sense of discipline and dedication, knowing that the act of showing up and doing the work is what ultimately leads to inspiration and growth. As Chuck Close said, “You can’t just sit there and wait for people to give you that golden dream. You’ve got to get out there and make it happen for yourself.”

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

My wife and I have been together for 20 years and we always tried to work on something together. She came from a business background, and I was an artist. We tried so many different things over the years to mingle our talents, but nothing ever really stuck. Handmade art gifts at boutiques, freelance projects, making murals, selling stickers and small watercolor paintings. I had an art show once, right before my son was born, but not a single piece sold. Another time, we invested a ton of time and money into an art project that we took to a convention, but we barely sold anything there either.

We were both disappointed, and my wife had had enough. I was ready to just stop and keep the art to merely be a hobby. We had been trying for almost two decades, and nothing seemed to work out. We were on the verge of giving up entirely if not actually already given up.

But then, when we least expected it, things started to take off. We never intended for it to be a business at all, but suddenly Pop Fly was growing rapidly. To outsiders, it might have looked like an overnight success, but really, it was a 20-year overnight success wrought with decades of trials and errors.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.popflypopshop.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/popflypopshop/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/popflypopshop
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pop-fly-pop-shop
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/popflypopshop
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/popflypopshop