We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful David Pancake. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with David below.
David, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen?
I found myself unemployed in November 2010. I had just finished five difficult and unhappy years as an art director for a furniture companies advertising department and then I was unemployed. I really wanted to make a go of earning a living off of my own art. Unfortunately I was struggling with feelings of inadequacy and doubt from a lifetime of nay sayers telling me it was impossible to make a living as an artist. But, as I had no solid leads for other employment, I set out to forge a new path for myself. I really wanted to make things and sell them directly to the general public as opposed to working on commissions from various companies. I began by booking sci-fi and comic convention booth spaces. It was a true struggle that first year as I burned through savings for travel and to book shows. It was also a struggle to generate enough pieces to sell. I had to learn many new skills such as mold making and casting, sculpting techniques, and experimenting with many new material products. It was also a learning experience to determine what a patron might like to buy. I stayed with it for many long hours of the day, seven days a week. Traveled through out the USA to go to shows from coast to coast. I hit it hard slowly building up to 26 shows a year, one every other weekend. Hard work.
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?
If someone would have told me in 1987 that I should have just pursued art full-time I might have been happier. But that is hindsight and what I did do was art related and creative in nature. I began in 1987 a desktop publishing business called Laser, Set, Go! which became a offset and silk screen printing business. It was during this time that one of my customers noticed my fantasy paintings that decorated my shop. This customer introduced me to sci-fi conventions. Each convention had an art show that allowed amateurs and pros to display and sell their work. I loved the conventions and began painting for the shows. I thought that I wanted to illustrate books but soon learned that I didn’t like that kind of work. To be honest my work was not up to the standard at that time, more amateurish and I was pretty naive. After doing a few jobs I dropped out of that market and just made art that I sold at the shows. I continued to operate my printing business and in 1997 opened a second business as an internet service provider simply because I wanted to design websites. During all this time I would work on my art in the evenings. The lady who introduced me to conventions was a sculptor and taught me what she knew about the art. I would sculpt or paint until 1 or 2 in the morning then get up at 7 to go to work in my businesses. I did this for 2o years until I began working as an art director for a furniture companies advertising department in Indianapolis.
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
I am uncertain why I started making art. I started young, I remember sculpting a dog when I was seven and perhaps it was the admiration from my mom and a teacher that encouraged me to make more art. Many times, however, my love of super heroes, sci-fi characters and fantasy paintings put me at odds to my fundamentalist religious up bringing. I repeatedly ran into heavy criticism and sometimes punishment for creating the “wrong” types of art. This however, seems to have fueled my desire to create even more. It became an obsession then and has stayed an obsession ever since. Sometimes folks will pickup a piece of artwork that I have made and say something like “I wish I could do that” and I find that statement very amusing. I did’t start out producing the kind of work I do today but I did just keep at it until something inside of me approached satisfaction. Even today I still find myself always short of true approval of what I have made and that somehow drives me to try harder. So its not necessarily the talent that keeps me in the game, its the obsession, and I keep thinking that what separates me from the admirer who wishes for talent is the obsession to just keep trying for years and years. Practice approaches perfection in very small increments. You have to really, really want it.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
My art is not necessarily profound. I like humorous pieces and pieces that my 10 year old self call “neat”. Sometimes I have no other purpose for creating something other than I find it “cool”. And if you find a piece that you find “cool” don’t just admire it from afar buy it and take it home with you. Art rises above our daily struggles. Stop with all the nay saying about the starving artist. Yes, an art career can be challenging but it is very possible. I had a young father come up to my booth in a very adversarial way and wanted me to tell his daughter just how impossible it was to make a descent living from art. I couldn’t and wouldn’t do that. Its not true. He demanded to know what I make every year because he was convinced that it was very little. Now I am not rich and it is also true that my career has had its ups and downs but I have for the last 10 years lived very comfortably on my art sales. When I first started I was elated to make $100 sale but that was when I first started. The pandemic was difficult but then again it was difficult for everyone. So I told him what I was making that very year. He did not believe me which was sad but hopefully his daughter did. Many artist friends make a very good living as an artist. Art is just as respectful as any other profession and is necessary for a healthy civilization. We need to treat it that way. We need to move away from our negative perceptions artist and stress arts essential nature to our well being.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.davidleepancake.com
- Instagram: /dpancake
- Twitter: @dkpancake
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/davidleepancakeart