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

Dean , thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been 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? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I’ve beeb able to support myself and a family being a visual artist (painter ) for over 40 years and counting. I started off entering local fine art competition and then on to college and upon graduation was employed at Hallmark Cards for 3 years, then fired. After being fired I got a local gallery representing my work but was unable to sustain a stable income through the traditional gallery system because I wasn’t know. I figured I needed to figure out how to merit the right audience for the type of fine art painting I was interested in. What I came to understand is that most people are insecure about their own taste and wanting some kind of validation from the art world. The art competitions became my window into financial rewards with cash winning that some time during a year could be up to 40 or fifty thousands . This lead to article in magazine as well as finding a new audience and more established galleries to sell my original works.

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?

I grew up in the rural south, in a small town in north Florida panhandle called Quincy about 20 east of Tallahassee. It was know for agriculture, shade Tobacco was a big part of local economy . I worked in it as child and a teenager during 60’s and 70’s. My maternal grandmother raised me from 11 month olds till my 18th birthday. Hazel was the first of her four children to get a college education. Because she got pregnant while still in college, she had to flee the small town and give birth to me without the university finding out. because in those days she would have been expelled . grandmother . I met my father at the age of 52 . I’m now 67 with two kids and a wife. Ava and Noah are about to have their 15 birthday in a couple of weeks from now. My wife Connie is from Utah and is a stay at home mom and helps me manage my ongoing business affairs as and American artists.
I’m a painter, working in several mediums including watercolors, acrylics and oils . I’ve won over 800 awards including three gold medal from the American Watercolor Scotty in New York. I’ve feature In the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor and numerous fine art publications. I’m in various museum collections including the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kemper Museum of Art, Huntsville Museum of Art etc and the Library of Congress. Memberships, American Watercolor Society, National Watercolor Society and the Allied Artists of America

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

When I first got into art, it was all about just wanting to learn how to draw and paint. Then I went to art school and my eyes got wide open by comments that my mother was always saying to me that a black man can’t make no living selling picture in America. She was after all my maternal grandmother only child to get a college education so surely she couldn’t be wrong or could she. I was expose to museum who had nothing on the walls to show me that I or anyone who looked like me was even wanted in such a world nor was I able to build in real solid economic support base from within the back community to be able to even think about such a venture, so what was I to do? I figured the only way was to take a risk and move my efforts into communities that had the means and interest to support me, except those communities were predominantly white and how was I do win them over. I figure the best way was to compete in fine art competitions and to try and get top billing in awards by perfecting my craft and vision on such a high level that the doors would open eventually and they did. As things moved forward for me and the political part of the art world shifted so did my position in it. I was not apart of this narrative that people wanted to see about and African American Artists. At first I trouble by this but now it has become another challenge to show that excellence always moves the bar in areas that are not always obvious to those who don’t now the full journey.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being and artists is I have full autonomy over my creative process. It’s my own therapy, it’s me find my own voice in the world.
It’s helped me to see the fragile most intimated parts of the soul.
It’s help me look at race, religion and other social constructs for what they are .
It’s helped shaped my views of the imperfect world we all inhabit.
My views on materialism is different and it’s lead to me some of the most wonderful people in the world.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://deanmitchellstudio.com

Image Credits

Dean Mitchell