We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Drew Barham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Drew, thanks for joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I realize not everyone sees life through my eyes; but if they did, they would be soaring high in imagination, flooded with big dreams, and captivated by seeing the beauty in creation. When was the first time I knew I wanted to pursue art? Great question, I am not exactly sure, but I know I always love to see the world and the beautiful things in it in a creative way.

Drew, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I was born and raised in beautiful Memphis, Tennessee to a mother who had an exquisite eye for details and color. She wanted the rooms of her house to burst with artwork that told stories of our adventures and timelines of our lives. The only problem was that custom artwork is incredibly expensive; so being the creative type, she commission her son (me) to fill the house with pictures that made our walls talk!

And that I did! I painted and painted until slowly I began creating something that was beautiful.

As the years went by, I was extremely blessed to use the sport of basketball in order to travel all over the world, go to all 50 states, and create these beautiful pictures and adventures for myself. My day job might have been a professional basketball player in Europe, but my night job was teaching me how to paint my findings on a canvas.

I had always been good at the sport of basketball. I played basketball for the University of Memphis, transferred to Gonzaga University where we were the number 1 college team in America. After that stint, I took my talents professional and played overseas in the countries of Germany, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, Japan, and finally the NBA G-League. I truly believe all those experiences opened my eyes and made me who I am today.

My goal with art is to have my artwork create an emotion and a feeling that provides joy, happiness, and peace to whoever has it hanging in their home or on their walls. I truly believe that artwork can take your imagination on a journey or to a place that is good for the soul.

God has blessed me and I love to share the blessing with others.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

I thing the most rewarding aspect of art it to see people enjoying a piece and the delight it brings to people. I love when different people sees piece in two completely different ways.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I think it’s a cool concept. I would like them to be more widespread and the public to know more information about them. I still feel like half the world has no clue what they are.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.drewbarhamart.com
• Instagram: @drewbarhamart

Image Credits
Will Coleman, Bleed Blue Photography