We recently connected with Gordon Ball and have shared our conversation below.

Gordon , looking forward to hearing all of your stories 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?

Sometimes. Yeah.

I’ve been broke my whole life so it doesn’t take a lot to keep me happy. When I take a step back and look at what I have going on, I’m pretty surprised I’ve been able to keep my head above water. Not that I wouldn’t take the 20$ to cut your lawn, I would for sure. Whenever an opportunity comes to me to make money I’ll take it. Over the last 10 years if done everything I could to eat and pay rent and put gas in my truck.

I have great friends too. There’s a been a ton of sacrifices following this lifestyle, but they’re always there to help me.

I don’t really expect to make money or a living from painting. It’s one of the only things that helps me relax. It’s like the gym, or skateboarding, or yoga I guess. So my relationship with it is very difficult since it helps eat and pay rent.

I have zero advice for, other then just work at it. Showing your work doesn’t matter. Getting in a gallery doesn’t matter. All that matters is just showing up.

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?

Well I grew up in Montreal. And then was in toronto for a long time. Then back to Montreal, then to New York. And now I’ve been visiting Los Angeles for about 6 years. I was a photographer in my past life, followed in my father’s footsteps. Was doing a bit of photo journalism, actually signed on to be a stringer at Reuters, but quit photography after seeing a de Kooning show at the moma.

I started making New York abstract paintings about 2012, and currently doing figurative realish kinda work. Kinda French looking, kinda American provincialism. Working on light, and perspective. And learning how to actually draw hands.

The work changed after I ended up out west. I was looking at my work and thought about how sad it was, and didn’t really wanna put that energy into the world. So I took a step about and thought about my relationship with the world and what I wanted to see.

I felt if I had a responsibility to find beauty and comfort, and put that into a painting. Something what would make you smile or at least make you feel somewhat at ease, and not contribute to any form of sadness. If I can make you forget about shit for a couple seconds, then mission accomplished.

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

Not having anyone else tell me what to do. Blessing and a curse. If I miss a day or 2 at the studio, that’s ok. But then I spiral in anxiety for losing 2 days of my life.

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

I don’t get it. That shits for nerds.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @gordondouglasball