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

Grant, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I view my path in learning my craft as an artist in four steps: play, Finding my personal voice, finding community, and creating balance.

The first step of developing my path as an artist, is the playful honeymoon phase. I needed to start with that intense, all consuming, and addictive passion for art. I would argue for everyone in the arts, the world actively puts obstacles in your way to stop you from keeping your practice (typically financial). For me, it was essential to build a foundation of play and pure joy that sustained me through those hardships. Have your honeymoon phase with your new craft and just play.

The second step for my development was finding my personal voice. I know for the longest time I was so eager to find my “personal style”. I wanted to know everything about what I was making and why I was making it. Unfortunately, I just don’t think there is a way of rushing this. It purely comes from countless hours of making. No way around it, I had to put in the work to find myself and be an expert in my skill.

Step three is integrating your craft into the society around you. I think this is probably where you are tested the most as an artist. I think the hardest challenge for artist is when you step out of that space of being a hermit in your studio. Eventually, I had to get out of there and connect with others to grow. It takes time, but there is always a space for you. I had to get out there, be brave, be patient, and find my community.

The last step is finding stability with your craft. When you are in that honeymoon phase for the first couple years of being an artist you are willing to roll with the punches – not having health insurance, job insecurity, and lack of work life balance. I think it is common (if not essential) to put up with this. Being honest, you can’t feel the stress of that for the rest of your life. For me, it is finding things that I am not as excited about as my art, but still give me joy. For me that is teaching. While my time teaching is different from studio time, it still brings me joy and fosters my personal art practice. I’m now at a point where I am thankful to have a job I enjoy that forces me out of being stuck in studio all day. It has become a part of my art practice.

Grant, 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 am a painter from Charlotte, North Carolina. I am a professionally showing artist, as well as an art teacher. I started my art journey with a phenomenal teacher in high school. From there I studied painting in college at the Rhode Island School of Design. After graduating, I got my masters in studio art at Winthrop University in 2022. My work is mainly colorful abstract paintings that work to overcome objectification towards the queer body.

My artistic practice is all about balancing being an artist, researcher, and teacher. While I love my studio time, I find my time spent teaching and doing private research is just as important to me being an artist as painting is itself. I am committed to keeping my art practice as a joyous part of my life. I work hard to preserve that joy, and am proud to have kept that up.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

What I love about being an artist is the sense of confidence it has given me. I started as an artist during a time I was extremely insecure and unsure of who I was. I strongly believe art was my way of overcoming this.

It’s a running joke with my friends, but I think art can be really selfish. It’s not a bad thing though. We all need to have our selfish time where we think of nothing but ourselves. I think time in studio is the best possible for opportunity for this. It’s a perfect space for self care.

I find after “selfish” studio time I can provide so much more productivity, empathy, and joy for my community.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I am going to steal the mission statement from a local arts nonprofit called Goodyear Arts in Charlotte. Goodyear’s mission statement is “Artists need TIME, SPACE, MONEY, and COMMUNITY”. While I think the time, space, and money is something typically at a corporate level largely out of my control. I do think as individuals we can all help provide community for artist.

I find artist tend to be some of the most generous people I know. However, I am so thankful for all of the “non-artist” of my life who show interest in what I do and give me encouragement. I understand that at times it can be hard to quantify the importance of “a pretty picture on a wall”, but I strongly believe it is a basic human need for all of us.

Of course, everyone deserves beautiful art in their life. If you have the money for it, I encourage others to buy local art. It’s amazing how much a piece that makes you smile everyday can truly change your life. I know art can seem expensive, but I promise that thousand dollar price tag is much more reasonable than you think it is.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://grantmahan.com/
• Instagram: @the.instagrant