We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Jay Maggio. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Jay below.
Jay, appreciate you joining us today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
The timing for this question couldn’t be more spot on. I just started my taxes for year 2022 and had to total up my income for final state sales tax. 2022 was my best year to date and the galleries that represent me sold a combined total of 76 paintings for the year. I really nearly shed tears of joy so happy to have come this far in my career. I honestly never thought I could be this successful.
I do think of my career as a regular job. It is in that work everyday even on weekends. It’s very rare that I take a day off. My paintings are detailed and require a lot of time. Initially I did not feel like I had a regular job but when the money started coming in and I realized that nearly a dozen or more people rely on sales of my paintings for their income I took ownership of that responsibility and of course realize this is a regular/real job!
I also adhere to very routine schedule everyday in that I have a very dedicated time as to what hours of day I sit down to paint, usually the same time every day.
Jay, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Well for about a dozen years I started off working in the auto industry in various positions at a number of different auto dealers primarily in Louisiana. It was the early 1990’s and the industry was changing and I really felt like I had hit a dead end in that career. I think I have always been good as an artist and I did study art for several years at LSU in Baton Rouge before I switched to a career in Automotive Marketing and graduating in that curriculum from Northwood University in Cedar Hill, TX. Art was a career of last resort. Had I known how successful it would be I may have started this career earlier in my life.
My oil paintings are of fantastical surreal landscapes that are very detail and reflect my appreciation for many famous impressionist artists. As you will see in some of my images a style very similar to pointillism and in some of my other paintings that I call “DeGraphi” an acronym for “detail graphics” you may see a brushstroke slightly similar in style to that of Vincent van Gogh.
If there is anything I would like for clients/collectors to see in my paintings is for them not to over read anything too complicated in my paintings. For the most part I want the viewer to see a cheery beautiful peaceful place that will always put a smile on their face. Or if they choose they can just get lost in one of my landscapes and relax like they floated into another world.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
I feel so very lucky not to have to call on additional galleries for representation, although I might consider one additional gallery at sometime in the future. What I have learned in the past when pursuing galleries for representation was how very different many of them respond to an artist like myself seeking representation. There were times when I visited galleries and could not wait to leave in that the treatment I received was so condescending or simply just very dismissive of me as a human being with feelings. I’ve always look at it in this way, if they treat me like that then how will they treat my collectors. No thanks, I don’t want to do business with people like that and I don’t want my clients to have to deal with them either.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The answer to this question is very simple and it is something I felt when I sold my first paintings. When someone likes my art enough to spend what I consider is a considerable amount of money for any of my paintings it makes me feel very humbled. Having struggled financially for many years before becoming an artist I have been just overwhelmed again and again when people purchase my paintings. I feel the very same today as I expressed in the beginning of this article about how humble I feel to have had my best year ever in 2022.
Contact Info:
- Website: jaymaggio.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jaymaggioartist/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100039394705247
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaymaggio/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/Jetjay
- Other: https://www.pinterest.ca/jetjay/
Image Credits
I am the artist and own the copyright to these images. These paintings are currently in inventory at one of these galleries; CRAIGHEAD GREEN GALLERY, Dallas, TX, ON CENTER GALLERY, Provincetown, MA, and SUTTON GALLERY, New Orleans, LA.