Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeff Beck and Adrienne Lortie (My Wife). We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Jeff and Adrienne, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My wife Adrienne Lortie and I started a project in our Hometown of Thomasville, NC called Tville Mural Project. We came up with the project to help beautify our Downtown as well as help bring foot traffic and visitors to our local businesses. We reached out to local businesses to see if anyone had walls they were willing to donate for us to paint the murals on. We initially had three different businesses reach out to us and express interest in being a part of our project. The parameters of the project are that we get to have creative freedom as to the subject matter and design of murals painted in exchange for the businesses not having to pay for the murals. The murals are changed out periodically throughout the year to always have fresh art and designs to encourage people to keep coming Downtown and taking photos in front of the revolving artwork. Our first theme for the Summer was “Local Pollinators”, we came up with three different designs with a Honeybee, Butterfly and Hummingbird, the businesses got to choose which subject they wanted to have on their wall. We created a hashtag #tvillemurals and we encourage people to hashtag the photos that they take so we can follow the project through social media. This project was able to get off the ground because of PACE Downtown Thomasville and Thomasville Tourism, the two inaugural sponsors of Tville Mural Project. We do not get paid for this project, with the sponsors and donations we receive enough money to pay for paint and supplies. We are hoping that the project will grow by getting more sponsors and donations so that we may include more walls, have other artists be involved and eventually create a Street Art/Mural Festival where we have several artists painting murals at the same time, with other art events, music, food trucks, etc.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

(Jeff Beck) I am 45 and have been an artist all my life. My earliest memories of art was when I used to take my cousins flash tattoo magazines and sit at my grandparents table and flip through the magazine trying to draw as many of the tattoos as I could. I graduated from college with an Associates Degree in Graphic Design in 2002. I had my first artwork in an art show in Chapel Hill. I had 4 pieces in the show, they all sold opening night and that got me interested in doing more canvas type art. I painted artwork for several art shows throughout the years, even curating my own pop-up art shows in various locations around Greensboro and Winston-Salem and abandoned warehouses. Around 2010 I partnered with a local coffee shop to have my own art gallery and designer vinyl toy shop called Menace Inc Studios. I showcased artwork from local artists specializing in pop and lowbrow artwork. I also sold designer vinyl toys from companies like Kidrobot and Funko. In 2015 I opened my own Coffee Shop in Downtown Greensboro called Urban Grinders. We had an art gallery in the upstairs loft area as well as a stage area for local bands and hip hop artists to perform. Our shop went on to win several awards including Best Coffee Shop in Greensboro, Best Coffee Shop in Guilford County, Runner-Up for Best Coffee Shop in the Triad, Best Art Gallery and Best Music Venue. During this time I visited Richmond Virginia and the Richmond Mural Project where I saw several national and international mural and street artists painting large scale murals. I was able to watch and chat with several artists that I looked up to and with this my love and passion for painting murals and street art was born. I worked with several like minded people to create two mural/street art projects in Greensboro called No Blank Walls and 336 Urban Arts Project. Through these projects we brought several local, national and international artists to the area to paint murals and to spark the recent boom in murals and street art in the Greensboro and Triad Area. I have been painting large scale murals for about 8 years now, with several murals in Greensboro, High Point, Winston-Salem, Lexington, Thomasville and Norfolk Virginia. I met my wife Adrienne 2 and half years ago and we have been working together on murals ever since with us creating the Tville Mural Project this year and so far have painted 4 murals under this project. Adrienne is the “Eagle Eye” of the team. I always say that a mural is not finished until she looks over everything to make sure we didn’t forget anything and that everything is spot on before we call the project done. I really enjoy collaborating on projects with her from the design concept to the finished mural. We make a great team bouncing ideas off of each other and balancing each other out creatively.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

For us the most rewarding part about being artists is working with the community. We love painting our murals and seeing the reaction and support that we get from the community. It really does make it worth it when you hear people talk about how seeing the murals brighten their day or make them want to come to the mural and bring their family to take photos and share with their loved ones how the artwork makes them feel. We also periodically do art scavenger hunts where we hide our artwork for people to find. We take photos of where we hide the artwork then post them online as clues and it brings a whole group of people downtown who are interested in art and we have so many people thank us for giving them and their family something fun to do. So seeing the joy that our art brings to other people is by far the most rewarding aspect of being an artist.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The biggest struggle we have with non-creatives is how they view us painting murals as the same thing as painting graffiti and it sometimes causes a roadblock when trying to get these projects off the ground. Graffiti in our eyes is when something is painted illegally on someone’s personal property without permission and is usually “tagging” where you paint your artist name, initials or crews name on a wall. Murals are more of a curated project where the artist gets permission or is contracted by a building owner to paint something. The artist usually submits a design to the building owner and sometimes works with the community to get their input and then has the deign approved before painting begins. A lot of people still put “murals” and “graffiti” in the same category and because of this even the murals are viewed as illegal, unwanted art and looked down upon. Just the other day we were commissioned to paint a Rose mural on a building for a local cemetery, we were outside in the middle of the day near a busy street painting. We had a police officer pull off on the side of the road and confront us asking what we were doing and if we were supposed to be there painting. Apparently someone driving by saw us painting and called the police. The police officer grilled us, asking a bunch of questions, checking our ID and trying to contact owners. He finally, after threatening to “find us” if he found out we were not supposed to be there left us alone to finish up the project. So we think the take away from this is just talk to us about the project or if you have any questions or concerns just ask, strike up a conversation to learn about the artist and the project they are working on instead of instantly thinking something is negative. Kind words and understanding between two parties will help everyone connect on a higher level.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/_nos_1977
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/MenaceIncStudio