Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jeffrey Newman a.k.a. NuISMS. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Jeffrey, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
In this day and age I think the pursuit of any type of artistic career, or an equivalent career with no guaranteed upward trajectory is fraught with risk. To wake up every morning and pursue a career that doesn’t have security built into the benefits of the position can be overwhelming. For me as an artist with no back up plan that is risky, I don’t know what the future holds security-wise. No one is coming to save me, which is fine. I tend to not think about it which might be considered irresponsible or slightly insane or maybe just enough faith to continue stepping forward. I know that when I was locked into the job force working full-time I was exhausted when I wasn’t working and battling self resentment because I would dream of pursuing my art in whatever form – painting, writing or acting. I would always have a plan in my head about when I would step away from working when I had x, y, or z; usually when I had some arbitrary sum of money I felt secure with. The truth is there isn’t a number that would have eased my financial fears because I was never satisfied; I wasn’t getting a million dollar check any time soon. Strangely enough when I decided to not go back to my full time job it was after I had just recovered from foot surgery and arguably the least optimal time financially – I was virtually broke and that was in 2014. I haven’t sustained solely on my art and my artistic ventures but I don’t have a regular job by any stretch. I cobble together enough money from my art and other part time work making my own schedule and being accountable to myself. I have always had the discipline to set a routine and stick with it. I generally wake up early to get my day started; getting up before the majority of people are awake. I get a lot accomplished whether it’s meditating, which I do every morning no matter what, then if I get into working on art or working out… I feel connected to the universe.
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?
I’m an artist: an abstract impressionist painter; a writer; an actor and a stitcher. I’m what art critics might call outsider art because I am a self taught painter, stumbling my way through canvas’. My ‘art moniker’ and/or brand is NuISMS, which is about recreating everything. NuISMS started for me through stitching clothes, one off hand-stitched designs on t-shirts. The economy collapsed in 2008 and launching a t-shirt company was not the move. I came to painting late as a means of just being able to exercise my creativity and I haven’t really stopped since then. I have been writing my whole life in some form and acting since college. My work varies in size from smaller paintings and interior design resin pieces to large abstract landscapes and other works. I sell my art through friends and online; I’ve had local shows, group and solo, in the Los Angeles area. During the Covid lockdown I did a lot of painting, a lot of thinking and a lot of writing. The result of all of that work was something I am most proud of to date. It’s a combination and culmination of my artistic facets: a one person show/ art show, I wanna be Jeff Newman. The show is about how art helps/helped me become my most authentic self every time I start a new artistic creation. The show was directed by Jana Lee Hamblin and we produced in April of 2022. I came up with the show as a means of being able to showcase my acting and writing and my art without having to depend on galleries or gallerists. The art world, like many arts, is challenging to ‘break into’ so making my own show seemed like the best option, I wanna be Jeff Newman was that proof of concept and it was well received during its limited run. Currently we are working with a producer to bring the show back for another run with some augmentations and a name change to broaden the scope of the concept of the show: Blank Canvas. We are anticipating Blank Canvas going up at the end of February and the beginning of March. Our goal is to find interest and financing to extend the show even further and take it on the road.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
I don’t create in a vacuum; Yes I create for myself and it’s cathartic but sharing it with the world is part of it. Opening up my work to others is the stepping ledge – risking. The most rewarding aspect of whatever I have created is the impact it has on my audience. I love discussing with people what they see in me; each piece is viewed through the kaleidoscope of their own life experiences. Sometimes there are overlapping interpretations but most of them resonate differently for everyone. Another dimension of the creating is when I’m told they’re inspired by my work, I find that an honor. To know that something I have created is rippling out to help manifest other art is enriching.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
There is no perfection in creating art and creating doesn’t need to fall between ‘right and wrong.’ Perfection can render me powerless, a deer in headlights, afraid to risk anything because I am too much in the results rather than the process. At those moments I need to shake myself free from my own best and worst expectations. My perfection is bookended by the ‘right and wrong;’ such a limiting belief system. I can’t tell you how many times I have felt I have ‘broken’ a piece because I over did something and it was a wrong move. Then I am pleasantly surprised by the happy accident once I have gotten some distance between my thoughts, opinions and judgement of my own work usually in comparison to others or comparison to what I have built in my mind. I wrestle with my pragmatic comfort zone. I am a creature of habit and ritual but when those habits and rituals become confining I do my best to break free and take a more naive point of view; and attempt to look at the world like a child again.
Contact Info:
- Website: NuISMS.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nuisms/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/numoney
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nuisms
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/numoney
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@nuisms
- Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0628123/?ref_=ext_shr_lnk
Image Credits
color stage shot photographed by Clutch Pockets headshot photographed by Keida Mascaro