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

Jon, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you’ve thought about whether to sign with an agent or manager?

The traditional gallery will always have it’s place, but the landscape is changing quickly for galleries/reps mainly due to social media (Instagram) – I’ve been represented by a number of great galleries over the past 25 years and have great relationships with them. – I do recommend a great gallery for young artists who want to start to make a name for themselves. I also recommend a gallery for artists who don’t really care to deal directly with collectors, invoicing, marketing, etc. – I love the art of business and the business of art. I enjoy meeting with collectors in my studio. I love marketing and selling my own work. – And for all these reasons, I’m wrestling with the idea of moving away from gallery representation. – I’m actually taking a season away from the gallery world to focus on streamlining my ever-growing print business. – Because my print business has been so successful, I’ve not had much time to paint. I’m looking forward to having more time to do what I love most and that is putting paint on canvas. – I’ve been represented by some wonderful galleries over the years – David Dike Fine Art – Dallas, Sarah Foltz Fine Art (formerly Williams Reaves Fine Art, Houston), Artspace111, Fort Worth, Blue Star, Hico. – These galleries have played a pivotal role in my development as an artist and I am very thankful for them. –

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

My most recent series is called “ – Modern Cowboy”. From the early Texas modernists like Everett Spruce and William Lester, to the european masters like Cezanne, Matisse, Picasso to Stuart Davis and Marsden Hartley to designers like Paul Rand and Saul Bass, my influences are many. – My style calls to mind primitive, outsider, folk, modern, contemporary and naive. – My goal with Modern Cowboy is to re-imagine the western art genre – to meld my influences and push the boundaries of what traditionalists say is acceptable in western art. – My heroes of the genre are Remington, Russell, Dixon, Dunton and others. Their work is wonderful and I stand squarely on their shoulders, but I have no desire to copy their work or follow in their footsteps – that beautiful horse has already been ridden. I want to ride a fresh horse and blaze my own trail. – I am creating large canvases with larger than life characters that speak of a state that is big and bold. – I say, enough with the ordinary – on with the heroic. –

As a kid, I loved to play make believe. I could be anybody I wanted – a pilot, a firemen, an astronaut. I’m still doing that. Currently, I’m a cowboy. –

I knew from an early age that I wanted to create. –

I was 5. We lived in Wichita, Kansas at the time. – It was Sunday morning and in my little Sunday School class sat a kid next to me who could draw cool jet airplanes. – I was fascinated by it and have been trying to draw cool jet airplanes ever since. – Something about that moment has remained with me to this day. It sparked something creative in me that has never gone away. –

My earliest and fondest memories are of my grandparent’s ranch/farm in southeast Kansas. It was a magical place for a little guy – 2000 acres of cattle, crops, tanks, fields, barbed wire, cactus, cedars, gravel roads, old houses, tractors, pickup trucks, barns, coyotes. – Night time was special too – I could see every star, smell every smell from the grassy land, hear the train in the distance as it made its way through Altoona (the town to the east) Hear the coyote and the owl. – The old ranch house sat on a hill and the room where I slept was actually a closed in porch that overlooked the fields to the east where my grandpa grew corn. I remember looking out over the field and imagining what this place was like a 100 or more years ago and what my ancestors experienced on this land. – During the day, I would roam the fields and play in the old rusted trucks and tractors in the “boneyard” (the place to the west of the old house where all the worn out farm equipment was placed to rest) When I was old enough to drive, I would head into the nearby town of Fredonia and drive the streets around the square snapping photos and looking for inspiration. All of this and much more affected me deeply and to this day I have a very strong connection to the land and the working man. We moved to Texas in 1967 and I’ve been in love with it ever since. –

I was an average student in high school, but I loved sports and I loved drawing. I played football all the way through high school, but knew that would come to an end my senior year. – Art was something I could pursue indefinitely. – I went to Southwest Texas State (Texas State) and studied design, advertising, illustration. (I never took any fine art classes) – After college, I came back to Dallas and went to work for Sullivan Perkins – a design studio that specialized in branding. I worked there for 8 years learning everything I could about the business and in 1993, I opened my own design studio. My first client was Neiman Marcus. I also worked with American Airlines, Sony, FedEx, HP and many more. – I did this for 25 years. –

As a kid, I loved watching the old black and white western shows like Fury, Rifleman, The Lone Ranger. I loved pretending that I was a cowboy and played “cowboys & indians” with my friends in the yard and in the woods behind our house. – I keep coming back to the west because it keeps coming back to me. – There is something romantic, mysterious and dangerous about the west that folks around the world have fascinated with for centuries. – I continue to be fascinated by it because in the west, anything is possible. –

From the early days of spending time on my grandpas ranch, to a suburban kid watching westerns and playing pretend to numerous trips to Big Bend, Terlingua and other remote places in Texas, the west has burrowed itself deep into my being and has become an integral part of who I am and how I express myself. –

Interesting side note, my birthplace may have been Kansas, but my Texas connection is evidenced by the fact that my distant midwestern relative U.S. Senator Charles B. Farwell was responsible for financing the Texas State Capital in the late 1800’s. He also owned the 3,000,000 acre XIT ranch in the Texas Panhandle with his brother John V. Farwell. – (Farwell is my mom’s maiden name)

I love encouraging young artists. –

I say to them – If you are passionate about creating, then throw your whole self in. – Learn all you can about the different creative disciplines. Learn all the rules so that you will know what rules you are breaking when you’re ready to break the rules. – Study the artists you admire. Copy them, but don’t claim the work for your own. Copy them so that you know how they work, think. Then go and develop your own style and voice so that others can copy you and then create their own look. – Buy the best tools that you can afford and then start. – If you can’t afford art supplies, be creative. – Build something out of a discarded cardboard box. Make a collage out of pics from a magazine. Arrange rocks you find in your garden. Do a pencil sketch. Do something. Don’t wait until you’re ready to get started. Just start. – Someone once said – Inspiration exists, but it must find you working. – By doing the work, you will open up all sorts of possibilities that wouldn’t be there otherwise. – And by doing the work, your unconscious mind will fill in the blanks and you will surprise yourself with all the wonderful ideas you have. –

I love to read and encourage young and old artists to read as much as possible. –
Boom by Michael Shnayerson – Mad Money, Mega Dealers and the Rise of Contemporary Art. – Great read. I’m going through it again for the 3rd time. – I just finished Elon Musks biography by Ashlee vance. – American Buffalo by Steven Rinella is a book I’m currently reading. – My goal is to continue growing and be a better artist, dad, dude (grandpa), husband than I was this time last year. – My faith keeps me grounded and growing. I truly believe that God has given me a gift and that I have a responsibility to steward that gift well. –

How did you build your audience on social media?

I just started :) It takes time, but I share with other artists to simply persevere. – Show up everyday with something to share. I should always have something to share with the world – whether it’s a recently completed painting, a piece in progress, an upcoming museum show, a sketch or whatever. – I love Instagram and use it as a business tool to keep my audience up to date on what I’m doing. – I’ve developed many great relationships here and I’ve made a lot of money here too. – The key is to treat each collector/supporter/follower like gold. – Be quick to respond when someone reaches out with a comment or question. – I am very thankful for all of my followers! –

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

The jury is still out for me on the NFT thing. There’s definitely something there of value, but 95% of it is junk – people trying to ride a wave and cranking out multiples of blandness. – A lot of artists are producing a bunch of garbage in order to get rich quick. – I’m reading and researching as much as I can on the subject, but I’m slow to jump in. I also have to make sure that it doesn’t affect my brand negatively. – I’ve seen some cool NFT art – Bored Ape for instance – but the cool NFT’s with true added value are few and far between. – NFT’s are here to stay, but I’m not yet sure of my place in that world. –

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jonflaming.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jonflaming/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jonflaming/

Image Credits
Jon’s portrait – Justin Clemens All other images – ©Jon Flaming

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