We were lucky to catch up with Justin Ek recently and have shared our conversation below.

Justin , thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

My family, along with a group of small businesses, created a day of the dead festival in southern Minnesota that draws in 15,000+ people to the historic OLD TOWN MANKATO.

The festival is unlike any in southern Minnesota and uplifts a tremendous number of Latino artists and performers, such as Aztec dancers and Mexican ballet group and even a full ring of masked Mexican wrestlers

Large sculptures are created and much traditional art is created

Justin , 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?

I started house painting when I was a teenager. I worked in industrial factory settings to fine-finish new construction homes. I have worked hard to advocate for youth to join the trades and have morphed my house painting company into a creative company that creates murals and gives back to our community creatively.

One of my favorite recent projects was painting a mural for CADA, which is the committee against domestic abuse.

While painting the mural, I had the opportunity to talk with a woman seeking services. She told me the art work brought her peace after a long night of hardship.

As an individual who grew up in harsh circumstances, it was healing to be in a position of bringing another grace.

I am humbled to bring art to spaces in a healing capacity and would dedicate my life to such work

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

I have cultivated a small following by being authentic and sharing my vulnerability and skill set. I am happy to put myself and my artwork in the universe because we can show the world what we can do—sharing my work journals my work in a way that I can look back year after year, observe noticeable growth, and continue my story.

Provide something of value; I do this by demonstrating a variety of painting and creative projects from start to finish, and I’m also always willing to try a new art form. The people who follow me can look forward to various creative trial-and-error programs.

Sometimes it’s sizeable creative art installations, and sometimes it’s trying block printing or fiber art.

I also own a retail art co-op called 108 alchemy, where I recruit new makers and artists to sell their work in local art and make a focused brick-and-mortar shop.

My content is shocking, engaging, and has a lot of variety.

Be yourself, lean into what you are good at, and keep an open heart, and you will gain an organic audience.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I’ve been working very hard since I was a kid. It has taken me many years to learn that my superpower was not a brute strength but rather a willingness to overwork myself.

It’s taken me much reflection to change how I work and rely more on my teammates. In doing this, I’ve learned how capable and talented the team I employ is, and it allowed me to grow my work as a studio artist

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.bellissimopaint.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/justinm.ek/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BellissimoPaint
• Other: Tik tok- 78,000 followers- https://www.tiktok.com/@movingone?lang=en

Image Credits
I took all these photos myself