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

Kid, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Learning the craft is often a unique journey from every creative – we’d love to hear about your journey and if knowing what you know now, you would have done anything differently to speed up the learning process.

I’ve been born with it. I was drawing since the age of 2 years old. It wasn’t something that was pushed on me I just started doing it thanks to watching Bob Ross and never stopped. I’m self taught I learned from YouTube university, google and alot of practice in my earlier days. After a couple years went by I got some friends who went to universities that gave me a few insiders. But the knowledge I got from friends was more like little life hacks like where to get cheap supplies or how to prolong supplies…etc

I honestly don’t think it’s anything I could’ve done to speed up my learning because i honestly was learning at a rapid rate far as raw talent and skill. I think earlier on I didn’t have a very defined direction i knew my artistic voice somewhat but I didn’t perfect it and know how to use it properly. It matured as I matured. Now I’m in a space where I know exactly what I’m doing, why I’m doing it I can catch lightning in a bottle every time I create.

I think me having a background in fashion helped my paintings a lot. I have a different approach with my mixed medium. I also studied Caravaggio for years. Even though my work have a pop art appeal to it he inspired my love for value the way the light interact with a subject. I use a lot of principles that applies to realism in my work while maintaining a pop aesthetic.

The only obstacles that stood in my way was myself. I was obsessed with learning more and being better. I always felt like I was at a disadvantage because I didn’t learn art in a university and I didn’t have big connections. So I always felt I had to be undeniably better than everyone skill wise to be taken seriously. At times it made me a little too competitive lol. I had this weird dynamic where once other artist found out about me the ones in school kinda championed me because they thought I was cool but also some of the more established ones kinda formed a rivalry with me. But eventually those ended and I’m good friends with them I guess I earned their respects.

Kid, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I accidentally became a professional artist. I grew up in the inner city of west Baltimore. I seen a lot of crazy stuff in my neighborhood since an early age. I never really dreamed big I was the average guy. I think I was always different though and highly intelligent. I often tried to turn it off and fit in. I use to get in trouble alot art was always something I did when I was bored I would draw pictures at home or in school. But it never crossed my mind I could make money from it. People throughout my life would always say wow you can draw really well you have talent. But honestly it never really mattered to me because I never seen anyone that look like me do anything great from drawing. Everyone around me was in the streets

By time I got to the end of high school a girl in my class told me I should start a clothing line because I could draw and I use to draw on my shirts. I thought that was a good idea so I did it with a friend of mines. I use to draw my designs then give it to the guy who was printing them and he would turn my drawings into a graphic so he could print it. I use to hate how he converted my drawings into a graphic so I asked my for help.
My mom got me a cheap laptop from the flea market that overheated every 5-10 mins. lol I downloaded a cracked version of Adobe Illustrator from limewire and watched a ton of tutorials and started making my own graphics. I mastered it after a few months.

From there I figured like hey I’m pretty good at this. I should see if I can get paid doing graphics for other people. I went on Craig’s list to look for gigs. I seen a ad from a guy looking for a Mentee, he said he works for Under Armour and had experience working with Nike, Crooks & Castles and a couple other dope brands. I got together the 5 designs from made and emailed them over to him. He got back to me and asked me to meet him downtown in his office for a meeting. This meeting changed my life and birth who I am today. It was a white guy from California named Adrian he said he liked my work and wanted me to work with him. It was a free gig I wasn’t making any money. But I knew he knew wayyyyy more than me and the knowledge and information he was sharing with me I couldn’t get it from anyone I knew. So I went to his office and worked with him everyday all summer. I was flat broke and even went with my gas tank on E a lot of times in fear that my car would cut off. But the knowledge and experience was soooo good I couldn’t stay away.

I worked with him on clothing and branding with his clients like Nordstroms, NIke and a bunch of start ups. He introduced me to the idea of being a painter he said I should try it because the things I draw are so vivid. Even the. I didn’t believe I could do it because I never seen anyone like me do it. I only knew about Bob Ross and like Renaissance paintings. So I told him something along the lines like black people don’t paint. He said nah bro your trippin, he showed me Basquiat the BOOM the rest was history.

I Took a year and studied art online, different art movements, different artist, different mediums before I even picked up a brush to see if I really wanted to be in this world. Then I made the decision I’m going to be an artist I can do this. I decided I’m going to feel a void in the space. I thought art was bougie white people stuff lol respectfully. So i decided if I entered this space I want to make it fun and also be encouraging for people no matter if they are an everyday person or an art lover. Then the birth of Kid Balloon came about lol another accident. It was a random sketch I made as filler for a background of a drawing. But when I looked at it a lightening bolt went off and I knew I struck gold, I never seen anything like it before.

The things that sets me apart from other artist is I think it’s the fact I never wanted to be one. So my mind is more open to breaking rules and making new ones. My journey hasn’t been typical, the way I create isn’t typical. My messaging behind my work you can’t find another artist with the same purpose or visual aesthetic as mines.

I always wanted to be accessible to everyone not just galleries. So that inspired me to create other products besides just paintings with my trademark. Since I learned marketing and branding with my mentor Adrian before I began painting that gave me a different approach to how I promoted my art and got people attention. Even to this day a lot of artist ask me for advice because all they know is create and give it to a gallery. I achieve success inside and outside the gallery because I mastered how to communicate with people.

That’s all I ever wanted for my art was to connect to people I want my art to be a symbol for self love and celebration. That’s why I create art to make everyone life a little bit easier to encourage everyone.

It’s done through paintings, murals , shirts, hats , collectibles, balloons, stickers , sculptures, pillows and any other ideas we come up with to exist in everyone everyday life.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

I always been told NO. I always been an outsider. It always made me work harder, it made me more talented, it made me more intelligent. It honestly baffles me the companies I worked and in conversation with. Graffiti artist used to scratch out my art and write don’t come back. Multiple artist advisors did bad business and even some collaborators.

Bigger artist seen me as a threat and tried to block me from opportunities. I’ve been told no more than I’ve been told yes. I’ve been stereotyped and not allowed into rooms. Even some family told me to quit art. But though it all I deeply believe in my talents and the message I’m promoting. My brand message “Celebrate Life, Celebrate Yourself” literally got me through it all.

I’m a little crazy, delusional and a warrior. But I believe all geniuses are. That’s the only way you can survive in this game.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I partly grew my following from graffiti and hosting events in my early days. It got to a point where I was more known for hosting events than the art. I was the guy who painted balloons around the city and hosted dope parties. I felt I didn’t want to be know for the events I wanted to be known for just the art. I even felt pictures of myself was getting more likes that the art.

So I decided to stop hosting events and take all pictures down of myself on social media and just post the art. It was a big risk that didn’t instantly pay off. But eventually over time my art got more love and respect and my following actually grew 100x. It built a mystery of who is this guy painting balloons and why can’t I see him for all the new people finding out about me. That slowly pushed me in the direction of being looked at as a brand and pure artist. That later down the line caught attention of bigger brands. It was the best decision I ever made

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.kidballoon.com
• Instagram: Kidballoon