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

Kyle, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

I want to start by stating that no one has it all figured it out. Especially visual artists, we are evolving and constantly adapting to life. I have luckily mastered a system to be able to live off of my creative work. I have been painting for 4 years of my life and have been living off of it for the past. In the beginning it was very difficult teaching myself how to paint/draw, finding my creative style, mastering my work, all while developing the business side on my own. My love for fine art is what really drove me to make it happen. In the beginning I was living a pretty unhealthy lifestyle, pushing my limits with sleep painting & consuming way too much coffee.

I made it happen by combinding the knowledge I gathered about business within visual arts with a mix of trusting my gut and chasing my heart. You can only learn so much before the world starts to change and your studies fall behind. I knew my art would never be 100% ready to show the world, nor will my education about the space so I jumped for it and put myself in uncomfortable situations to show my art to the world and grow my name.

I do wish I studied more history of fine arts and took technique classes but I am extremely proud of my style and how far I have come being self taught.

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 name is Kyle LeBlanc, I am a visual artist based in San Diego. I am a self taught artist. My primarily medium is acrylic on canvas. I sell my work through LeBlanc Company – a brand I developed with reason to create something bigger than myself. I have never been a spotlight type of guy. Creating LeBlanc Co. I have hope to create an imperfectly perfect creative lifestyle that will live on after my time.

I needed art for my apartment my last year in college. I have never been a huge into drawing/painting but I decided to create about a dozen pieces for my place and people seemed to like them. The more I made, the more I fell in love with the process of telling stories on the canvas. I wasn’t too sure what I wanted to do after college but this new ability I discovered to paint had my full interest.

I took a few business and marketing classes so turning my art into a business didn’t seem totally impossible. I knew if I was ever going to try something extreme that this was the time for it. I played football and ran track for my college all while being a full time student and working part time. Juggling a ton of tasks forced me to become discipline and proficient with my time. I knew creating art was what I was meant to do in this world so mentally there wasn’t ever a thought of if it would ever work out, it was only a question of when & I was prepared to work part time jobs to get me by for 10 years if that is what it would take. I really treated my art as do or die. I was always in competition with myself so I believed it would eventually workout.

I sell my original work as well as offer custom orders. My custom orders consist of turning ones vision to life on the canvas – turning a picture into a painting. My custom orders also consists of murals and custom clothing. Lastly, I also offer digital design work.

I am a lot different than my competitors because I offer a wide variety of skills. I don’t limit my creative ability to one medium. I push my limits to turn my clients dreams to reality. I have worked with over a dozen professional athletes in the NFL, NBA, MLB as well as top musician/actors.

How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?

From my experience I have noticed that there is a lot of lack of awareness for the creative ecosystem. Awareness of what the world would be like without artists choosing the radical lifestyle & dedicating their life to their work. Full-time artists like myself sacrifice the concept of being secure in life. I truly believe being completely secure and damage the opportunity for one to continue to grow in life. The lack of awareness falls back on the artists because we often stay to themself. Us artist need to put more effort into explaining what you do & why you do it. This will help inspire people in life and tie what you do together with your personal story – this comes with being better digital media storytellers.

I believe if everyone was a little more educated on the history of arts and the impact of what it has made in our history and current era, people would appreciate it more and be motivated to support artists. Corporate companies have for sure made it a more difficult for artists to exist with people turning art into corporate America with printing art. but I believe the world is starting to appreciate the craftsman ship of handmade goods.

I don’t think there is one response to answer this question. Art is so personal across the board – within the person bringing it to life and the viewer. To sum up this question I would say artists need to continue to push themselves out of their comfort zone to tell their creative stories better & over time as people get sick of shitty manufactured art/becoming more educated on the role that fine arts plays in this world.

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

NFTs are an amazing way for a community to support artists on a level beyond just buying someone’s art. When you buy an artists NFT you essentially become the art gallery. After the first sell the buyer hold the vale and can re-sell the art at a higher price – increasing the artists value. The super cool thing about NFTs is that artists can now track and collect royalties on their work. NFTs allow artists to grow exponentially.

People are losing sight of NFTs. The first question about an NFT project should be “who made the art?” not “what is the utility & what do I get aside the art?” Once the space goes back to the topic being on the artist then i will believe the focus is in the right place.

In my opinion the NFT space lost sight of its purpose due to the wrong people getting involved. The space went from being a place to support living artist to people building false hype to make money off of people. I do believe after time the space will go back to its original purpose – to promote/support living artists. When the space operates correctly it’s truly a beautiful system. A community is establish, an artist is celebrated/recognized, art is supported and cool people are brought together.

Find an artist you like and support their art. Anything else that comes from an artists NFT is a plus.

I do have a project named “Pretty Poison NFTs” where I designed 999 different skulls. The art is inspired off of a skull 1/1 painting I made on canvas a few years ago. My goal with my project is to bring people together who appreciate fine arts and enjoy connecting with unique individuals. I want to keep traditional fine arts alive in this new limitless web 3 space.

Contact Info:

• Website: leblanccompany.co
• Instagram: @leblanc_co
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LeBlancCompany/ | LeBlanc Company
• Linkedin: LeBlanc Company, LLC
• Twitter: @kyleleblancart
• Youtube: LeBlanc Company
• Other: NFT project info: Pretty Poison NFT website: https://prettypoisonnft.com/ instagram: @prettypoisonnft twitter: @prettypoisonnft Jewelry Company I own/design for: Honey Roses website: honeyroses.co instagram: @_honeyroses_ Personal Instagram: @kyleleblanc_