We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Malik Greene. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Malik below.

Malik, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

Honestly, my journey as an artist has been a back-and-forth pull. It’s like the universe called me to it from a very early age but in the past, I’ve often ignored the signs in front of me. I literally have one of those classic baby pictures and I’m just casually sitting in it holding a paintbrush and bucket. So it feels like my life has been one significant foreshadowing of that despite my initial rejection. When they would ask us as children what we want to be when we grew up I never really had an answer that compelled me until I discovered my love for creation, and ideation just allowing myself the freedom to create the world as I see fit. It started off as me wanting to be a mangaka, but being a young black boy from Columbia, South Carolina I never had someone share the possibilities and limitations of such a career. So I eventually stopped and started playing football as cliché as that may be. It was either rap or go to the league but I’m not sure, it just wasn’t me. As I said earlier though, the universe calls, I went through the motions of High-school and ended up at a college I went through the motions to be at but once I got there… there was an explosion! I had an amazing friend introduce me to painting which is so different from manga, so different from anything I have ever experienced creatively. So essentially from the first moments of my brush touching the canvas, I knew it was my life’s work to tell my life through my work. My life tends to work better when I listen to the universe, what’s meant to be is all figured out and aligned for me: There may be a reason why it took these moments and memories for me to accept my calling. There may be a reason why I had to fall, so I could learn how to get back up.

Malik, 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?

Well, my name is Malik Greene and I’ve really been creating some way all of my life. Some different things have gotten me to my medium now but in summation, my life has been one big art project, it has its ups, its downs, sometimes I lead the project other times I have to follow but it all centers around crafting something that can survive and inform the future. I am based out of Columbia, South Carolina for the moment and my work really centers around me, the people, and the things that emulate my perspective. I really want to build a world through my eyes and really venerate the people that have made me who I am. I look at my work as a form of record keeping, almost like a photo album for the family of self, compiling the things unique to the people who have been along this process and me. I like to think I am in the human business, my work is dependent on being a vessel for the essence around me. I think just being myself sets me apart from everyone but the best part about that is I feel that way about everyone, we all are unique, and complex and bring something unique to this world, we are the table so everyone deserves to have a seat… with ample space.

So far into my career, I’d say I’m most proud of just doing things my way; although some may see this as the long way it’s the only way I feel comfortable living and I find strength in that resolve. Being able to build a brand, company and maintain integrity don’t often go hand and hand but I’m happy to sleep at night knowing I am free, autonomous, and willing to receive what is meant for me when I’m meant to have it.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Honestly, I feel like my entire life has been a journey filled with resilience. Before I even decided to create art, the odds were very much against me, my family, and even those in my community. I never really had a concept of what I wanted to do when I “grew up” because I honestly didn’t have much hope or many points of reference other than simply surviving. But my family is like the definition of resilience, I faced a lot of loss around the age of 5, and then around the age of 8, I lost what seemed to be a certain presence in my household. As opposed to allowing these misfortunes to deteriorate my family further, I was blessed to have a mother and siblings who fought for their happiness. They showed me through action to be strong, to persevere, and just want more for myself. I serve as the glue for my family, in my opinion, I went from being the black sheep to also showing my nieces and nephews that you can do things your own way, being yourself, and still be celebrated and I think that’s something that drives me forward even today. But aside from the traumas of childhood being an artist is like asking to have a part-time job being rejected aha, when I was a child I was told I could never be a mangaka, and at times when developing current bodies of work you have to become comfortable with getting no response, getting told no, hell even getting lied to it comes with the game but I live to play the game. I live to make a way and if showing this level of resilience is integral to my journey then there may be a reason why I suffered loss at a young age, there may be a reason why I felt alone for a great deal of my childhood. Maybe I needed that to fuel this, I believe the journey is already written out the paintings just convey this. The community work just shows what I yearned for in my adolescence.

Have you ever had to pivot?

The biggest transition I’ve had to make in my life is kind of happening right now and I am trying my best to step into it. I recently turned 25 and although I don’t place critical importance on age, I realize I’m not as young as I once was, not as tolerable for my time to be wasted when it comes to my dreams. As I enter a new level of maturity, I have to hold true to my actual purpose, so I’m pushing back against the conventional route I almost set myself up for. I also have to really be holding myself accountable, especially in relation to leveling myself up and bettering myself, the artist gets a terrible reputation for being broke, scatterbrained, just not focused on things outside of creation I’ve made the promise to myself that I can’t live my life that way. The starving artist trope is a scam, it’s a trap and it is a trap that isn’t all too difficult to fall into, you want something that someone else has and now your doing something that is beneath what your purpose is. I feel like this occurs in all industries but paying dues should not be confused with allowing yourself to move at a frequency lower than what you deserve and I recently had to realize that. It concerns me that I chose a profession where this is the standard, but I’ve had to alter my mindset and realize that those past circumstances do not have to be my current reality. I want to provide, I want to be happy, I create art in order to make a way for those who feel how I do and this profession is completely different from something a bit more linear.

It’s so hard to break into an industry at any age, it gets even more complicated when you have real-life responsibilities and obligations that go further than your craft. I love books like the Alchemist because of passages where Santiago is told to stare at the wonders while keeping the liquid in the spoon, life is really just a big balancing act, how can I experience the joys of the world while also protecting what is necessary for myself? I am currently pivoting into making these decisions that will help me sleep better as a man not just a puppet for false constructs or even as simple as abiding by someone else code of morality. They say every man has to draw a line and currently I’ve taken my stick I’m just figuring out where I want that line to be drawn at.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.malik-greene.com
• Instagram: Leakylikeafaucet_
• Other: https://www.patreon.com/leakylikeafaucet?fan_landing=true&view_as=public