Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Mel Smothers. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Mel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

You might have seen me as someone down on his luck. My profession in real estate was on a quick decent. My wife had decided to take up smoking crack with her new friends. Our credit cards were maxed out. Our list of creditors far surpassed any possible income options. I was stressed.
I found my material world dissolving in divorce, losing my house, car, family, and facing that I was now alcoholic and living in my parents house.
At this low point I began rebuilding myself. I went to AA meetings 2x a day. I found I enjoyed reading biographies of those that had lost everything they cherished and rediscovered joy in life. They always were artists and philosophers.
I also discovered I enjoyed making things. Things without a goal or functional use. Simply being creative gave me a joyous feeling. A feeling I had lost in my life of material successes and now I rediscovered at the very foundation of who I was.
Unknown to me, I was beginning a rebuilding process of who I was. I was following in the footsteps of the mystics, philosophers and artists I had been reading about.
I went back to the university to finish my education. I now had a powerful goal to learn all I could about the joyousness of creativity. To my own surprise, since I was only a mediocre student before, I excelled. I eventually earned a MFA and became an academic, teaching in three universities.
To this day, I live a life of creative discovery.
I’m motivated by subjects
inherited from our times, drawn from personal narratives, reflecting my
interest in philosophy, contemporary thought, and sources that span art
history.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I was on my quest to learn as much as I could about creativity but how do you do that? I chose academia. The professors were generally uninspiring, though efficient, and had issues.
Two of them standout because I find myself repeating their words 30 yrs later. Wayne Thiebaud stays with me the most because of more than being able to transfer the knowledge I was pursuing, he was a kind, humble and successful as a person. I hung on his every word. Even the critical students that didn’t appreciate his value became a learning opportunity.

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

As my life was rebuilding as a creative person, new goals would open up which I had not even considered.
I became a professor. I found I loved the role. As I saw my mentor Wayne Thiebaud balancing an artist career with academia, I too followed that plan. But his era of academia was not mine. I did not have the freedom for my own work as I had hoped.
I decided to toss the security of a tenured professor. There was a fork in my creative road. I realized I wanted to live and work in New York City as my art hero’s had.
The budget was a slim balancing of a house of financial cards. There was no safety net. I found a live/work space in Brooklyn’s Bushwick scene. Other than I was now over 50 yrs old, my neighbors were much like me, MFA grads, chasing a dream of being a NY artist. I loved being around the high energy. I had a first NYC showing of my paintings right down stairs in the coffee roasters.
To continue my NYC journey financially I had to work also be a landlord. I had to find a summer tenant for my loft. Which meant, I also needed to drive back to California each spring where I could live for free in the back yard of my house at Lake Tahoe that I had also rented.
I followed this financial plan for several years. It was a setback many times with unexpected problems, all disasters at the moment, but my art career moved forward. My girlfriend was not interested in chasing my dream. The wonderful Ford truck was pushed to its limit from years of spring and fall coast to coast migrations. Tires were needed in middle america. Steering went out in the desert. I applied for an emergency art grant in the repair shop waiting room.
Artists as tenants were not as reliable as I hoped leaving me scrambling to keep the house of cards upright.
In the end it did work. I have lived and worked in NYC. I still exhibit there a few times a year. An accomplishment valued mostly by the ambitious young artists I meet.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

As I was reinventing myself as an artist, I planned on calling in my life experience as a marketer of real estate to create a successful business plan. The artist I had met, were not making any money and complaining, I had a background in business to put to use.
My first year back in college, now taking art related classes, I was going through ideas to make art pay and succeed.
My business plans slowly dissolved. The more I learned about creativity which I now loved, the less I could find that the art I loved, would be financially successful.
I would have to use real estate to finance the independence I would need to create art.
Which holds true to this day.
Many artists are confused, unaware or lack the knowledge that a successful artist materially does not mean a successful art career.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.melsmothers.com
• Instagram: @andydialogs
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/melsmothersart?mibextid=JRoKGi
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@melsmothers4960?feature=shared