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

Michael, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

After college I was lost and confused because I realized until that point I was living my life trying to do what other people wanted. I decided to throw myself into the “void” and become an artist for better or worse. I moved to Los Angeles and found a food delivery job in downtown. I created art and played music. I had little money but was playing my original music around town and participating in small art shows. It was a beautiful time. In 2003, I got the chance to travel with the newly revived Lollapalooza Tour for what would be it’s final national tour. After that one it eventually moved to Chicago as more of a weeklong festival. The opportunity was to sell art/prints/shirts of my original art on the concourse as a vendor. I had no idea what I was doing and only had a month to prep. Turned out the tour as whole did not do nearly as well as expected. I had to pay to be there, as well as pay for my all my travel. No to mention the overspending I did on inventory. I lost money and had to file bankruptcy. This forced me into a corporate job for the last 20 years. I recently left to once again focus on my art. I have money saved and I’m going all in. I’m taking another big risk.

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’m a Long Beach based, self-taught artist originally from Long Island, NY, who moved to Southern California as a child and have lived in Los Angeles, Orange County and San Diego. I’ve called Long Beach home for the last 16 years. Through the use of vibrant colors and bold shapes created with a combination of oil and acrylic paints, watercolor and ink, colored pencil, photography, spray paint and stencils, illustration, and unique handmade frames, I capture the energy, diversity and spirit of Southern California, specifically Long Beach. I consider my work “California Outsider Art”. I also put out merchandise, such as prints, pins, stickers, hats and t-shirts under my brand O.I.L. Beach, which stands for “Only in Long Beach”.

For the past 8 years I’ve done many pop-up art events and craft fairs, including Fourth Fridays on 4th Street, First Fridays Bixby Knolls, Art in Bixby Park and Downtown Long Beach Art Walk. I currently have work hanging in Gallery 99, which is a part of the local “microgallery” movement. I also have art in a number of Long Beach businesses, including Selva, Steel Cup Café, The Good Bar, Port City Tavern and Metropolitan Design & Furniture. I recently was part of an invitational group show at Loiter Galleries in Downtown Long Beach titled “Keepin’ it Local”, and consistently show work at The Hive Gallery in Downtown Los Angeles. The last 5 years I’ve participated in the Long Beach Open Studio Tour.

I like to find opportunities to hang my art in places that may not actively seek out artists. My art show at The Good Bar (March – June 2024) came into being by growing my relationship with the owner, Blake Whytock. The bar is skateboard themed and though there are many skateboards hanging, there was one empty wall without art. Blake owns a piece of my art which I donated to a fundraiser for local tattoo artist Wade Hex, who was diagnosed with colon cancer. I asked Blake if I could create a series of work titled “Deconstructed Skate Art” to hang on the empty wall. He loved the idea and I made 11 new pieces. Although art shows aren’t the usual thing at The Good Bar, we had an opening night with a great turnout. My art was very well received by the diverse, thriving skateboard culture of Long Beach.

Another opportunity I created was at Long Beach brewery, Steady Brewing. Again, I fostered my relationship with the owners to set up a show in April 2023 that honored their love of the car and tattoo cultures that exist here in Long Beach. For this show, I collaborated with black/Latino photographer Calvin Leonard from Santa Monica. We met in November of 2022, when we had both donated work to the fundraiser for the Tattoo Heritage Museum which is planned to open in Long Beach sometime in the future. Calvin grew up in the street culture of the 80’s and 90’s and has a keen photographic eye for the cars and tattoos that are part of that world. We did a series of collaboration pieces using his photographs and my watercolor & ink art and handmade frames. Again, this was a very successful show at a venue that doesn’t normally show art. It was enjoyed by both the patrons of the brewery and the owners. Calvin and I also collaborated on a handful of pieces that were shown at the Venture Nationals Car Show in September 2023.

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

In 2004, I filed bankruptcy due to art related business endeavors that didn’t quite pan out (specifically the 2003 national Lollapalooza Tour). Although that forced me into a corporate job to get back on my feet financially, I never stopped creating. I tried to get into illustrating children’s books. That didn’t work out but it lead to me writing, producing, illustrating and narrating short animated films. A couple of these films, “The Trickster” and “Stress, Snowfall and the Inner Child”, were selected to numerous film festivals all over the world. Eventually this lead me back to the art I’m creating now. In the last couple of years I’ve been very active showing my art where ever possible.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I’ve recently learned about and having been applying for artist’s grants. Being a self-taught artist, I was unaware such resources were available. Being an artist is difficult as a career, but these type of resources will be very helpful

Contact Info:

• Website: https://oilbeach.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/oilbeach/
• Other: https://vimeo.com/mbiagiotti