We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Michael Cooper. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Michael below.
Michael, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?
Full-time from day one?! HA! I was trying to transition from my first career (contract /commercial Interior Design for 20 years), when my girlfriend (now wife for 30 years!) saw a mural that I painted in my apartment, where I was living after my divorce. See, I had been painting murals almost all of my life, just for fun. But she had no idea that I had that kind of talent. In fact, she thought that it was wallpaper! I had to prove it by showing her my paint clothes! Anyway, she suggested that I paint murals for a living, since she thought that I was pretty good. She insisted that we could make money from it. So with her business acumen, and my gift of gab, we actually made it work. She was in charge of the business aspect, and I was in charge of painting. It helped that she also worked for her father full-time, but after a few years, she came to me and said, “I have good news and bad news: the bad news: I’m quitting working for my father. The good news: I’m working for Murals & More full time!” Yep, we were now a one-paycheck family! And we’ve made it ever since – now going on 34 years! The only thing I would have done different was to have met Mickie earlier! Changes needed? Have them teach business courses in Art School! I have a 5-year BFA and never took one business course! It occurs to me that every artist needs a Mickie!
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?
For whatever reason, I’ve been painting on walls for as long as I can remember. I’ve really never painted on canvas. I painted murals on my kids’ rooms, parent’s rooms, churches, JCC’s, my kid’s schools, my fraternity house, etc. Anytime anybody needed anything of any size painted, I was the one “volunteered”. But I was always going to be a doctor. My grandfather even bought me a microscope that I hauled around to all of my high school biology classes. But when I took my first Chemistry class at UT-Knoxville, it was clear that I wasn’t going to be a doctor. It was literally all Greek to me. I left that class, and ran into a girl who was majoring in Interior Design. I had no clue what that was, but she took a lot of art classes, and it sounded amazing – I started drawing and I was hooked! I changed majors, came back to Memphis State (University of Memphis) and got a BFA in Interior Design. I stayed in that field for 20 years (painting murals as a hobby the entire time!) until I got divorced, met Mickie, and completely changed my life. I’m telling you, it’s been a blast! I took all of the lessons I learned in Design (drafting, drawing to scale, rendering, perspective, etc.) and applied them to my mural work. I now specialize in Trompe L’oeil (meaning, “to fool the eye”), and have never looked back. I have added Decorative painting to my skill set (faux marble, faux bois, Venetian Plaster, glazing, etc.), and have even taught multiple classes throughout the country. Mickie and I even had a column in a national trade magazine called, “Ask Mike and Mickie”, where reader’s questions were answered from both the artists’ viewpoint, as well as the business perspective.
We’ve been involved in projects as small as a space above a microwave, to miles of highway retaining walls. Interior, exterior, commercial, residential, corporate, ecumenical – as long as it’s not wet, I’ll paint it!
As far as style, I try and stay relatively realistic. Everything we do is painted with brushes – no aerosol, no graffiti, no street art. In fact, most of the brushes we use are custom – they are mural brushes that I actually designed and have custom-made. The “Michael Cooper Signature Series Mural Brushes”. They are perfect for painting on most any surface – from drywall to concrete block, brick, stucco, corrugated aluminum – they’re simply amazing.
We’ve had projects from coast to coast, and even now, after all of these years, we keep incredibly busy. I try to keep a crew of at least 3-4 artists in the studio, just to handle the work load.
I’m quite serious about doing quality and detailed work, but I’m even more serious about simply enjoying what we do for a living – we have GOT to have fun!’
I have said this before, and I’ll say it again: if it weren’t for Mickie, I wouldn’t be here at all. She is the glue that holds all of this insane business together. EVERY artist needs a Mickie!
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
Complete serendipity. Living in Memphis, I went to a racquetball tournament in Murfreesboro, TN. Mickie was living in Bowling Green, KY, and happened to go to the same tournament. I volunteered to referee one of her games. I was immediately and completely smitten. She…not so much. I was recently divorced, and she was in the middle of a nasty divorce herself. She wanted absolutely nothing to do with men. I asked her to dinner, and she flatly refused. After the tournament, I actually told my parents that I had found “the one”. It took a little stalking – ok, a lot of stalking – but she finally agreed to go out with me. And we’ve been together ever since. And that was about 35 years ago. She completely turned my life around. I honestly believe that I would not be doing what I’m doing, much less enjoying such success, without her.
Has your business ever had a near-death moment? Would you mind sharing the story?
There were MANY times throughout our career where we were wondering what we were going to do about money. It wasn’t necessarily from a lack of jobs, but from clients being slow in their decisions, changing their minds, moving start dates, etc. There are some weeks where I have no idea how we’re going to find the time and personnel to complete all of the work. And then there are times when all we hear are crickets. We have continued throughout the years to try and put money into a “retirement” fund, and there have been a few times where we’ve had to dip into it. But for whatever reasons, we’ve always managed to come out on the other side. I’m not saying that the topic of “pizza delivery” hadn’t come up during the early years, but I think that that happened only as inspiration, a not-so-gentle nudge to get off my ass and get some business in here! Mickie is really REALLY good at putting things into perspective, especially from a business standpoint. Being an artist, I’m usually the one looking through rose-colored glasses. She is quite adept at ripping them right off of my face!
Contact Info:
- Website: www.muralsandmore.com
- Instagram: @Muralsandmore
- Facebook: Michael Cooper – also, muralsandmorellc
- Linkedin: Michael Cooper
- Twitter: @murals
- Other: Vimeo – lots of videos re: Michael Cooper/Murals & More