We recently connected with Mickey Roberts and have shared our conversation below.

Mickey, appreciate you joining us today. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?

I am probably in the minority on this one in that I do not personally find that I am learning a craft at all. Oftentimes I am making it up as I go along. Mostly because when I create a piece of work, I don’t really set out to “create a piece of art.” I moreso set out to exorcise something that is in me. I simply find that canvas has proven a reliable medium for that. It’s almost as though I use painting as a sort of alternative to therapy. It is my time to explore a pervasive feeling– to give it a color, a texture, some vocabulary. To give it a face and a shape. Something to help me see it outside of my own head. For me, it’s a way of learning to remove the judgement or the subjective attachment to what I am experiencing. When it’s an ugly or debilitating thought that I cannot seem to shake, I pick up a brush and a canvas. By the time I am done, I am looking at something only hours before was ugly or painful or filled with shame, and now it’s art. This process has taught me how to love the ugly parts of myself and how to not be afraid of traversing that uncomfortable terrain in my mind, because each time I do, I know that there is a piece of art on the other side waiting to introduce itself to me. I suppose one could consider this a part of learning the craft. I don’t really. But I guess It’s just never been my focus to “improve” at the technical language of art as much as it has been to use my made up language of art to communicate with myself.

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?

My name is Mickey Roberts. I am a self-taught artist based out of Harlem, New York. I work in a number of mediums including poetry, paint, illustration, sculpture, textiles, and animation. My work is centered around sharing the “ugly parts” of ourselves with what I call intentional vulnerability. Everyone has those thoughts they hate thinking. And most of us get pretty good at hiding them away from the people we love. But I’m more interested in that terrifying moment of showing them in full to those we’re most afraid to lose. Because more often than not, those are the parts our loved ones most want to meet. And if, after they see everything, they still choose to stay, then the fear dissipates and the bond grows even stronger.
I want to show people that although it’s scary to be vulnerable, it’s worth every risk. And it’s the most effective way to connect.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

Art isn’t sacred. It’s chicken scratch from people who are looking for what is sacred. Some chicken scratch is legible, some isn’t. But we all know it says something that was important enough to write down.

To me, art is not some grand contribution to the world. Nor is it meant to be ogled and praised– Simply read like a notebook. Art is a language. When I don’t know what to say, I draw. Most of the time what I’m trying to say isn’t even all that significant. Sometimes it’s the taste of a peach that I don’t have a word for, or the face of a feeling I can’t seem to get out of my head. So I draw it out, or paint it out, or write it out. First, art is a tool for understanding my experience. Then it’s a language for communicating that experience to those who may also be struggling to find the words.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the ability to indulge in that unapologetic need to be honest with myself and with my community. In so many other careers there are boxes one must “fit into” in order to play the part. But there are no boxes for artists, or at the very least the boxes are not very sturdy. The freedom to explore me, and then to be that me that I discover is something I owe to art. And the freedom to change whenever and however I need to as I continue to grow, and fall, and mess up, and learn, is a rare privilege that comes with life as an artist.

Contact Info:

• Website: mickeyrobertsart.com
• Instagram: @mickeyrobertsart

Image Credits
Zac Crawford