We recently connected with Neal Hamilton and have shared our conversation below.

Neal, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Yes I’ve been able to make a living on my creative talent all my life since I was 18 or 20 years of age. My parents and Grand parents noticed I had something special when I was very young, like the age of 3 or 4. My grand mother enrolled me into the advanced art classes at the Cleveland Museum of Art when
I was 11 years old. I wasn’t happy at the “tie” because my art classes were on Saturday morning and I wanted to stay home to watch the cartoons on Saturday lol. All my friends were outside playing on Saturday also so that was a bummer for me. But in retrospect I understand now how life changing
this would be for me in the future! Even through all my years in school my teachers knew I had something special and utilized my talent where ever they could, Even if I had an occasional detention or two my teacher would have me draw up the next days lesson plan with an artistic touch to it lol.

After years of learning and trying everything I could it was time to get serious about the future after graduating from High School and starting a family early I wanted to get a job that allowed me to use my artistic skills. There wasn’t many jobs available in the art field back then so I did the next best thing and that was taking a technical Illustrator position that was on the drafting board in those days as a lighting designer and engineer to make a living. I also took up photography that would become a serious asset to my arsenal! By my mid 30’s I had massed a multitude of creative path’s I could take if needed. I feel that the more you have under your belt it opens more doors till you truly find where you should really be! One of the biggest milestones for my career was my photographic abilities landed me the chief photographers position at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. So to answer your question about could anything be speeded up? I believe all that we do in life is merely dress rehearsal! I don’t think we can speed anything up in our evolution, I feel its a very important part of our learning process. Some people get there fast and some get there later but it all happens when its supposed to!

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 background and context?

Like I stated earlier I got in the industry as a engineer first but I keep’t my eye on the prize! Trying to break into the ever changing art world, I eventually landed a big time position as an Illustrator finally in one of Clevelands biggest art firms. After about ten years doing that I decided to start my own commercial art firm with a few like minded friends and that was quite a journey for about 5 years before we decided to pursue other things. At this time is when I received a call to bid on the photography job at the Rock Hall. I thought it was a joke at first, but I complied and to my surprise I got a call the next day and I accepted the terms and it was on! I was already a big music fan and I already knew a lot about rock and roll and music in general. So I had one of the most exciting jobs you could imagine! So after photographing the biggest musical stars and concerts and everything in between for 10 years the spirit
moved my whole course path to something unpredictable and life changing! Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, my whole world was turned upside down after a devastating house fire, which no one was hurt first of all, but left me dazed and confused and left me with most of all my artistic tools gone.

From that moment a voice spoke to me loud and clear pushing me to move forward and use this tragedy as an inspiration and driving force for something new! From that tragedy I birthed a new art creation “Paint Out Loud” After loosing all my art supplies in the fire I took matters in my own hands and began to paint again using at that time a very limited amount of tools. I looked around the place where we had a temporary place to live until they rebuilt our house. For the first time I had to learn to paint in a way I’ve never had to before. I made it my mission to re-introduce some of the greatest trail blazers of music to the world in a new hip and contemporary approach. Since music was my job for the past 10 years it was a no brainer lol. I aspire to be the “Keeper of the Flame” of these musical icons, by creating timeless pieces that stare into your soul using colors that accentuate their mood, sensuality and mystery. My bold approach to this new art form quickly stirred up a lot of interest in the art community and I got a lot of attention from the music stars themselves. Soon came
lots of magazine articles awards and TV features. I now continue to push the culture forward with my creative works of art, as well as sharing my work and wisdom by expanding into educational seminars, Q&A’s and custom application showcases.

May my energy and theirs blast through the canvas and pulsate through my bold pours, brush strokes, drips, textures and electric colors………. For the highest honor of art is to inspire! Hear the music in my visuals because……. I “Paint Out Loud!!!”

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

Yes! I feel like Iv’e been given the task to apply all my wisdom and life experiences to bridge the gap between the old and the young to understand this thing we call music, the universal language, through my approach to art using this contemporary technique.

What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?

I believe this is an area that totally needs to be re-defined. There’s been this long standing term going around called “Starving Artist”. which I feel is a really harmful stereotype that we need to move beyond. This term alone has scared many talented artist to never try to go this rout. I’m not saying it’s easy to be an artist but what is? I just know that if this is your life’s journey let no one tell you otherwise! I feel society should look at this differently and truly support the arts because artist bring so much beauty and love to the world! That makes artist very valuable to the world if you ask me, lol.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nealhamilton.artstorefronts.com This is a new site i’m working on, will be live in a week or so! when its live it should be www.nealhamilton.com
• Instagram: @paintoutloud and @paintoutloud_art
• Facebook: Paint Out Loud LLC the art of Neal Hamilton
• Linkedin: Paint Out Loud LLC