We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nick Ferrucci a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Nick, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
I’ll never forget the first time I made money as an artist. I was a junior in high school. My first band, The Harvey Mulligan Band, played in a battle-of-the-bands at the local fair. We got 3rd place. We were awarded $100, and a friend came up to me while I was packing up my drums and said “you just got money for creating art.” I remember holding back tears while hugging people and feeling grateful for the opportunity to express myself with my bandmates.
Nick, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
I’m an actor and a musician. When I was a teenager I turned towards art and creativity as a vehicle for me to get through painful events in my life, though I did not realize this until much later. At the time I just liked making things with friends, whether it was music, plays, or comedy sketches. I eventually went to school for several years to pursue acting and learn about the craft. I then became an actor professionally, working around the country and in the Pacific Northwest doing theatre, mostly. Now I live in Los Angeles, mainly for the sun, and I stay active as an actor and musician. For better or for worse, I’ve never been good at or enjoyed the industry/business part of what I do. That aspect of the career has also been proven to be unhealthy and depressingly banal for me. However, I strive to stay creative in ways that bring me fulfillment while continuing my journey toward self-growth. Developing healthy and strong relationships with those around me far outweighs any career or business aspirations. My passion and reverence for art, craft, and poetry will always remain stronger than anything else.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the greatest reward has been finding, pursuing, and giving over to, the art spirit. I couldn’t possibly articulate it, but Robert Henri can: “Art when really understood is the province of every human being.
It is simply a question of doing things, anything, well. It is not an outgoing, extra thing.
When the artists is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressing creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and he opens ways for a better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it, shows there are still more pages possible.
The world would stagnate without him, and the world would be beautiful with him; for he is interesting to himself and he is interesting to others. He does not have to be a painter or a sculptor to be an artist. He can work in any medium. He simply has to find the gain in the work itself, not outside it.
Museums of art will not make a country an art country. But where there is the art spirit there will be precious works to fill museums. Better still, there will be the happiness that is in the making. Art tends towards balance, order, judgment of relative values, the laws of growth, the economy of living—very good things for anyone to be interested in.”
Contact Info:
- Website: www.NickFerrucci.com
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/nickferrucci
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@FerrucciNick/featured
Image Credits
Joseph Santos