We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Preston M. Smith. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Preston M. below.
Preston M. , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you 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?
I have been earning a living solely from my art practice for the last 8 years now. It took me 16 years of working a part-time job as a server in restaurants to make it happen. I worked on my craft and built my body of work while working nights and weekends in various restaurants. I was miserable for a long time as I didn’t care for my day job at all. I told myself to keep working these restaurant jobs to give me motivation to continue pursuing my dream to be a full-time artist. It was only when I started to dig into myself as well as my past to heal that I began to make my peace with my then current situation. When my life started to brighten up, so did my art. I called this a process of moving from darkness into light. I began working on selling my paintings consistently during my studio time and began to gather some momentum. When I started selling about 4 – 6 paintings per month, I devised a plan to save a certain amount of money that would allow me to live for 6 – 12 months if sales didn’t continue. Once I hit that amount, I decided to “burn the boats” and quit my restaurant job. It was one of the most exciting periods of my life! I kept the momentum going and continued to paint, sell and show my work in galleries and online art marketplaces. My first year doing art full-time, I made as much money as I made as a server the year before. This was very encouraging to me and I have since built on this practice and continued to grow my art sales and business. I have even created a podcast that I host, called “The Living Artist” that is now in its 3rd year. It is my mission to inspire other artists to make a living off of their artwork and feel like they are part of a community of like-minded and supportive artists!
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 Preston M. Smith and I am a professional painter and fine artist. I go by PMS Artwork online and on social media, as these are the initials I sign my work with and the name stuck! I started painting seriously at Gonzaga University, where I met my mentor, the late Robert Gilmore. Upon graduation, I was the only student awarded the Kreielsheimer Assistantship, where I would accompany my mentor in teaching university drawing and painting classes, while developing my own private studio and body of work. After a year of this, I moved to Los Angeles to become a professional artist and try my hand at acting as well. For many years I created moody and emotional figurative and Pop Surrealist paintings, but transitioned into very bright, vibrant and highly textured abstract paintings about 8 or 9 years ago. This has become my signature painting style and I am obsessed with beauty, color, texture and decay in my work. I paint on all types of surfaces such as canvas, wood, glass, plexiglass, resin, assemblage pieces, recycled and upcycled materials, and much more. I am approaching my 600th original painting sale and have sold my work to close to 550 collectors in over 26 different countries! Some of the highlights of my career so far are my recent solo exhibition with ShockBoxx Gallery called “Playtime Is Over?”, painting 12 original paintings of President Barack Obama for his Inauguration in 2009 where my paintings where distributed to guests such as Ashley Judd, Ed Harris, Patricia Arquette, Josh Lucas, Amy Brenneman, Il Divo and more! I have also worked with the David Lynch Foundation, where I created and auctioned off a live painting of Mr. Lynch at the Key Club in Hollywood. I have shown my work at the famous La Luz De Jesus gallery multiple times, the LA Art Show twice, have had my work be included in the US Embassy in Cameroon for the Art In Embassies program, and have had my work be the subject of a documentary entitled “Negativity To Creativity”, directed by Tony Lugo. I love to inspire my collectors with vibrant colors and emotive texture and brushstrokes. I also like to paint with tools more than I do with brushes. This has become my signature style. My podcast “The Living Artist” has made many of the top artist podcast lists and is meant to entertain, make people laugh and inspire them to create art and make a living out of being an artist. I am extremely proud to have realized my dream of being a full-time, professional artist and to inspire people with my art and vision!
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
There are so many rewarding aspects of being an artist, but I will highlight one here. I love that art can be such a cathartic process and help us to express our humanity and deepest thoughts, feelings and emotions. I also love that this expression can then reach out to and resonate with another human being. It then becomes not only an expression of the artist, but also of the viewer. It is so interesting and rewarding to then see your work through another person’s eyes and experience and have them reflect this back to you. I find that I am constantly discovering elements in my work that I was not previously aware existed, and all because of the experience of the viewer. Art is so interesting in that way. Once it leaves the creation of the artist, it becomes a part of the public consciousness and takes on a new and ever-evolving life that can go on forever. It changes and adapts as the culture and human experience does, but also serves as a time-capsule from the era in which it was created. I find that so inspiring and endlessly fascinating.
Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?
A story that comes to mind to highlight my resilience is that of art saving my life. I had experienced some darkness in my childhood that caused me problems in my life as a young adult. I found myself struggling, depressed, hopeless and self-medicating to get through my days. I was not fully aware of the feelings and darkness that I had been repressing, but my art served as a mechanism to work through these issues in a cathartic way. It was a process that took more than a decade, but little by little, my art chipped away at my subconscious and helped me to deal with the problems I had been pushing down and covering up. You could (and still can) see these struggles in my older figurative works and I am so thankful for them. As I continued to work on myself through my art and beyond, my life began to open up and become more joyful and spiritual. As my life became brighter, so did the themes and colors of my artwork! I transitioned from figurative work into vibrant and colorful abstract paintings, that I still create to this day. My life and art truly had become a process of moving from darkness into light. My art still allows me to dip back into emotions and issues that I have not fully processed and work at them. I no longer see this darkness as a hopeless, depressing force, but rather as a fuel for my creative fire now. It is a profound process and continues to drive me and give me purpose to this day. I can honestly say that I don’t know where I would be today without my art and creative process. I now like to share this inspiration and creative energy on my podcast. I want to help other artists avoid this darkness and hopelessness by sharing my story and helping them to smile and even laugh a bit!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.pmsartwork.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pmsartwork
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pmsartwork
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/preston-m-smith-pms-69079144/
- Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/pmsartwork
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/pmsartwork
- Other: https://www.pmsartwork.com/podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-living-artist/id1502469424
Image Credits
All selected images are taken by my wife and myself from the studio. No credit is necessary.