We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Rex Mohammad a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Rex, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. The first dollar you earn is always exciting – it’s like the start of a new chapter and so we’d love to hear about the first time you sold or generated revenue from your creative work?
I turned my first dollar from creative tomfoolery in 7th grade. It was a fertile time and it was just about every gym class I made $5-$10 by drawing Chinese dragons, Mickey Mouse and Tweetie Bird on my friends with ballpoint pens and permanent markers. I’d start on my own shins and calves and my peers would stop and go, Ooohhh, make me one!
It’s totally still a rad, functional business model – advertise on yourself!
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?
I entered the creative industry quite by accident. I wasn’t aware I was all that good until the hoots, hollers and imitators came and flattered me up. The drawing came about as a way to compensate for my visual hunger and subsequent deprivation. Even to this day, what drives me to draw is a starvation for an image that nobody else has made – which is a rough go but also what really pushes me forward from everyone else.
It’s a truly rough go because the Internet is such a buffet of stuff to see and I literally have to take fasts off it.
But the end result is often Chef’s Kiss fantastic. When I draw or paint what I draw and paint, people are generally incredibly happy and give me things, like good energy, their time, and money. It’s a vibe, it’s my pride.
I just want people to see what I’ve been wanting to see. I wholesale enjoy the attention, with the hope that I was one of those roses they tell you to stop and smell.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I lost my home of nine years in December of 2023. Long story short, money ran low and I wasn’t prepared. Short story longer, the world has been my trust fund for most of my life and so has my father, who also has terminal cancer. I can change my own clothes, just haven’t really balanced a budget.
The resilient part of my story is the part where I’m still in a place where I can write this interview with more than half my mind left. Turns out I have a lot more resources, a lot more friends, and a lot more of an ability to connect things than I thought I did!
Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.
There’s nobody who’s really so deprived as to be non-creative. Being creative is just as simple as changing the way something gets perceived, by yourself or by a bigger audience.
Creativity is for everybody.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://rxmoart.crd.co/
- Instagram: @rxmoart
- TikTok: @rxmoart