We were lucky to catch up with Robert Bentley recently and have shared our conversation below.

Robert, appreciate you joining us 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?

Well, it’s more of a question of sustaining your work. Most creative people know, at first, that you’ll most likely be doing a job you’re not passionate about to sustain your life as an artist. This often, unfortunately leads to the creative, backing off of their passion because ya know, the bills don’t pay themselves. I’ve done all kinds of odd jobs, made my way through the service industry, even got my foot in the door as a sushi chef for 6 years. I went to college for art, but I’ve spent most of my adulthood doing a job that only requires a high school diploma. Luckily that job was screen printing, and I majored in printmaking in College. For a decade I’ve been in the commercial textile printing trade. Worked my way up from the bottom. Since leaving high school, I’ve been a mural painter and graphic designer on the side for that entire time. I came up in Graffiti, and spent most of my free time on that. I eventually came to the logical conclusion that I should be using those skills for money. This however, combined with lots of unfortunate life circumstances, led to burnout from doing mostly artwork that others wanted, rather than them wanting my work. So for many years, I hadn’t been creative for myself. These past 2 years, I’ve mostly stepped back from doing commercial commissioned works, only breaking that rule for clients who give me full creative control. Through this, I brought my personal creativity back into full swing, and it’s almost an entire second job. My current series “Day Dreams & Intrusive Thoughts” will be on display at Mystery Fun Club in Fountain Square, Indy; November 1st for first Friday. Going full time as an artist just isn’t a reality for most creatives. I’m 35, married, have a mortgage, and not much of a safety net. ME taking the leap into full-time art is just unfeasible. So, I look for work that supplements my career as an artist. My most recent job venture, is making a leap from production printing, into education. I have recently accepted an offer to be an Elementary Art Teacher. The key for me, was redefining what a full-time living was, redefining success. Success for me, was being able to create something personally fulfilling, unhindered. A living, for me, was being able to live a creative life. Luckily in my search, I have found work that is also fulfilling, in a creative way, and because of this, I redefine that as being a full-time creative. So my overarching advice is to diversify your skills as an artist, to find whatever fulfilling work you can, in order to sustain your passion. But never step away from that passion, everything you do, is in order to keep creating for yourself.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Like I said before. I came from graffiti. I grew up in center township Indianapolis, and as early as middle school, seeing graffiti was a daily experience. I went to Short Ridge Middle School, and would get into all kinds of trouble, skateboarding home along 38th street after school. Eventually I went to Broad Ripple for High School. My freshman year was 03-04. Which means my sophomore year, while on a run of the mill skip day, I came across the very first Subsurface. Which would become the annual graffiti event for the city, for over a decade following. I fell in love. Years later I would end up participating in and printing shirts for that very event. Since I was a young kid, I knew I would be an artist. I knew I would never make it through life, not being creative. My parents knew it too, so when my art teacher at IPS school 91, Mr. Utley, told my parents I needed to be in an art program. As soon as middle school hit, I was in the Center for Performing and Visual Arts at Short Ridge Middle School. I was never a great student throughout school, could never quite dedicate any effort to subjects I wasn’t interested in, and I spent most of my time doodling. In fact it wasn’t until I managed to squeeze myself into college, and I could choose how I fill my credits, that I started to shine somewhat academically. After college, I had a few showings. did a few series’ of prints. Series of paintings. The grind had me worn down. My art started looking like home decor, because I thought that’s what would sell. All the while, the only positive feeling I got was from doing graffiti. No one telling you what to make, how to do it, where to do it. An attitude it took me far too long to realize I could apply that to my art overall. The best art isn’t made for the soul purpose of sale. The best art is coveted for sale because of its level of expression, and how the viewer interprets it. So, I decided to finally start making MY art, that is, art that’s not influenced externally, not coerced by profitability. And if no one buys it, so be it. Most artists die broke, and their legacy becomes famous afterwards. I don’t look for fame, I’m not aimed to be one of the greats. One day, if they ever make a book on midwest graffiti, or midwest art culture, I just hope I’m mentioned. It’s far more important to me to be listed as a contributor to an art or culture, than it is to be liked or selling. And since I’ve taken this stance, I’ve been able to dedicate way more time towards developing my style and aesthetic. Which has paid off. Once your reputation and style precedes you as an artist, you get way more inquiries for your style of work, or with no cap on creative control. Which leads to much more personally fulfilling works of art. I’m not the best person for business or marketing advice. I do ok. But maybe I can help others with finding that balance that allows them to create art that is personally fulfilling. I think what clients enjoy from me is a passionate and helpful attitude, and a sense of what I’m contributing to their community. My consultation is free, my creative planning for murals is often on the computer, leading to a free vectorized image that can serve as a logo for clients to use. Those little acts of service and a problem solving attitude, go a long way. Word spreads. And keeping my pricing affordable helps. Art should be accessible to all people, not a luxury only afforded to a certain class.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice

I’m a purely analog artist. Though I dabble in graphic design, my art, has had my hands on it at every stage. Even down to the serigraph prints I make of my paintings. They are created with my own hands. NFT’s seem to create a wall between the artist and product. And they come across as a tax haven rather than a work of art. Aside from these basic personal reasons, I’m pretty sure NFT’s utilize harmful datamining practices.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I am a father, with no children to show for it. 7 years ago my wife and I started the journey towards parenthood. We started with a pretty standard miscarriage, nothing to worry about. Then we had a 21 week stillborn daughter, Evelyn. Then, we had a living 24 week premie daughter, Kennedy, who we eventually lost after 7 long weeks in the Riley NICU. This had a huge impact on my creativity and mental health. I stopped creating all together. It wasn’t until the last couple years I started reinvigorating my creativity, and it has been one of the huge missing pieces in my life. Not being able to be a parent, left me without purpose, and now I’ve renewed my purpose with the need to leave another kind of legacy behind. And now I am to be a teacher, and I can help teach the next generation of artists.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/Bentley_Murals
• Instagram: @Bentley_Murals
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bentleyartanddesign

Image Credits

I hold the visual rights to all images shown.