Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sage Helperman. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sage, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

When I was a a young kid, I wanted to be an astronaut. Then, I wanted to be a surgeon. Then, for some reason, I wanted to become a cartoonist.

I think the artistic spark in me first originated when I was a in elementary school and started watching the cartoon show “The Simpsons”. I knew I wanted to become a cartoonist when I was watching that show every night at 6 pm on my local TV station. Matt Groening, the creator of the show, has always been my “hero”. Even my “human” drawings look like Simpsons characters, which was purposeful. I studied all of his works, including the comic strip “Life in Hell”, which was my education in how to make a comic strip.

My “cartoonist” journey was later aided by the Stephen Pastis comic strip “Pearls Before Swine”. I loved that series so much, that every time a new book of strips came out, I would send an e-mail message to the creator, saying that I liked the new book. Stephen even sent me an original drawing of my favorite character “Rat” in the mail for my birthday!

I also recall reading a lot of Disney comic digest books when I was younger also. These were miniature magazines with a variety of Disney comic books or short stories. I think those inspired me a lot to an extent but didn’t realize it at the time.

I wasn’t sure I wanted to be an artist at all initially. My dream was to be a cartoonist and have a cool cartoon television series on the air.

I think my first actual foray into art was when I started listening to a lot of Grateful Dead music, and going to music concerts. The “pyschedelia” and free-spirit of the band and it’s surrounding fan culture caused my overall art style to change from mostly political cartoons with talking animals to swirling geometric shapes in space. The psychedelic spirit of the music literally changed me as a person, and my art followed suit.

When I was about 12 or 13 years old, I was at a small music festival in Denver, Colorado called “Dancing in the Streets”. There was this one live painter guy that would perform his art on stage with almost every band that played. Except one thing, he would always wipe down the art board he was working on with a cloth, and start a whole new piece on a clean slate. Sometimes, he would do this several times in one set! I was actually extremely impressed with this method, and always had respect for live painting after that.

Later on when I was about 19 years old, I figured the easiest way to get my art out there was to be a live painter. I’ve been in a handful of gallery shows over the years, but the politics of the art world can be discouraging to say the least. Live painting gives you the opportunity to create art for a public audience, while listening to great music.

While I am a live painter and enjoy the heck out of it, I still truly am a cartoonist at heart. I still want to somehow get a cool cartoon TV show on the air sometime. I feel like my life would be complete then.

Overall, without over-explaining myself, this is a summarized story of how and why I became an artist.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am a live painter, visual artist, graphic designer, cartoonist, photographer, writer, and musician.

I dabble in a little bit of everything, but visual art is my main service that I provide. I create works of art at music concerts while the band plays on stage, hence “live painting”. I have been doing that since 2015. I estimate to have live-painted at over 200 events in the past 8 years or so of doing it.

I am also a graphic designer for hire, and I always try to create the best possible product for my clients, whoever those may be and what they need in terms of graphic design.

I have been a semi-professional photographer for a number of “horse shows” and even did it as a freelance side-job when I was a teenager. My mom would usually do some kind of equestrian horse riding at a horse park, and I would offer my services to parents, kids, and professionals looking for good photographs of them riding their horses, or jumping them in one of the events of the day. It was great practice in how to be a good photographer, for me personally.

As explained earlier, I am truly a cartoonist at heart but also an artist. I’ve done numerous music shows as a live painter, and a handful of gallery shows.

Even though visual art is my main “go-to”, I’ve always had a knack for writing. I love to write. Sometimes, I actually consider myself to be a “writer that draws”. I’ve written 3 seasons and 2 movies of a cartoon that I hope to produce in the future.

I have been a guitarist for 14 years also. I am not professional at it, but have played some gigs as an opening act for bands, or as a part of special event where the music is in the background. I have not been keeping track but if you count “open jams”, I have played about 50 or more concerts since 2015.

Hope this gives you insight into what I do, and why I do it. I just can’t do one thing only, that would be boring. I need to be doing several things at once to keep my mind and hands occupied.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

The most rewarding part of being an artist, for me, is when you finally finish that piece of art you’ve spent hours on. The feeling of accomplishment I get from finishing art is very rewarding, and motivates me to create more art, or improve my techniques.

Being involved in the live painting scene, I think another rewarding aspect of art is the number of cool and interesting people you meet at music concerts while creating art. I can say that I’ve met and connected with a number of awesome people who have helped me on my artist journey, more than any business marketing class or paid promotion can do. Organic and grassroots marketing.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

I think having more opportunities for artists to “get paid” to do what they love is essential. Art used to have more importance in society back then, and the modern world has sorted of killed that prospect. It seems like the only way to make it as an artist successfully, is either being a great freelancer, good luck and charisma, or simply having a day job (as depressing as that sounds).

More ability for creatives to make a sustainable living with their craft is a hopeful, but not impossible dream. I believe that with more emphasis on things artists can do to make money with their creative skills, more affordable housing for artistic types (like residencies and artist-specific apartments), can also be helpful in giving artists a stable avenue to make their art without also going hungry, and possibly homeless.

I also think that we should try to eliminate the stigma around being an artist. Sometimes people hear the word “artist” and automatically create a lot of assumptions in their head about artists in general. It may not be the best way to make money or a living, but if we discourage artists on purpose, it only harms them in general. Sure, be realistic with your goals and dreams, but remain hopeful and determined. If you put the energy out there, the “universe” gives it back to you.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.sagehelperman.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sagehelperman/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sagehelperman/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/HelpermanTube