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

Scott, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Are you happier as a creative? Do you sometimes think about what it would be like to just have a regular job? Can you talk to us about how you think through these emotions?

If the question were simply “am I happier in this job than I was in other jobs” the answer woul be a definite unwavering ‘yes’. I do also consider myself incredibly lucky. I worked hard, but certain things were in place for me to be able to carve out this kind of career for myself and I recognize that privilege

That being said, I do find that there is an inherent and unavoidable conflict when something creative is what you depend on for a living, especially if individual projects don’t net you the amount of funding to float you comfortably for months. Most full-time creatives find themselves in a place where there is continuous need to create, to sell yourself, to create merchandise. And the honest truth is that sometimes this unflinching current can damage the hunger and drive to create for the sake of itself.

There are many negative aspects of our current society that wiggle their little tentacles into the life of being a full time creative. Social media relevance or decline. The fact that that has real world consequences in how collectors and fans can see or purchase your work. The prospect of an injury to your hand or eye leaving you without a fallback. Art becoming a very optional and less sought after commodity when the economy declines. The development of AI with many people touting that its a tool designed to make work, even for creatives, easier, completely missing the point of joy in creating itself. Don’t get me wrong. I do use tools like projectors and ipads to streamline my process but none of them rob me of the process of drawing what I want to paint with my own hand from scratch.

There have been many cultural waves that have impacted my career in good and bad ways when it comes to financial security. Last year I had my best month ever in my ten year career. Three months later I had the worst.

Ive talked to many friends who share this feeling of a beast always gnashing at your heels. Like “Ive been doing this for x amount of years but maybe next month is the last job I ever get” haha. Many have had to get day jobs as well over time. But while it’s easy to say “I wish I had the dependability of a regular job” – people do get laid off. People frequently have very specific skill sets, get let go, and then struggle to find another job for some time. I think there is a bit of mental trickery there when it comes to security. Grass is greener and what not

At the end of the day the silver lining that won’t disappear is that I never have to quit this job. It’s always here. I can always do it in my off time. But that being said – I don’t have plans anytime soon to pursue another job and hope to do this until I retire.

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

I started drawing when I was around 10, inspired by Spawn comics. My interest in drawing persisted through years but I struggled greatly with discipline and mainly used it as an escape from school. I have clinically diagnosed OCD and general anxiety. It was something that wore heavy on me as a child and teenager. I was honestly baffled, since age 8 or so, at the prospect that we all live, and die, and lose everyone we know. Not the greatest thing for a kid to be preoccupied with! Haha

I think this fixation, that felt stuck to me like wet clothes, along with my general disdain for the expectations of what existing in the work force (I worked retail and service industry for about 10 years) and what those prospects looked like for a kid who didn’t do well in school and had no idea what he wanted to do led me to my ten or so year series of drug addictions that climaxed with a 3-year heroin addiction. Like I honestly think my OCD led me to drugs, but the terrible existence of working fast food for years, kept me there. The majority of your day is spent working severely underpaid to the profit of someone else and often being treated terribly by your management and customers. Escape is a must off the clock

I got clean at age 27, in 2012, and in the space that I made trying to get back in touch with who I was or wanted to be, drawing and painting came back to me in a big way. Over time it became this thing that I anchored myself to as a reminder of what I knew I would lose if I relapsed. Not a career, but having passion for anything at all.

This went on as a hobby/therapy/anchor to sobriety for a couple of years until I started teaching myself how to spray paint and then seemingly in a matter of months, I was being paid to do it.

I got into this at simultaneously the golden age of street art and when social media was at its best. Before pay walls and throttled reach. Ads and 80% of posts from people you don’t follow etc. It was really easy and fluid to network, meet clients, make friends and grow my career. It was a really special time. That’s not to say that artists can’t succeed now or anything. It’s just one of the few things as a man approaching 40 that I do look back at with rose-colored glasses.

I think it was a trip I took to Colombia in 2013, my first time doing something like that for myself, that really cemented in myself that I wanted to do this more seriously. I had been having some artist block and saved up money over 6 months. I went for 5 weeks with my best friend and when I came back I felt so inspired and eager to create. Now it’s 11 years later and I’ve painted murals in many countries and about half the states in the country.

Over the years my style developed and became focused on animals mostly in bright colors. I’ve really enjoyed learning about light and glows and blending surreal with realism and cartoon styles. I’m always trying to evolve and change as well.

Nature, the human condition and addiction have all been focuses of my art, though I try not to be too on the nose with my messaging aside from some of my overt political designs. I create stickers, pins, shirts, paintings, and drawings but my favorite thing to do bar none is murals. Getting to use my body and impact an environment – become part of it. It’s my favorite thing. From kid’s bedrooms to breweries, small towns in Mongolia and most recently, an installation for Meow Wolf, which I’m super excited about and opens this October 31st.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

I said before that I try really hard to evolve and grow my style. I think recently it became clear how it can be a trap sometimes .

The best example I can give is that the advice I usually give newer artists trying to “find a style” is to spend time privately emulating people that they admire. Learn how to do things that they do. Then add to it. Change it. Reverse it etc. Or maybe take one element and mash it with something else. I think this can give younger artists some new ways of approaching their work or to see how other people solve the problems of say certain textures, color, etc.

Over time, my recommendation, is to put more and more of yourself and less and less of your influences into your art and then bing bang boom you have your style.

I think that while I gave this advice, at a certain point, I didn’t realize that in a couple of moments, I was unconsciously shedding my own unique style in favor of things I saw that I thought were cool, or maybe I felt like ” I want to be the kind of artist that makes this” and thats not to say that you can’t pivot or change, but I think my motivation was coming from the wrong place.

I specifically remember getting some advice from a big artist about my style and it’s something I listened to for a long time. My skills improved while I kept doing that one thing and one day I was like wait…I like the way I used to do it and man, I had such a strong feeling of “trust yourself” when I reverted back and saw the original technique with my new level of skill. He was wrong. At least in my opinion. And that’s what matters about my art. I felt really weird about the fact that I listened to that advice for so long.

It’s like in the same breath humility can help you learn, but it can also rob you of faith in yourself. I don’t think it’s always easy to tell which is which.

Have you ever had to pivot?

I eluded to this in the first question about cultural changes that affected me. But my career went from a side job to a full time job when enamel pins blew up in popularity.

For about 4 years, I made 70% of my income from pins. There was a very large community around them and a secondary market that I was lucky to become a sought after artist in. I still have a community around them but for reference, in 2017-2021 I would release about 400 pins a month and almost always sell them out immediately. Now I release maybe 400 a year and they rarely sell out completely.

It’s still profitable and some artists still have immense hype behind them but it just isnt what it used to be.

Luckily, I read the writing on the wall for a while and knew I needed to stay diverse and not put all my eggs in that basket. That paid off because while I was creating pins, demand for my murals went up and up. While not as consistent as pins and a bit harder work. It’s what I love doing, so I was happy.

I began a large pivot toward creating youtube content in 2021 and went hard at that for about a year. I had intended to commit to that and was on track for that to become another source of income until an electrical fire burned down our duplex in 2022.

Everything we had to do to rebuild our life then – I didn’t have time to also film and edit video of every job I’ve had. So then recently I’ve started learning to tattoo under another professional artist’s mentorship

Right now mural work, merch, commissions and Patreon (stickers,prints and giveaways every month) keep me going, but I am always looking at other ways I can diversify so that I am not dependent on the success of one specific area of my trade.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.tarboxtarbox.com
• Instagram: @tarboxx2
• Youtube: @TarboxArt
• Other: PatreonPatreon.com/tarbox