We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sean McGill a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Sean, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about the things you feel your parents did right and how those things have impacted your career and life.
I was raised by a strong and resilient single mother and that taught me a lot more than I could’ve ever realized as a youth. After our family relocated to the desert seeking better opportunities, my mom worked two jobs and anything in between to keep us above water. She was very transparent with our situation growing up. Although money never came easy, she made ends meet through hardwork and alot of personal sacrifice. I believe a good work ethic is something you gain thru experience, and growing up in that struggle has truly given me the appreciation for the value of a dollar. Understanding the effort it takes to earn it and realizing the weight and expectation of the client that pays it.
I’ve spent my adult life in sales, but selling myself and my art has always been a daunting task. As I’ve progressed I have adopted standardized pricing that I feel is equal to the quality and effort I put forth. At the end of the day an honest days work earns an honest days pay, no matter what the market does or what the new guy on the scene is charging. Honesty and integrity gets you a good night’s sleep every time and I can’t thank my mom enough for instilling those values in my brother and I growing up.
Sean, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
A good friend equated my skillset to that of “misspent youth” and I don’t think he’s that far off. I moved to West Phoenix as a pre-teen from rural Michigan and saw my first graffiti tag on a wall as we wheeled our Uhaul through Maryvale. From that point on, I was in love. Thankfully, I was able to direct that passion into a mural art group in high school creating aerosol based street art work for local anti-tobacco campaigns. Early on, I learned what it takes to create a proposal, pour your young heart and soul into sketches and ideas and eventually get shot down. The rejection was brutal but the experience of those lessons were immeasurable.
My brand is a bit all over the place, as I work with variety of commission requests and concentrate my art more towards client satisfaction, so the work genre itself varies greatly. I carry strict graffiti traditions with my artwork, no stencils, no brushes, no projectors, no shortcuts. It’s difficult for the sake of discipline, and each piece is 100% unique as a result. I have been fortunate to have clients request that I freely fill their space with no guidelines or suggestions and I’ve also worked with strict limits and guideline restrictions with others, I welcome the challenges of both sides of the spectrum.
Like I had mentioned, I’ve spent my day life in sales but my artwork is an offered service. I’m not in the business of pushing my agenda or “selling” a client on my vision. The best work I’ve created is always collaborative, I’ll meet and mine for ideas and themes with a client and in that shared excitement we create something that falls in line with their vision. I pride myself in being versatile in a lot of different styles to meet any clients needs. I can typically find a size compromise to meet a price point, but remain unwavering to reduce my value to meet a budget. That being said, I’ve walked away from more opportunities than I’ve taken on if I don’t find them to be mutually beneficial. There’s no hard feelings, it’s just part of the business.
We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?
I attended a graphic design school for a short stint right out of high school and I wasn’t in the right mindset or level of maturity to take full advantage of the opportunity. I had a lot of ego that hindered me from receiving criticism on my work and that prohibited me from following the processes to gain those new skills. Had I taken this more seriously when I was younger I think I would’ve realized my potential in this field to start my art career a lot sooner.
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
When I first started, I would snag any opportunity I could get my hands on in the pursuit of some quick cash or notoriety. The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that I can’t do art for the money. I feel like any gig I’ve done solely to fill my wallet took a little piece of me away from the work. If I’m putting in the effort and sharing this part of myself, it needs a reward larger than monetary. I need to be proud of any and everything I put my name on. Honestly, there’s a lot of client ideas out there, and they’re not all winners, if we can’t find common ground to bring the vision to life and be happy with the result, I am more than happy to recommend another artist for the project. You have to be confident in your skills, true to your value, and trust your gut to politely decline and move on.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: Instagram.com/imakethepainting