We recently connected with Sean Ricks and have shared our conversation below.

Sean, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Earning a full time living from one’s creative career can be incredibly difficult. Have you been able to do so and if so, can you share some of the key parts of your journey and any important advice or lessons that might help creatives who haven’t been able to yet?

This is as good a place as any to start.

I’ve been making a full time living with my art, and my art adjacent works for many years now. It’s always been easy for me to do anything creative, and, since I’m also a fantastic salesperson, I’ve learned unique ways to monetize my work.

I wanted to sell more original paintings… so I wrote a novel. Now you might be asking yourself, how in the world do the two correlate? I wrote the novel so I could create the card game, I created the card game so I could put my original paintings on it and get more exposure for my work.

I had no idea just how popular the card game would get, and I hadn’t a clue how many other talented artists would want to become a part of it… That’s the basis of how I created the iMagi – Kingdom of Thor Card Game.

Sean, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I am a Utah based artist who works across a variety of genres such as: fantasy, pop culture, Dutch Impressionism, and traditional landscapes. My paintings have been featured on book covers, novel maps, card games, business advertising, and large murals in Logan Utah.

I’ve always had the ability to bring groups of people together. This has helped me professionally as I attend conventions and speak. Some of the places I’ve been invited to are Miscon in Missoula Mt, Radcon in Pasco Wa, and Utah FanX.

If you see me at one of these places, come up and say hi. I love talking to my fans.

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 have a fairly dim view of NFT’s. Much like the people chasing the mythical “Million Dollar Painting Sale” in New York… NFT’s are increasingly being used for money laundering and the fake art world.

Every time you hear about “that one guy” who sold a painting on the NFT markets for a million dollars… you should expect to uncover that it’s really a money laundering scheme to avoid the tax-man.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

In the early days I was working toward growing my art business, and selling more original paintings through the convention circuits… Now that I’ve created a card game taking the gaming industry by storm… My goals have changed to advertising, and growing the iMagi Card Game.

I’ve been super excited and lucky to have some talented artists working with me, such as:
• Rob Carlos
• Michael Brugger
• Jeff Sturgeon
• Cheyenna Krone
• Matthias Ward
• Nathan Shumate
• Elaine Ricks
• Andy VanOverberghe
• and of course myself.

There are a few others I could mention, but they are still in contract negotiation with me. We are always looking for more creative genius’ who would like to be part of our journey.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.imagicardgame.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/seannathanricks instagram.com/imagi.card.game

Image Credits
These photos were taken by my cousin Daniel Ricks.