We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Shawn Mishak a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Shawn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Alright – so having the idea is one thing, but going from idea to execution is where countless people drop the ball. Can you talk to us about your journey from idea to execution?

In the late 90s I found myself mired in and eventually moving into the bourgeoning, creative and somewhat bohemian neighborhood of Tremont. The best way to describe the neighborhood at this time was decadent and somewhat dangerous. There was an unlawful thrill in its abysmalness. Along with the danger, the environment allowed young creatives the freedom to design the aesthetic of their surroundings and create an underground cultural landscape. The rent was cheap and lots of the properties were owned by older artists who had moved into the neighborhood in the late 80s. There were all sorts of young artists and musicians who lived here. I am a musician, a visual artist and a curator and at this time I was living next to an underground recording studio. There was an album put out by a project called, “Black Arc” by audio engineer, Paul Maccarrone. It was low-fi, ethereal soundscape kind of thing. I thought it would be a great score to create visual art to, so I assigned each of the 11 tracks along with some others which were unreleased to visual artists to interpret and then had a multimedia exhibition. This show was called “All the King’s Horses.”
The show was a success and people were excited to participate in the next one. I decided to bring in other musicians and noise artists into the mix. I knew so many musicians and artists at the time, it just made sense to bring them together and this seemed like a great way to do it. I asked people to make audio scores, songs, or sound collages which were then collected and randomly assigned to visual artists to interpret visually. The track names nor the artists who created them were given to the visual artists. This was intended to be a blind collaboration. I gave the artists a few months to create a visual piece using the score which was randomly assigned to them.
Once the visual pieces were collected, they were exhibited with the corresponding audio piece which, at the time, was being played on a CD player vectored to the wall next to the corresponding art piece. At the opening of this exhibition, both the title of the audio piece and its creator’s name along with the title of the visual piece and the artist’s name were exhibited alongside one another and then everyone was jumbled into a room and was intended to be a somewhat, “meeting of the minds’ of sorts.
The visual artist and the audio artist could now come together and discuss the process. The show which started at Doubting Thomas Gallery ended up an annual exhibition at the Former Asterisks Gallery for the next 4 years.
What struck me was that a short time prior to this, it was just an idea I had in my head that no one knew about. Then seeing the excitement and vitality in the room as everyone came together towards this very open collaborative engagement allowed me to see the power of enthusiasm and manifestation. It was energizing to see and experience what one can only describe as kismet.

Shawn, 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?

Mishak is a poet, artist, writer, curator, musician, journalist and film maker. He currently covers visual arts for Cleveland Scene Magazine. He has been making art and curating art shows in Cleveland since 1999. He has curated over 100 exhibitions, events and performances in his career. His exhibitions have included titles such as, “Sex as a Drug,” “Fear and Death” and “Food.” In May of 2023 he finished the 4th of a 5-part series of group exhibitions focusing on the classical elements. His most celebrated exhibition was, “All the King’s Horses” which was an annual exhibition and a blind collaboration between artists and musicians which he spear-headed back in the early 2000s and which was an annual group exhibition for about 5 years and which he plans to bring back in 2023.

He graduated from Cleveland State University with a BA in both Studio Art and Creative Writing and is where he received a Merit Scholarship in Visual Art. He won the 2008 Cleveland State University Creative Writing Competition. He interned at The Cleveland Museum of Art in both the Education and Marketing Departments in 2008.
He has been exhibiting in Cleveland for over 20 years. He wrote and directed a feature drama, called “Long Way to Oblivion” which included an all-Cleveland cast, soundtrack and which premiered in the 35th Annual Cleveland International Film Festival, and is currently in production on a documentary film about two legendary Cleveland Musicians.
He is the principal song writer and creative force behind the Cleveland-based band, Kid Tested who have met modest success and have done some modest touring in the U.S. His work exhibits a controlled abandoned, it has been called existential, poetic and it gives the participant a feeling of unpretentious joy and exhilaration. He currently resides in the Tremont neighborhood in Cleveland, Ohio.

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

I had just recently had my first film in the 35th Annual Cleveland International Film Festival .On 12/12/2012 I was at an event called, “The End of the World Party” at the former, Now That’s Class.” I was on the way to my car when I overheard a guy on the phone talking to someone and mentioned that he had a gun and was about to shoot someone. I avoided the guy as anyone might. I was approaching the club when two other young men came out and were raising their hands up and yelling to the guy who had the gun and who was now behind me. The guy with the gun responded by yelling back.

The two young man came charging at the guy with the gun and since I was in between these two parties, therefore now, were also charging at me, As they approached me, I very calmly said to them, with my palms flat down toward the ground and in a non-threatening way, “Don’t go over there, that guy has a gun.” They responded by devoting their attention to me and began rounding me in an Irish-style boxing stance. I repeatedly informed them that I had nothing to do with this or the guy with the gun but I think they were on a bunch of drugs and I found out later had been repeatedly kicked out of the club but kept sneaking back in.

After a long while of this one of the guys cross-hooked me in the face and barely nicked me before slipping on the ice on the ground. The other guy then swung a knife at me. I responded by pulling the knife away from us both, grabbing the guy by the back of the head and smashing his face into a minivan.

Both guys were now on the ground so I quick-footed my way towards the entrance to the venue. Just when I was right in front of the club, the guy who had slipped on the ice had gotten up, ran after me and jumped on my back without me being aware. All of his weight falling on my right ankle completely shattering it on both my tibia and fibula . I ended up on the ground with my head in the street and my body on the tree lawn as the guy began punching me in the face. I looked down at my ankle and could see it laying to the d=side like a dead fish and I grabbed him by the shirt and pulled his face close to mine and as if I was his grandfather, I told his “Stop it, my ankle is broken.” At this point he stopped and began leaning on a car in front of him and as if he sobered up or came down from whatever drug he was on, began crying and said, “I don’t want to fight.” There were a couple of guys who helped me get up and stumble on one foot over to the fence and then the guy with the gun comes running down the street towards everyone who was now gathered in front of the venue shooting the gun in the air, wild west style.

I now have 6 pins and plate in my ankle and was devastated in many way by the experience but have since been able to gain a refreshed perspective on altruism and was humbled by the experience. It taught me to value the people in my life, Know that I am not invincible and to accept this incident as part of my narrative and to use what brings me down to use this gained perspective to build myself back up. I am now in production on a film based on these true-life events. I share this story to let people know that sometimes the most traumatic incidents in our lives shift our trajectory towards our intended purposes.

Alright – so here’s a fun one. What do you think about NFTs?

I have written a couple different articles addressing NFTs and there are some artists out there who have strong opinions about the digital art market and A.I. Speaking in generalities, over the years artists are constantly rebelling against new technologies and practices later to find them helpful, useful and later incorporating them into their practices. When photography was invented painters were up in arms against it, but it became its own medium and painters regularly use photography as a tool today.

NFTs seem like another revenue stream for artists and is a different market than one might find at a traditional gallery. Although their is a learning curve with them, I don’t see much of a reason not to use this as a way to connect with new audiences, and to allow one’s work to offer more residual income from future sales, This being said, the NFT world is still a bit esoteric but I see a low risk verse reward in this scenario as it stands. There are artists who have changed their lives financially using this format to reach audiences and keep in mind, you could be one of them. Lastly, none of this stops you from selling your art through more traditional mediums. I’m open minded to anything which helps artists, promote their work, make a living and helps them gain a wider audience.

Contact Info:

• Website: http://www.shawnmishak.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shnmshk/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theadore.huxtable
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawn-mishak-5b295411?original_referer=https%3A%2F%2Fduckduckgo.com%2F
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCr-xUPbfa-pQDXlICzV7VhA

Image Credits
The picture with me in a blue shirt playing guitar was taken by, Bryan Miller. The black and whit one of me with a guitar was taken by, Sean Mabin The rest of the ones of me were taken by, Tessa LeBaron, except the one of me with water being splashed on me, this can be credited to me. The other images are of my water color, photography, and collage. reach out with questions [email protected]