We were lucky to catch up with Thomas Ramey recently and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Thomas, thanks for joining us today. 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?

I do earn a full-time living from my work. Probably not the full time living most people would consider stable. Lol I think it’s really more so the art of being self-employed.
When I was younger, I was a touring musician. Had a few full time jobs. Some part time jobs.
I learned early that all those jobs were terrible. I was just losing my most valuable asset, my time. Making someone else much more money than they were paying me in return.
As a touring musician you learn to live on scraps so to speak. At some point you start understanding what matters to you most. What truly makes you happy. What you are willing to sacrifice to do those things all the time. I never cared about having lots of money or impressing anyone. The only thing that made me happy was being creative. Or trying. Coming up with an idea. Then seeing if I could figure out how to make that idea a reality. I studied furniture design the one year I sort of went to art school. Furniture and architecture were really my first loves as an artist.
I started designing and building small furniture pieces mainly because I wanted them and needed furniture. I couldn’t afford the pieces I liked. So, I designed my own. My friends liked them so much they started offering me money for them. I needed money, they wanted the pieces. Seemed like a good fit. I started sharing a studio with another metal artist who only worked during the day.
Perfect for me, I’m a night owl. My first studio was in the historic Stutz car factory buildings in Indianapolis Indiana. There were interior designers, architects, and other artists in the building. I just hung out there all the time. Meeting people. Making anything I could. People started seeing my work from there and the open house events. I started driving around in my van with my coffee tables and furniture to high end furniture stores in Indianapolis. Then driving four hours to Chicago to ask stores if they did consignments with designers and makers. This was the late 90’s. Within a year I was making more money than I had ever made at any of the jobs I had. So, for me it felt like I was winning all around. Doing what I wanted, making better money than I ever had. I ended up taking over that studio and just worked all the time.

I started meeting more interior designers and contractors who were looking for people to do custom architectural work. Made friends with another great artist that was doing big projects. I had no real idea how to do any of the work people were asking me about. I grew up around engineers and artists. I was an apprentice at a machine shop through high school. I learned a lot about making anything there. Fixing all kinds of mechanical things. I was a certified motorcycle tech out of high school. I knew I could figure it out. Or I knew people who could help me figure it out.

In 2004 I moved to Los Angeles to be around my dad and grandmother. I hit the ground running.
Went to design expos in Santa Monica, downtown LA. Conventions that had anything to do with architecture or interior design. Handed out cards and post cards with images of my work on them. Joined the Los Angeles chapter of the Interior Design association. Went to meetings. Drove around to high end furniture stores asking if they did consignments.
I got lucky and met a couple architects my age that were working in Malibu. They had been searching for a metal artists to do projects. We clicked, and from that I met a ton of other people who needed projects done. It’s the old saying, “you find work when you’re working”.

Moving to LA was a big step. I learned a lot working in Chicago and Indianapolis. If you don’t do crazy wild adventurous things, crazy wild adventurous things will never happen.
Along the way I learned to wear a lot of hats. I feel like some artists sort of get into a kind of tunnel vision with the work they do or see they can do. I have a wide variety of things I can do with design, fabrication, architecture, sculpture. I picked up a few things along the way like my California General Contractors License. Being an artist and being an entrepreneur feel very similar.
I’m always trying to learn and grow. Be more valuable as a person and artist. I don’t understand how people can survive just knowing how to do one thing. My grandfather was a jet propulsion engineer.
He told me when I was really young, “the more you know how to do, the more value you have.”
That I should learn how to do as much as possible. Later in life I related that to multiple streams of income. If the furniture isn’t selling, maybe the sculpture will. Or I can do an architectural project. Or just weld stuff for people. As long as I’m in my studio, being me, the projects or work are all still me. I get bored easily. So, I don’t mind doing different things. Everyone can look back with 20/20 vision and say, well if I had done this, or done that. I’d be further along or have more money or whatever. But the reality is you don’t know that. I really try not to force things. I’ve learned over the years, if it’s a fight the whole time, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it at all. As with any relationship.
When I was in that first studio that I shared with another artist. I was really struggling to figure out what to do. I was at a bar with some friends and ended up talking with a friend. She asked me what I wanted to do or be. I told her I wanted to be an artist. She said, “well start telling people that’s what you are. Pretty soon that’s what people will know you as.” I thought that was pretty crazy at the time. But I did it. And it worked. The part she left out that I had to figure out for myself was, I needed to convince myself that’s what I was first. I had to believe in myself before anyone else could. If you don’t believe it, it’s really hard for anyone else to.

Thomas, 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 have always loved making things. I grew up on Legos. In high school I was an apprentice for an Indy Car Racing fabrication shop. I watched and learned from some of the most skilled builders and fabricators. Our shop hosted teams from Italy, France, Belgium. It was a really great experience. I knew after seeing what people could build, I wanted to build, create.
I learned welding, sheet metal work, and basic machining there. I was very fortunate.
I was always interested in architecture and design. How things were made and worked. The mechanics of it all.
I started designing and building furniture first. Out of need and curiosity. Had a few furniture design classes in art school. My first design and fabricated works were furniture. Coffee tables were always really fun. I made cabinets with stained glass. I designed table sets that were one off pieces. Beds. The furniture got me introduced to the interior design community. Where I was courted more for custom design work on architectural projects.
Having opportunities to do projects with budgets was a new concept for me. A direction I really wanted to go. Over the 20 plus years of custom architectural work, I have changed what I can, and do offer as a service. My hands on experience has also changed what I feel confident I bring to a project.
I have moved into a position now where I can also offer consulting, I do 3-d renderings and CAD work for clients. As an artist with real-life experience not only in design and conceptualism, but also fabrication and installation. I feel I have clearly set myself apart from a lot of people. Not just artists. My heart is always that of an artist. Now having all the other skills really changes the playing field. I can communicate with other professionals on a level that only real experience allows. With Architects, contractors, engineers. It’s a good feeling. I learn a lot from everyone all the time. Which is a trait I look for in others to work with. Growing is really important. New technology, tools, ideas. Surround yourself with people who are smarter than you. It just might rub off.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

If I had to say what part of being an artist is most rewarding, I’d say, the freedom. I get to be me.
I get to have the time to grow. Not only as an artist, but as a person. I see a lot of my friends with 9-5 jobs stuck in this cycle of never enough time to do anything other than repeat the same day 5 days a week. Then the weekends are filled with unrealistic schedules of catch up. Little sleep and tons of stress. Not that being self employed isn’t stressful. Just a different kind of stress. Artists are the most dangerous people in the world. We have time to think. To figure things out. To see the world for what it is. We interact with all levels of sociality. We are the rebellion. A hundred years from now people will see this time through the eyes of the art that was created. Be it sculpture, dance, painting. We are the truth tellers of our times. A reflection of where our culture was while we were alive. Being even a micro part of that, seems pretty cool to me.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I feel like I’ve had to pivot career/life wise multiple times. Right out of high school I went to technical school to be a motorcycle tech. I did that for 6 or 7 years. But I was in Indianapolis. So, 4 to 6 months a year I was struggling to make ends meet. One winter I applied for a job at a music store that repaired musical instruments. I figured if I could rebuild motorcycle engines, I could rebuild a saxophone. I got hired. Within 6 months I had mastered clarinet repair and was running the saxophone repair section of the woodwind shop. No more not making money during the winters. Then when I started getting back into welding and fabrication, I started designing things I wanted to build. I studied all the designers I liked. From furniture to architecture. I started with furniture. Spent a couple years there. Was able to get my own studio and run it full time. Then as people started asking me about architectural projects, I jumped back into reading and studying the styles I liked, and the styles people were asking me about doing for them. I moved to just doing architectural work. Spent a few years doing that in Indianapolis and Chicago. Then decided I wanted to move somewhere warm. Got a job off craigslist working with a furniture designer in L.A. and moved to California. My buddy I was working for, sold the idea of his business to The Discovery Channel as a reality show. Then we did a season, 10 episodes about his aircraft inspired art and furniture. After that I wanted to be back on my own. So, I opened a studio in L.A. Through contacts from my buddy, tv stuff, and promoting myself at design conventions in L.A., I started getting work. Spent the next 7 or 8 years working just on architectural projects in places like Malibu, and Pacific Palisades. During this time, I started doing more sculpture. Which lead me to working with a friend’s art gallery and then submitting ideas for a major sculpture park. I ended up getting my first major public art commission. So, in my life I have pivoted from, motorcycles tech., to saxophone repair tech., to furniture designer/fabricator, to tv personality, to architectural design and fabrication, to sculptor. With a Contractors License thrown in there.
All of these pivots have been because I was seeing opportunities and needed to make a living. I have stepped out of my comfort zone more times than most people I know have stepped out of the cities they grew up in. I call all of these multiple streams of income. If the art isn’t selling, I can make furniture, or do architectural projects. The more you know how to do, the better your chances of survival. I see pivoting as just being able to multitask. But on a bigger scale. The wind doesn’t always blow from the south. Being flexible in life and career seems like a very positive way of adjusting to the ever-changing world. There’s an old boxing term, “you gotta learn to bob and weave”. Seems pretty fitting for general life.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.thomasrameyart.com
• Instagram: @dreadedartist
• Facebook: Thomas Ramey Art