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

Tyler, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

I had always been into music and art from an early age. Since middle school I had been in bands creating music in multiple genres, but found more success once I began producing dance music and DJing. On the side of making music I was painting and pursuing a degree in Fine Arts in Painting and Sculpture.

After completing my degree I still didn’t really see the purpose in my paintings, but rather I moved down to Los Angeles continuing doing music. After a break up, I turned back to painting and found new life and meaning in my paintings. After a year or so of painting my Instagram began getting far more attention than I ever thought.

It started to become a serious profession once people started asking to purchase my artwork. And to my shock it continued despite my artwork becoming more experimental and dark. I was still working a full time job and a part time job, and spending my little free time painting, while my social media and gallery shows continue growing over a couple years. But still I never really thought of it as a full time career till the pandemic happened and I was at a cross roads. It was either commit to my artwork or continue in a job that was all to eager to risk their employee’s lives to make them another dollar. I launched fully into my art career.

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

I am an artist from the San Francisco Bay Area and work in Los Angeles. I primarily working in Oil paint making expressionistic pieces. Any collector or fan should know my work span several different series, but the main defining features are my focus on portraits, emotion, and humanity/inhumanity. This can be simply put on the idea of Humanism. This Humanist ideals comes from the intersection of many of my interests in the Punk and Noise music scenes, progressive politics, love of avant-garde art of the 20th century, history, and my Hawaiian and Irish ancestry. That is why my artwork focuses on universal features to express humanity and emotion while feeling personal to collectors and fans.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding aspect of being an artist is being able to connect with people all around the world. The full spectrum of cultures, religions, genders, races, of people, but yet we all feel the same feelings. It is sharing that universal connection of human experience that gives me the little bit of hope in a world seemingly wanting to dehumanize us all daily.

In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?

Society could provide programs like during the New Deal that guarantees a wage for creatives while utilizing their craft. What people could do for artists is pretty simple valuing their work and giving a fair rate for work. When I was struggling to pay off debt and rent on two jobs, art was always just a side thing. I rarely slept, ate horribly, and was constantly stressed out. But when I began making more money from my art I could focus on my art rather than everything else.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.tylerscully.com
• Instagram: www.instagram.com/specters_art
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/specters
• Twitter: www.threads.com/specters_art