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

Wade, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

For the past few years I have been fortunate to be working full time as a creative. It has been a very long process to get to this point in my life to be honest. I have attempted to go full time as an artist about 3 or 4 times. Every time I would recommit to doing it and would inevitably end up having to get some kind of job to pay the bills. All the same, each attempt I learned a lot about how to conduct and run myself as a business and each time I would recommit those attempts would go a bit further and earn me a little more than the last time. I would say one of the biggest hurdles I have had to overcome was learning to do the non artistic work, all of the “office work” that goes into conducting a small business. As an artist it’s hard to sit down and not paint something but it all leads to the same end goal and is just as vital as the creating itself.

Wade, 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?

As the artist FISH I began in Austin Texas about 10 years ago putting up stickers and wheat pastes in town and on the various running paths around and throughout the city. Eventually that grew as I met more in my community and I began painting walls and small pieces with a group in town. Since those days I have provided works of art on canvas, painted various vehicles, and murals. I have been blessed to work with clients such as Toyota, X-Games, and others. While working on these projects I was able to help by pushing and pulling the ideas and concepts the clients wanted to convey and was able to deliver a product that everyone was proud of, in the case of Toyota the Rav-4 that was painted during the US Skateboard Competition still sits in the showroom of the LA headquarters.

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

Being able to work from home. I get to spend more time with my daughter and wife and set our own schedule as opposed to working on someone else’s time. Of course there is more distractions and that can be strenuous at times but the work always gets done so we are able to spend more time living. I find that in order to be a creative it is important to absorb as much of the world as I can and then in turn reproduce my own version of that in the work. So going out and just living is a major part of my creative process.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

Being inspired by art early in my life led me to make a lot of preconceptions that were never really true. I’ve had the opportunity to paint alongside a lot of older painters and I listened to a lot of what they had to say. It was a lot of what you would imagine; “The kids these days….” or “If you want to move up in the scene you gotta do……” there was always some kind of odd list I had to accomplish in order to be taken seriously by my peers. Turns out that was all nonsense, not that its not important to know and understand a lot of these about the culture but it certainly isn’t the end all be all they made it out to be in those days. It has sunk in very recently that there is absolutely no road map to your destination. Sure there are probably plenty of people who have gone down that path before but you have to find the way you’re going to do it. So I have had to unlearn that “checklist to success” I thought I had to follow in some way in order to succeed but after so many years of seeing others and myself move through life you I have come to realize the only thing you need to do is never quit.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.manwithpencil.com
• Instagram: www.instagram. com/manwithpencil
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/manwithpencil

Image Credits
artist photo: @darkmode.photo