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

Zachary, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I honestly didn’t know I wanted to pursue an artistic path professionally for a very long time. I was just always an artistically inclined person, mainly because I grew up an only child so I was forced to cultivate hobbies and interests and was always in my head, creating and imagining things.

Even as I entered into an art college after high school (Cleveland Institute of Art), I really had no idea what I wanted to do. I honestly only enrolled because my parents really wanted me to go to college and not only was I into art, I didn’t want to have to take math or science classes, so art college made sense for me at the time.

After I graduated in 2015 with a degree in illustration, I worked many different art related jobs including being the art director for a semi-successful startup company for 2 years. It was around this time where I realized that I wanted and needed to use my creativity to earn a living, but on my own terms. It was through working these art jobs, the ones I spent 4 years in art college to qualify for where I realized that there was no such tbing as a dream job for me. Working for someone else was never a dream of mine. Getting compensated and recognized for building my own ideas and dreams was the dream. And I haven’t worked for anyone since.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

I identify as an artist, a creative, an innovator and an artistic entrepreneur. While my creativity is not limited to any medium, my main two mediums are music and visual graphic art.

I’ve been drawing all my life, in sketchbooks, on the sides of test papers, on walls and pretty much any blank area of space I saw fit. I started writing rhymes at age 9 and started taking it a bit more seriously in my later high school years where I recorded my first batch of songs and projects. By this time my drawing skills had improved to the point where I was able to create an impressive enough portfolio to be accepted to the Cleveland Institute of Art without ever even completing my ACT tests (I got the dates confused).

So with my feet wet in both my main mediums I begain my career as a professional art college student. It was during my time at CIA where I learned digital art, which would become my main way of visual expression in the years to come. I was also still recording music and releasing independent projects in the earlier years of college but put it on pause a bit as my school projects became more challenging and time consuming. During my last two years at CIA I worked my first internship as a graphic artist where I created advertising materials for companies like KFC & Long John Silvers. It was also at this time I got my first taste of freelance art work and starting my first business, a short-lived lapel pin company that me and a guy I met on Craigslist started together.

After graduating CIA in 2015 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in illustration I went head first into the local art scene by showcasing my work in exhibits, vending prints of my art and steady working on my craft. I also worked a few art jobs while also building a small clientele of people and brands who I worked for as a freelance artist. They always appreciated my unique style, efficiency and fast turnaround time.

In 2017, after some encouragement from an old high school friend I used to make music with, I began to create music again and decided to take a real shot at taking it seriously. I released a few projects, got a manager and began doing a long string of shows around Cleveland and even outside of the state. Other than the art director job I had just acquired around this time, I had pretty much put my visual art on somewhat of a hiatus to focus on music, I was 24 and felt if I was going to make it in music, the earlier the better, visual art would always be there. I began to incorporate my visual art skill to the music, though, through my artistic album covers, flyers, logos and merch so the two worlds began to kind of blend together pretty nicely. From this point up until the pandemic I started to gain a nice local buzz and was able to open up for national shows for some of my favorite artists.

Then COVID, everything shut down, mainly, my main way if promoting myself as a rapper, performing. We were all pretty much stuck in the house and I felt like I needed to explore different outlets to be creative. I started writing scrips (something I had dabbled in a bit in college) and even a little photography. But I eventually found my way back to visual digital graphic art in the form of Shway Papers. I started Shway Papers, a 100% Pure Organic Hemp Rolling Papers brand in 2020, in the middle of the pandemic as a way to: start my own business, one within the cannabis industry and to display my artwork, setting myself apart from the many other rolling papers brands on the market by incorporating vibrant and visually appealing artwork of different varieties on the packaging of my rolling papers.

As the world slowly began opening back up, Shway Papers was outside with us when we got there. People loved the designs, they loved the actual papers and the way they rolled and smoked. I’ve done over 60 collaborations with different artists and brands and have been featured in over 100 stores in the northeast Ohio area.

Fast forward to the end if 2024 Shway Papers is still building and still a household name in Cleveland. The won the award of Best Rolling Papers for Clevend Magazine’s Best of 2024 edition this October. Also in my artist vain, my artwork has been featured on a utility box located across the street from the legendary Karamu House as a part of the Transforming Fairfax program spearheaded by Cleveland Clinic. I am also still active on the music scene, I have opened up for a lot more artists, including at the House of Blues twice. I was named Hip-Hop Artist of the year 2 years in a row by Cleveland Scene Magazine and am steadily building my catalog and online presence through my independent label Funkshway Records.

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

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative is bringing joy to people’s lives. There are days where I may be feeling down about myself as an artist ir maybe feel like I haven’t done or been doing enough, then I have to remind myself that there are hundreds if not thousands of people who enjoy things that I have created on a daily basis. Whether it be a song thag I created, an art print hangin in someone’s home, a pack of cool looking rolling papers someone is using in a smoke session with friends or just driving down East 89th and Quincy and seeing my brightly shining utility box I designed. I get so much joy and gratitude knowing I can use my mind and creativity to bring tangible and functional pieces of art into the world that integrate into people’s everyday lives.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I had to unlearn and am still working on unlearning obsessing about the future. Planning for the future is definitely essential, but I’ve spent so much time obsessing and beating myself up about reaching a certain status or financial level that I forget to stop and smell all the flowers I have already planted. Respecting and appreciating the journey is vital to happiness and cultivating the very future I sometimes obsess about.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://shwaypapers.com
• Instagram: @mellowmanfunk
• Facebook: Facbook.com/mellowmanfunk

Image Credits

Bryon Miller (Black and White smoking picture)