RIP shirts are the hardest for me to do…not because I can’t do it but because the person has passed and I’m painting them. Tugs at the hearts string you know! I don’t do as many RIP shirts these days but when someone does ask me to do one I feel very honored and will do the job to the best of my ability. What I mean by that is I can only do the quality of work that is on the picture. If you come to me with this fuzzy camera phone picture…do you really think I can do a good job with that? No people I can’t! I need a CLEAR picture (printed please) either a 4X6 or 5X7. If you give me a fuzzy picture your portrait will be fuzzy. Sorry folks! Clear picture is want I need to give you my best.
Months after starting my first year in college I was doing odd jobs for schoolmates and family. I had my equipment in my mother’s house. Doing shirts and anything I could paint to develop my skills. I remember my mother buying me some newer equipment but it wasn’t really going well because I wasn’t making any money plus trying to go to school full time and my loans were pending and that was stressful. I had become frustrated with painting and was slacking a bit. It wasn’t happening like I wanted it to and I was broke.
On top of all that some good came, Ron Artis was leaving and wanted me to run his shop which he left like a franchise. I would essentially be working for him. I was ecstatic and ready to apply all the lessons he schooled me on when I came to his shop. He was a very sharp man intellectually and spiritually. He helped me beyond volumes and told me the reason he wanted to help me was because he knew in his heart and that I would be a good airbrush artist. He helped me see that within myself.
So at that moment I’m in his shop, 19 years old and in a whole other stage in my life where I had to rely on myself. Having my own place and business to run. I had to mature quick and do things on my own to make it work. With success came great responsibility, and I had to learn to deal with the attention and also taking criticism about my work good or bad. I understood it all and it came from being resilient and being observant of my position as a businessman. I learned how to cater to the general public and not focus on just what the young people wanted. But be able to deal with anybody to make their experience in doing business with me a great one!
And the same ideology I carried throughout my years up until this point. Between there and now, I’ve had some lulls in business but always stayed my course and still painted to keep the fun in being creative. Airbrushing when I started was very popular and years later popularity waned. I wasn’t doing full fledged business but I worked full time and did it as a hobby. I can honestly say in 2002 I witnessed a resurgence of its popularity with a younger generation who seen hip hop culture re-introduce airbrush to them. It was something new again and I rode the cusp of it.
This is a tribute to my father who would have been 61 yrs old on Jan 23, 2011. He was murdered at the age of 32 and even though he is no longer here he has always been my motivation in life, My motivation to learn and grow through what I do. But in losing him I feel I gain something to sustain me in life, and that’s being an artist. And to see the same passion for creativity in my kids I have to nurture it cause I know he would have done the same for me. Love you and miss you Pops
I would like to take this time and commemorate my 20 years to the month that I’ve been airbrushing. One thing I can say it has been a true journey and process. Giving me a hands on crash course in being a businessman but also having a lot of fun and being in awe of people I’ve never met respecting my creativity and talent. The countless doors of opportunities I’ve been able to open along the way made a way out for me. But its always been what I’ve told myself from when I started, “Never been about what I earn, but what I’ve learned.” In part of what I’ve learned is how to see the power in my talent. The power to take a person’s idea and make it a vision artistically. Which made me aware that any and everyone respects me for that.
I was 18 years old fresh out of high school but always resourceful and ready to make something outta nothing. And feeling like coming from my nothings of losing my father but able to gain a talent which became a tool for learning, but a means to make a living. At that time in 1991 it was all making sense after I bought my first airbrush and bartering some work for a kid in my art class for a low end compressor. Being young and living with my family, I had a passion for art since I was younger, and it had kept my head on straight in an environment that was chaotic. I was at risk, and understanding my background this is what kept me up at night and keeping an art book at all times. I was learning how to work and hustle to find my dreams of being an airbrush artist! At that point I was in my last year of high school and I was accepted at Fresno State University. The Summer of 1991 changed me and my life forever in a very positive way.
I was getting ready for my first year at college and still learning how to refine my talents. My mother met a gentleman who had a shop in the local mall by the name of Ron Artis. He was a professional artist and airbrush artist whom she introduced me to and upon meeting him I was a work in progress. He decided that he wanted to take me under his wing and school me on how to better myself but emphasized bettering myself also as an individual. Also how to recognize the power in what I do. He let me hang out at his shop and observe, how to interact with customers and more so the business side of things. The art side he wanted me to do on my own, but whatever he did sharpened me on the business side of airbrushing.
Here I am! Call me at 510-435-6172. I do parties, events, custom canvas, shirts, murals-what ever you want painted I am the man!
Also check me out on Facebook and Twitter:
~http://www.facebook.com/mrairbrushhands
~ @mrairbrushhands
