The BoldBrush Show

27. Mike Adams — Branding and Voice

November 25, 2022 BoldBrush Season 2 Episode 27
The BoldBrush Show
27. Mike Adams — Branding and Voice
Show Notes Transcript

On this episode, BoldBrush talked to Mike Adams, a tattoo artist turned plein air painter who runs his own business and manages his time in such a way that he can do the two things he loves most: tattooing and painting outdoors. He gives us some excellent tips on branding and finding your personal voice and using it to put out the work you wish you would see out in the world.

Follow Mike on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/mikeadams.fineart/
https://www.instagram.com/mikeadamstt/

Mike’s Website:
http://www.mikeadams.art
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Mike Adams:

It's funny I've I've had a lot of people I feel like if I'm walking on the street people don't know me they might not want to be friendly to me. But when I'm set up painting somewhere where there's hikers or there's people on the street so always combined be really friendly to me because I think that having that painting set out and me working on it is like more open inviting, which is nice. It's nice. I know a lot of a lot of plein air painters probably don't like to be bothered when the worst but I it's it's a nice, nice, nice escape, you know, and have people walk up to me and want to talk to me and stuff. It's cool.

Laura Arango Baier:

Welcome to the BoldBrush podcast where we believe the Fortune favors the gold brush. My name is Laura Arango Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast. We're a podcast that covers art marketing techniques, and all kinds of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others who are in careers tightly artworld in order to hear their advice and insights. On this episode, I talked to Mike Adams, a tattoo artists turn plein air painter who runs his own business and manages his time in such a way that he can do the two things he loves most tattooing and painting outdoors. He gives us some excellent tips on branding and finding your personal voice and using it to put out the work you wish you would see out in the world. Hello, Mike, welcome to the BoldBrush podcast. How are you today? I'm good. Thank

Unknown:

you for having me.

Laura Arango Baier:

Of course. Yeah, we're excited to hear from you gone viral like a bunch of times on the BoldBrush page. So we want to hear your secrets.

Unknown:

Of course, I'm I'm an open book.

Laura Arango Baier:

Awesome. Alright. So you know, just to get started, let's hear a little bit about the background and what you do.

Unknown:

Sure. So I'm based out of Maryland and West Virginia, I spend the time between the two. And I'm primarily paint a lot of plein air and untouched wilderness. And, yeah, I spent a lot of time outside painting or coming back to my studio to paint after you know, snapping some photos and I'm very, you know, intense hike and intense weather. And I grew up in nature. So I spent a lot of my time out there in the woods and I spent a lot of time fly fishing all over the country. So painting mostly landscapes has been pretty fitting for me. I grew up you know, making art and I know, I knew I wanted to be an artist ever since I could talk or hold a pencil. I went to the Art Institute of Pittsburgh for graphic design. But that wasn't really something I had a passion for. So after, after college, I took a liking to like art history and like vintage tattoo designs. So I pursued that right after college.

Laura Arango Baier:

Why? Why did you decide to go from tattooing to painting? I mean, I know you do both still. But did you one day decide like hey, I'm gonna go do some plein air.

Unknown:

Oh, so I've always had a real big interest in history and art history in general. So yeah, a lot of people might think that a tattoo is like you know, a heart that says mom in it, but I tend to tattoo a lot of stuff from history, a lot of medieval heraldry, and wood cuts a lot of creatures from Bosch, his paintings, a lot of like, renditions of like John William Godward. And I borrow heavily from this stuff. Doray and, and Goya and ancient Greek statue busts and just from researching art history, I came across the landscape. So I love like the Hudson River School and the Impressionists and they kind of fell in love with that. So I still utilize a lot of that art history and all my tattooing. And then just from falling in love with the landscapes and being outside a lot hiking kinda went hand in hand. And you know, it's, it's a good balance between the two.

Laura Arango Baier:

You ever feel kind of split between the two.

Unknown:

So it's funny because tattooing is kind of helped me in my painting endeavor. It made me visualize how I want things to look finished. Because with tattooing, it's all direct approach. It's all a palette, primo essentially, you can't do things in layers, so you're gonna overwork somebody and scarring or whatever. So it made me visualize things especially with like plein air, I can just block in my shapes. And I can just directly apply my shadows in my in my in my light and just just have a good conversation right away. So it's kind of helped me to like fast forward it where I can do a plein air painting in a short amount of time and not have to worry about the light leaving. So it's it helped me like helping set up to do that. And you know, I don't want to touch you forever, but I do want to paint forever. And the only thing that I was kind of worried about was how Having a lot of tattoos going into the painting world where no matter what I have tattoos showing on my neck and my hands or whatever. So I thought I might have some pushback from that. But it's only made me come up as more interesting to others where I'm painting a pretty late, but I have tattoos on my hands, you know?

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of a, it's a weird juxtaposition for a lot of people. Because when you think about an oil painter, or like a classical oil painter, they're always like, really prim and proper looking. Those are they don't expect someone covered in tests like, yeah, painting this really nice tree, you know? Yeah, exactly.

Unknown:

It's funny, if I've had a lot of people, I feel like if I'm walking on the street, people don't know me, they might not want to be friendly to me. But when I'm set up painting somewhere where there's hikers or there's people on the street, so always combined be really friendly to me, because I think that having that painting set out, and me working on it is like more open inviting, which is nice. It's nice. I know a lot of a lot of plein air painters probably don't like to be bothered when the worst, but I it's it's a nice, nice, nice escape, you know, and have people walk up to me and want to talk to me and stuff. That's cool.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, yeah. And I, I understand how it would you would want these people to come up to you, because usually, they probably see you as intimidating. But when they see a push out box, or like, Hey,

Unknown:

that guy. Exactly, exactly, yeah.

Laura Arango Baier:

Oh, sweet. Um, so since you do both, right. Do you think that the tattooing business is at all similar to the painting? One?

Unknown:

I'd say there's yes and no to that. It has very different clientele. You know, not all tattoo clients are going to like landscape painting, and all painting. You know, art patients aren't going to really care about tattoos, when sometimes it overlaps, and it's just nice. But yeah, but you know, for tattooing, I tend to draw from those art history, references, and showcase what I'd like to do. And people will travel, you know, to get those. And the single painting I paint, he says, I want to do and people want to buy them. So it works out. Yeah. Thanks, guess.

Laura Arango Baier:

It's also, you know, I know that some tattoo artists will, they'll charge per hour, depending obviously on the tattoo, or they'll charge by size. And that's kind of like what a painting is to, or you. You can either charge by the hour or by the size.

Unknown:

So surely, yeah, there's there's so many parallels. Yeah, yeah, there's, there's a lot of parallels with that. And yeah, just yeah, you know, by the size by the piece and people seeking you out, especially now. And like the social media, like age, there's, it's so saturated with everyone. So if you have your own thing, people are gonna seek you out for nothing, which is it's a cool

Laura Arango Baier:

thing. Right? Yeah. And then I think you're probably the best person to ask about branding, then because you're, I was looking at your tattoo page on Instagram, and it has that very specific traditional American, but also it's very golf. It's very dark style. So and that that also translates into your painting work, which I noticed it's, it's a lot of plein air, but it still has that sort of spooky, dark kind of vibe. How important Have you found branding to be especially in such a saturated social media market.

Unknown:

So I think branding and overall aesthetic is pretty important. Like you mentioned, I do a lot of spooky kind of stuff, whether it's my tattooing or, or my painting, you know, if I want to paint a medieval still life or a pain, like a very heavy kind of spooky sky, it just goes with my overall aesthetic. And people are you know, can be drawn to that, especially when you say consistent if you're known for doing a scary castle, and you doing that kind of stuff all the time. And then you paint something kinda like very happy and neon, it's gonna throw your, your your clientele off, and they're going to be confused, but I think that having an overall vibe is going to, you know, work in your favor. And the it's, I think it's the right balance of of sharing your work, but also, you know, letting everyone know what's for sale without being too aggressive without begging. So I think it's important to take yourself serious, but I don't think you should be to the point where it's off putting where you're saying, where you just come off as so serious that you're intimidating, or just written off. Is that

Laura Arango Baier:

right? Yeah, you want to be approachable, but also taken seriously? Of course,

Unknown:

of course. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah. And I like that you mentioned consistency as well, because I have, I have come upon Instagram pages by some people who they complain that Oh, am I not selling, I'm gonna go to their page and it's like, a selfie over here, and then the lunch they had last week and then a painting over there. And

Unknown:

I mean, you can, you can have the best, you know, academic figurative work, but if you if you pair that every other post with like a family guy name, you know, no one's gonna be very confusing. So, I mean, that's, that's an extreme example, but yeah, that's, you know, take that, as you will

Laura Arango Baier:

know, yeah. And I mean, you can share memes, but like, Dude in your story, you know?

Unknown:

Right, right. Exactly. Exactly.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah. So what advice would you give a younger version of yourself? Like, if you were the age you were before, when you were just starting out? What would you tell yourself? Knowing what you know, now to do to get started? Um,

Unknown:

I guess I would just, maybe not, I mean, maybe not be so hard on myself. I, I've always been pretty hard on myself, which I think, kick my own butt to always produce better work. But sometimes, you know, it's a little too much of not feeling ready for what you want to accomplish when you're already there. You know, so I think that I think just going for it with having the right amount of confidence is the is the key.

Laura Arango Baier:

I like that. Yeah. Yeah. And I share that, you know, a lot of us we feel afraid. Like, no, I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready. And then, when we're when we actually do like, Oh, I'm like, over prepared.

Unknown:

Yeah, like, that wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. And I think that, you know, if you're, if your best friends and your family are telling you, whatever you do is great. Okay, that's one thing, but when your colleagues and your people that you don't really know are letting you know that, and then there might be something to that, you know? Yeah, definitely not that it's not biased, you know? So, yes, that

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Because your your friends and family, they're always going to love what you do, for the most part, unless you have really harsh family members. But, but yeah, when it's a stranger saying that there is more, it feels more honest, like a stranger wouldn't necessarily lie to you just, you know, to mess with you. Yeah, um, and then, when I spoke to Cosmo cash, he mentioned that you're a pro at business, and that you're one of the best people he's spoken to, when it comes to business and getting things to take the direction that you want. You're not afraid of making that happen. So do you mind sharing a tactic that you always use for the best marketing on social media?

Unknown:

I think my best tactic is just always going with what I would want to see. You know, I think about I think about not like, oh, what I like to see from something, because if I scroll through, and I see something that's a blatant ad with a lot of texts and stuff, I'm gonna, you know, roll my eyes, I'm not gonna look at it, because it just looks like you're begging for, for attention. But you know, if I see something that appeals to me aesthetically, or something that I like to look at, you know, I'm going to evolve my stuff around that. So I think that my biggest tactic is just being yourself. And in this in this sharing what you would want to see. Wow, I love I think that's the best advice I've heard. That's good to hear.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, no, yeah, definitely. Because, you know, no one really considers that no one really considers Hey, what is what is the one thing that I want to see the most, and no one really applies it to themselves and just keep searching outward for it instead of realizing hey, why don't I just do it?

Unknown:

Yeah, they tend they tend to say like, what would the algorithm or what would you know what's what's what's working for everyone else? But, you know, by not doing that, it's what sets you apart now? I think Yeah. And also and then on another on another easier level, I think that engagement is always very important. I like to follow up in reply to comments and my favorite thing on Instagram is to click the little dots and you can see your current story reshares of people that are showing their sharing your your recent painting and their stories and that like no one has to do that, you know, so that they go out of their way to to share what you've done on their story for everyone that they interact with the see whether that's because they like your painting or they like the vibe whatever. I think it's really important. So I was going through those and I was thank them personally because that's that's very kind of them, you know?

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, yeah. And that helps build a positive relationship with your followers. Because a lot of them, they admire you already. And if you treat them like people, you know who you are like a human, they like you even more. Because that's, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Unknown:

I mean, I've even I've even, you know, tried to, you know, go through, you know, artists that look up to and, and comment on their work and say something and if they just give it a like, you're like, Okay, you know, it's just, it's very impersonal. So, I think I think having that level of being personal is pretty important.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, yeah. And sometimes it can be overwhelming for some people like I've I've actually met artists who told me they never check their messages. And they never reply to anyone. I'm like, Oh, I don't know. That's a good idea. But then sometimes I can understand getting overwhelmed with too many messages. Oh, sure. I mean,

Unknown:

yeah, I mean, you've seen my touch on Instagram has significant more followers than my art one. And I still try to do my best and go through those and reply to people. If it's a question regarding an appointment, not as much as more for email, but if it's just like a, someone replying to the to one of my stories that I post, and, you know, coming coming on the level, we're all just people then yeah, or someone responded.

Laura Arango Baier:

Building your artists website can be a hassle. But with FASO, they make it easy to get online, sell more of your work and promote your art. Right now for our BoldBrush podcast listeners, you can get over 50% off your first year on FASO with our special link, simply visit faso.com forward slash podcast. FASO is a leading provider of fine art websites, they have online marketing tips that you get every week, as well as online workshops and other tips and tricks to help you sell your work. So remember, user link faster.com forward slash podcast to get over 50% off right now. That's f a s o.com. Forward slash podcast BoldBrush. But also like to give a huge thank you and shout out to Chelsea classical studio for their continued support in this podcast. If you're interested in archival painting supplies handmade with a lot of patients go check out their Instagram at CCS fine art materials. Yeah, I think that's a that's another thing that I haven't heard too often on the podcast who, you know, like replying to your followers and building that public relation

Unknown:

with your people. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier:

And it always kind of sucks when you you know, you follow someone who you admire them. And then you take the trouble to comment and share and then they don't do anything. Yeah.

Unknown:

What's the what's the there's, that's there's a saying that never meet your heroes. But I will say I did. I went on a trip last year with new wave to Acadia in Maine. And it was me and Mario Robinson, who refused isn't on the podcast. And he, he was someone who I really looked up to as far as like, I loved his work. He's one of my favorites. And then I met him and it just solidified it even more, because he's such a good guy. And you know, had a blast painting with him. And now I looked up to him. He's like, No, he's my big bro. Like, lovely guy. So it's cool. It's cool to meet people that are actually genuine like that, you know?

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, I agree. And Mario is a sweetheart, he's such a nice guy. And they're easy to talk to you too, which is great. It's always also disappointing when you like, meet someone, and then they're standoffish or are very Yeah, sure.

Unknown:

Yeah, yeah. I mean, also, you could you could have caught them on a bad day too. So never.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah. Yeah. So try not to take things personally. That's so it's kind of a bummer.

Unknown:

For sure. No, I totally get that. So yeah, so I just try to be like, my genuine self, anyone I need, you know, whether it's a tattoo client or someone buying a painting or just someone walking up to me on the street while I'm painting

Laura Arango Baier:

plein air? Right. Um, speaking of that, do you think some, is there some overlap between, you know, some of your clientele, were getting tattoos from you? And also, maybe they bought a painting from you? Is there any overlap?

Unknown:

Yeah, there's, there is a ton of overlap. I think there's more to overlap of my client, my tattoo clientele buying paintings. Because, you know, they've known my work and they travel to get tattooed by me, but they also have followed my journey of, of fine art. And, you know, you have people you know, when they get tattooed, they always say, Hey, do prints available? And I know that, you know, sometimes a painting and a tattoo can cost the same thing. So prints Yeah, fencer, another good tool to have to, you know, to be more more accessible and I think just art in general should be accessible to the people that want to buy it. Yeah, but yeah, there's a lot of good over We're laughing just people that are like stoked to bring up my paintings while they're getting tattooed by me that Nino as as like a top talking point, they, you know, oh yes. All this like went out to Wyoming and you know, and they want to hear about the trip. So that's always cool to know that people are interested in both.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, that's awesome. I'm guessing it's a little harder to get someone who bought your painting to get a tattoo for me because tattooing is you know, getting a tattoo is something that's so personal for a lot of people that if you just don't vibe with it, you don't, but it makes sense that if they're already like, if a person is getting tattooed by you, and they love your work, and your work has that vibe, you know, that ran that you already have, it makes sense that since they're already basically sold on you, they're gonna want to get something else, even if it's a different medium. Yeah, of course,

Unknown:

of course. And I think it goes hand in hand too, with a lot of times. You know, I do a draw stuff that I want to tattoo, and people come and pick from that, just like a painting, so they want to paint and people buy that. And then when it comes to commission, same thing, you know, someone comes to me for a tattoo because they like my, my overall selecting my work, and they want something that goes with it. And someone can commission something for me seeing my past paintings in one painting similar to those. So it there's so many parallels with that. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier:

is it difficult to run both businesses at the same time? Or do they run so parallel to each other, you don't even notice

Unknown:

they run very parallel. So what I do is I book all my tattoo appointments in the first half of the month. And then I always take the second half of every month off, to go on a plein air trip, or to spend it in the studio painting. And there I keep them, I keep them separate. I'm not I'm not trying to scrape squeezing three appointments in a day and then come home and do a whole painting studio. It's, it's too much. So when I have those split between, you know, first half and the second half, it's, it's very freeing to know, okay, well, I'm gonna get to, I'm gonna get to, you know, I get in the mindset. And yeah, it's nice to know, after I did my two weeks of appointment, so I can just go hop in my. So I have a truck that I built into a campaign setup. So it's like a mini mini tiny home. And, you know, I drove out to Montana, and I drove up to Wyoming and South Dakota to paint. And I go up to New England to Connecticut, and in Maine and Vermont. So it's nice to know, after those two weeks of appointment, appointment appointment, I know I have those two weeks off to do whatever I want to and it's very inspiring, and makes me more relaxed and able to do my best work on both ends. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, that's a really good time management.

Unknown:

I mean, that's, it's the perks of working for yourself. True. Yeah.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah. And working for yourself, and being able to control your schedule and control. Basically everything that goes into the business, which is really nice. And not everyone has that luxury. A lot of other people, you know, they they have to have a day job, which shame in it, but it makes it very hard.

Unknown:

No, not at all. But I'm very angry. I feel very lucky to have that. And I've worked very hard to do it. It didn't just come out of thin air. But of course, I feel very, you know, privileged to be able to have my own my own studio, I have a private studio for tattooing, that I run with my friend who's also a painter, and a tattoo artist. And, and then yeah, they have my they have my time to go off and do my own thing. And it's very, it's very nice. Yeah, it's liberating. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier:

um, and, you know, you do say, you know, it probably took a long time to reach that point. Anyway, so in this journey, you know, going from the very beginning of starting out your tattoo business, and then you know, jumping into painting, what has been the greatest challenge that you've faced?

Unknown:

So my biggest challenge, I guess? Well, I've had a lot of good luck with selling small studies, I'll say that a lot of five by sevens, a lot of eight by 10s. It's allowed me to do more, more paintings and come across more problems. You know, if you work on a painting that's 10 foot wide of a snowy mountain, well, you're working on that forever but if you do smaller studies, you have a snowy mountain produce a study of a desert study of pine trees, you know, you're coming across more problems to look after the future. So I've had a lot of luck selling smaller paintings. And they're, they're, they're more of like a bite sized piece for maybe a newer art collector. And you know, like I said earlier I think all art should be accessible. The only challenge is really have been with larger works no, because like we said, bigger tattoo more money bigger painting more money. So they don't move nearly as fast as you'd like, you know, as like a more smaller piece. So they tend to, they tend to make take up more space. And I just don't want to have a large painting graveyard, you know, my studio about their large paintings just staring me in the face. So I think that's the biggest challenge, the biggest challenge is trying to force myself to work larger, and knowing that they might not move as fast. And same goes for the social media, if you paint a five by seven, and you paint. If you paint a five by seven inch painting, you end up in a five by seven foot painting on a phone screen those things sighs Yeah, you know. So with this world where we're just kind of expected to showcase new work like almost every day. It's hard. So my friend who I work with, at my studio, his name's Aaron Harmon. Me and him both had an art show at our studio, where we did large scale work where we did paintings that were six foot wide. And the main reason of it was to get people off their phones and see work and in real life, but you know, I'm looking at the six foot wide painting right now. And it's not going anywhere.

Laura Arango Baier:

Well, maybe the right,

Unknown:

teammate. Yeah, yeah, of course. Of course. Yeah. Right. So yeah,

Laura Arango Baier:

yep. Yeah, the right person just hasn't come along yet. And I understand, you know, for some people, like you said, having a painting graveyard is not not the best use of space, especially, you know, for a lot of artists not having enough money means not having such a big studio, and then you know, so I guess, you Yeah, you work with what you have, unless, you know, you really just love making giant paintings, you know, like Odd Nerdrum. He makes gigantic paintings all the time. Yeah. So of course, yeah,

Unknown:

I want to I want to work, you know, move to larger pieces. But right now, it's nice to just do a few small studies and have people buy them and they get to, you know, frame, you know, frame them and inspire them in their home. It's another thing too, if you do large paintings, maybe people don't have the means to transport them or ship them or have them in their home. So,

Laura Arango Baier:

yeah, that's true. Do you have any words of wisdom for people or artists who are just starting out, or artists who are looking for some really good words of advice?

Unknown:

My words of advice is something I still follow every day and just try to be you better than you were yesterday.

Laura Arango Baier:

You know, you know, it's, it's true. Well, what a lot of people I mean, these days quality doesn't necessarily mean that it'll get sold, but high quality work. Yeah, Garner's a lot of attention. So that's, uh, yeah.

Unknown:

Yeah, just always, like, you know, don't look back here at your work you did a year ago and absolutely hate it. But look back to the work you did a year ago. And, and realize how much you've you've changed. And if you haven't changed, maybe, reassess how you're doing this? You know? Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier:

yeah, it's good to check in with yourself every so often to see what's gone here.

Unknown:

Yeah, and

Laura Arango Baier:

if people want to get a tattoo from you, or if they want to go check out your work, where can they go?

Unknown:

Where you can check out I have my my website through fast so some Mike Adams dot art. That's where all my art stuff. If you want to look at my tattoo work. It's my Instagram is Mike Adams, T T, which is short for tattoo. And then my, my art pages is Mike Adams dot fine art. So yeah, feel free to check out all those stuff, all those things. And you can see the drastic difference, but the similarities between my technique and my art. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier:

I mean, I definitely saw the similarity. So I'm sure the viewers and listeners will too. Well, thank you, Mike, for your super business savvy advice. I really appreciate it. I'm also gonna start applying some of it as well.

Unknown:

Okay, good to hear. Yeah. And, of course, you know, I've only been doing what I do for so long, so I can only offer what I've learned, personally, but yeah, if anyone can apply it that's that's good to know.

Laura Arango Baier:

Yeah, yeah. And you've been pretty successful. So I don't think I don't think you're in the wrong. I think your advice is pretty solid.

Unknown:

Thank you. Thank you. Of course.