Artist Interview — Michael Inman

Today I’m excited to interview an artist I have known and respected for a very long time—Michael Inman. Since the first time I saw Michael’s artwork, I was drawn to his creative imaginings and to his colorful  sketches. I’m honored that he agreed to stop by today and tell us more about himself and about his art.

What got you interested in Art? Can you remember the first things you drew/sculpted/painted and what made them memorable?

The earliest I can remember being interested in art was being exposed in some way to Picasso’s paintings. I loved the weird, cubist, almost cartoony style of some of his paintings and charcoals. My two all-time favorites of his are “The Three Musicians” and “Night Fishing at Antibes.” I tried to duplicate both of these pieces myself many times as a kid and the whimsical, cartoony, strange art seemed to be something I found myself appreciating more than say, Picasso’s more realistic portraits. After some time, I really came to appreciate album art in CD lyric books and came to love Beck Hansen, not only for his music but for his studio art. My father took me to a Beck art exhibit at Cheekwood [in Nashville, Tennessee], and I was just in awe at everything.

Have you taken any art classes?

I have taken many. Illustration courses, perspective drawing, painting, figure drawing, black and white analog photography, graphic design (I consider that art), etc.

What is your preferred medium and why?

My preferred “traditional” medium is acrylic paint, but my absolute preference is digital– a Wacom Tablet and a program such as Photoshop to paint digitally in at a high resolution. I can get the same effect with painting digitally as I can traditionally with a paint brush, and it is much more time efficient, hence I can produce more. Quantity is never better than quality to me, but with this medium, you get the best of both worlds. Same look, less time, more art.

Because I am an author, I have to ask: Have you ever designed any artwork for an author?

The closest I have come to producing any form of art for an author is just for a school project in which I laid out an outline of a story concept. My mother wrote the book, and I did all the illustrations. This was a children’s book called My Beloved Monster.

 

Figure 1: Daisy Donut

Have you ever stepped outside of your comfort zone and discovered a whole new genre of art? How did it turn out?

Stylistically within the confines of what I do for art or have I ever tried to say, play the piano or something? I’ve definitely tried another creative outlet, such as guitar, piano, drums, bass guitar etc, but I never had the patience to stick with it. Illustration/fine art was always my medium of creative output that I had enough patience to see through and really enjoy. I think that everyone to an extent can be creative; it’s really just what they have the patience to do. Does that make sense? Anything creative should be at least somewhat fun to make. It’s kind of like not choosing what you’re good at and like to do but it choosing you. 

Now, if you are talking about stepping out of the confines of your style in what you do, I definitely have stepped out and tried different things….Especially with the art I do just for fun. This aforementioned art is what I will print to canvas and display at coffee shops or other public forums. I try to keep the style mostly consistent but switch it up enough that there’s definitely variety. Some of the mediums that I experimented with the most had the most sales and/or feedback.

What, in your opinion, is the most difficult step in creating a masterpiece?

Oh, man, I don’t really even know how to answer this question. A “masterpiece” to me is in the eye of the beholder. Tricky thing about art is everyone has their own style and taste when they are a spectator, or even a creator. When you look at movies that are considered or marketed as masterpieces, some would disagree. Titanic was a movie that was considered a masterpiece, but I did not really enjoy but [many] may have. Different strokes, I guess. I guess the most difficult step in creating a masterpiece would be knowing that it most likely won’t be, to keep going and eventually you’ll make one? Creating what you want no matter what and eventually maybe you’ll get there. Once you get too satisfied with your art, you stop trying as hard. Best thing to be when you are creative is to never be completely satisfied and to always learn and grow in your art.

 Figure 2: Humming Bird

Where do you gather most of the inspiration from your works?

I’ve been asked similar questions before, and believe it or not, I really try to stay away from things that are not just on some level influencing me subconsciously. I definitely have artists who inspire me, and I love looking at their work, but I’d like to think what I make is a subconscious collective of all that I like and appreciate. Hope that makes sense. I think the reason I feel this way is that I’ve always tried to stay away from emulating any one artist too much in hopes that I can become just as original in my own right as they are in theirs. There is way too much art out now that is a rip off of the pioneers of whatever style, and I never want to become pigeonholed in that sense.

Do you have a favorite artist? If so, what draws you to that person’s work?

I definitely love Gary Baseman. He’s probably my very favorite modern artist. He has SUCH a unique style in his fine art that opened the door for him into many commercial outlets. He’s designed the illustrated characters for the board game Cranium, and he animated the Disney children’s show “Teacher’s Pet.” I prefer his studio art, which for the most part looks like his Cranium illustrations– little hand-painted characters across vast, whimsical, almost Candyland-like landscapes.

I have too many artists whose work I love and respect, but to name a few more– Daniel Clowes (comic artist), Jesse LeDoux (silkscreen/letterpress artist)

Figure 3: Social Media Butterfly

 

Do you have any other interesting hobbies or maybe a fun story about an experience involving your art?

A couple years ago I uploaded designs intended for T-shirts onto threadless.com for people to vote on. If the design is liked enough by their staff or has high enough votes, they print it and give you a commission. Just last month I got an email asking if they could use one of my designs as a finalist for a Target retail-store greeting card line! I haven’t heard back yet, but it’s always fun to hear that your art is well-received or chosen for something like this because you know someone really likes it. Last year I had fifteen pieces of art displayed at Fido Coffee Shop in Nashville and eight of the pieces sold, so it’s also just a really nice feeling to know that you can possibly make money on things that were just a fun past-time to make! I’ve kind of just made it a hobby to create and find opportunities to expose my art to the public and even sell it if I can!

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m actually currently taking a small break as I just finished up fifteen more pieces a couple weeks ago for Fido Coffee Shop again. I needed fifteen different pieces from what I mentioned I had last year, and it took me pretty much since January of [2013] to produce and really be happy enough to hang and sell them.

 Figure 4: Honey Island

Can people commission you for their own projects?

Depends on how long or on-going the project would be. Since I started the coffeehouse gig and it’s been very successful, the manager in charge of the art made me one of twelve to hang their art for sale there once a year. Like I said earlier, too, all the art I hang is stuff that I would be making anyway for fun and a hobby, so after a full-time job, it’s very time consuming. I’ve done other freelance here and there, but usually those projects take no more than a total of eight hours altogether to make.

Do you have an online portfolio or blog where we can view your work? If so, where can they reach you?

I do! It’s www.michaelinman.net. Some of the work on my site needs and will be updated soon as most of the new pieces from my new show have been added. I left these off the site and let everyone know in hopes that they would come out to see them rather than just spend five minutes looking at them on my site and be done with them.

 Figure 5: Jazz Cat

Would you be so kind as to share a few images and tell us a little about each?

Since I’ve mentioned what I currently have up at the coffee shop, I’ll share some of those.

1.    Daisy Donut –  I wanted to create something very graffiti art looking but whimsical, sugary, sweet, and colorful. I love creating shiny things, so I just kind of spent time on making a strawberry frosted donut and then a little character whose mouth is watering over it. This is as much of a design as it is an illustration, and I like the look of that on people’s walls so I want to create that myself.

2.    Humming Bird –  This is like the aforementioned design and illustration, and I really just wanted to create something that I would want to hang on my wall as far as content and color.

3.    Social Media Butterfly –  I created this as a superhero portrait of my girlfriend. She works in social media and uses things like Twitter to let the fans of her clients know what’s on the radar as far as news and whatnot…hence the title. Her superpower in the illustration is her summoning Twitter birds.

4.    Honey Island –  I had a lot of floating, microcosmic, floating chunks of land in my last set of pieces, so I thought I may do one more this time around but have something larger than life occupying the land. I also wanted to make it sugary and sweet, so I came up with a beehive, slowly coating the grass with honey and dripping everywhere.

5.    Jazz Cat –  I wanted to make something sort of New Orleans Festive, but in my own interpretation of an old Steamboat Willy-era of cartoon. So I made a one-man-band wolf.

Fun Zone!

If you were a cartoon character, who would you be and why?

Somehow this has become the hardest question so far to answer! Maybe the boring answer of Superman? What guy wouldn’t want to be Superman! Man of Steel!

Then again you’ve got characters like SpongeBob– It’d be pretty neat to live in a pineapple under the sea and be part of the Nickelodeon universe.

If you were an art supply what would you be?

An eraser! I’d get to erase away mistakes and or clean things up and make them pretty! Haha, life would be easiest for the eraser and your judgment would probably be pretty solid. Then again, life as an eraser would probably be substantially shorter than a lot of other supplies. Oh well. I can definitely tell you what I would never want to be and that is a pen…I’d always be getting lost!

If you had Doc Brown’s Delorean from Back to the Future, would you drive it into the future or into the past? Where would you go?

It’d be really nice to go back and see a loved one who had passed away, but you really couldn’t interact without freaking them out or something so I would probably choose so far in the future that it far surpasses any length of time that you could possibly live to. I would probably go anywhere and everywhere I could but mostly maybe just stick to the regular stomping grounds to see how much they have changed then move from there.

Night Owl or Early Bird?

I’m kind of a night owl who has no choice but to be an early bird for work in the morning. I’ve preferred lately to go to bed earlier to feel rested for the day of work ahead.

What is your least favorite color and why?

Hmm, probably pea soup green. I’ve noticed that some of my least favorite colors may be colors I would like to wear, which is very odd.

What do you want to be when you grow up?

I really just want to stay an artist and freelance on top of a full-time job and see where it takes me! It’s been exciting so far so I’m happy with it. Ultimately, I’d love to take my personal art on a full-time level, but for now, working in the creative field as a graphic designer keeps me in practice, and I make time for what I love to do!

Check out Michael's website: www.michaelinman.net There’s a contact page on his site with links to his Facebook, his carbonmade, his threadless profile, etc.

Thanks Michael!