Additionally Instagramming while heavily drinking in a smokey bar trying to satiate your social anxiety in Kansas City with a group of “friends” will do that to you too. Without fail, however, Iconick or Iconick.arts has been one to post kick-ass work every single time I open that black hole of an app. So for this month, I decided to catch up with him. We shot the shit in his apartment in RiNo surrounded by two cats, a big floof of a Huskey, and a girlfriend who just trying to unwind after a long day at work.
So tell me where all this came from?
Art has been around for a long time — somewhere around in high school is when I remember the mental conversation that I had with myself where I was like: “Well, I’m not good at math, I’m not good at English, but art. . . ”
I loved that. That was like my break in the school day to go to art class, so that gave me the inkling that that would be something I could do for a living —
So it was just kind of innate, there wasn’t like a specific moment for you?
Yeah, it was always there — I can even remember back in kindergarten my mom, telling me “my boys can be an artist”.
So that kind of stuck with you — kind of a pivotable moment.
There was kind of a period where I hit a wall in like 2016 going into 17, where I was out here [Denver] and I literally knew two people, my mom and one friend from Tennessee. So I was kind of in a vacuum. And I would just like stockpile art in my apartment. I would just go to my day job, come home, make dinner and start making art until I fell asleep. I did that for about two years — and then somewhere in 2017 I had hit this wall because I made all this artwork, but I wasn’t happy with it. I remember having a conversation in my head: “Well, I am what am I? What am I doing right now? How am I going to make this work? Why am I even in this?” And like almost like a different voice answered me it “I want to be iconick I want to change the culture or have an influence in it” — and that’s when I was like “Nick = Iconick”. It’s done.
And so just going off of that, where did the influences come from?
I love street art. So the whole aspect of having a name that you tag — I grew up doing that. Studying graphic design and surrounded by my buddies that I grew up with, a majority of which are creatives who would later become tattoo artists —
You ever thought about going into tattoo artistry?
I did, yeah for a long long time — but I looked at it as a playing field with tattooing and no matter how good you are, you can’t control your income or your work. You have to hope someone wants a tattoo. Versus with graphic design you will forever need branding, with products, there’s always got to be someone to design what it looks like.
That’s interesting because that kind of goes against what I would have thought — in my mind tattooing seems relatively consistent gig and art seems inconsistent but when you say it like that —
I mean there will always be people who want tattoos.
Yeah, but if you are not at that busy shop it can be a bit more inconsistent I guess.
A tattoo is a want, but branding is a need — a company can’t survive without it. These guys I grew up with and I have so much respect for, I know they’re good creatively but they struggle because they can’t control who is coming in. They might be the best tattoo artists ever but if you’re in the wrong location where you don’t get enough traffic . . .
You’re just screwed.
I want to do tattooing, but logically I had to lean towards the idea of making art and that’s basically like tattooing — there’s not always going to be someone coming in. I’m gonna do art on the side, but I need a steady paycheck.
Do you make most of your money selling your art or do you still work a day job?
Right now I survive through designing, but this art is like who I am. This is my everything. As far as Iconick goes, I took my whole life to come up with this kind of shit because I’ve been thinking about it since kindergarten, but I didn’t know where it was going. So yeah, I love designing but designing something on a computer will never be the same.
And that’s your day job though, right?
That’s my day job — and they take good care of me I like doing it, but it’s not my like passion. I’ll go broke trying to do this stuff, it’s more about the artwork.
Have you gotten a couple of gallery shows?
These days I’m such a hermit, and I consider myself an extroverted introvert, so if you like what I like I’ll talk to you about it forever. I’m still making artwork in a vacuum and I’m having more fun just meeting the art community on my own, going to the art show seeing the other artists. . .
Where’s what are some of the good shows you see recently?
I go to all kinds of shows, I really love Mural lounge. Have you heard about them?
A little bit yes —
Mural and Graffiti Bar, and that was started by Chelsea Lewinsky and she invited me to come to my first public mural over there — so [I have] a lot of respect for them, that was huge. Definitely keep an eye on Mural lounge because they’ve got all kinds of artists — it’s rotating walls so they’ve got people coming in. That’s a good spot to just meet artists.
What are some of the bigger lessons you learned in 2019 going into 2020?
I think that one thing that 2019 taught me was networking — you know, no matter how good you are at your craft if you don’t network, you will not survive. One thing I learned — someone asked me recently:
And I told them the best thing you can do is produce and show up.