Today we’d like to introduce you to Tailored Truth.
Hi Tailored Truth, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today.
I am Tailored Truth, an American street artist, muralist, and graphic designer out of Battle Creek, Michigan. I grew up in the small town of Auburn, Indiana, from age 4 to 18 when my parents moved there from Fort Wayne. I was always an observant and creative child who loved to convert ideas and thoughts into any kind of art. Adults around me growing up would say that I was a very creative, intelligent, and passionate child, much different from others and that I would make it far with these attributes. As I grew older, my art began to take on meaning and philosophy rather than just aesthetics, which changed those voices around me growing up. Those voices then began to tell me that there were no practical jobs in art, that I would never be taken seriously, and that no one would care. I left High School frustrated with art even though I excelled in architecture, graphic design, painting, and drawing because it seemed that no one was supportive.
I went to Purdue University for Computer Engineering and Psychology eager to learn more about the computers I easily fixed for others growing up, and to learn about how the mind works within ourselves and others. My fascination with the mind truly fueled this passion of deeper meaning and led me to others that showed me the world of psychedelics. These experiences reopened my passion for art, and gave me the drive to start making pieces that I had abandoned years before. Right before my last year of college, two of my good friends that I grew up with told me they were moving from Colorado to Michigan. They asked me if I would like to take this opportunity to learn about the Cannabis industry. I truly felt that this was my chance like many in the 90s with Microsoft and Google, to get on the ground floor creating something special in business. Thus, I moved to Battle Creek, Michigan in October 2012 and have been here ever since.
Battle Creek was the place where I would rediscover Graffiti because of the abundance throughout the streets. This was a much different experience with graffiti than I had prior because where I was from, we would really only see it on trains and some in Fort Wayne. In Battle Creek, I was able to be right up on it and see the details in the work. At that time, my best friend, Caleb, and I started a streetwear brand called I Seek Knowledge. While we were designing apparel, Caleb said we could do advertising in the streets with posters using a technique called wheat pasting. We began to wheat paste all the time throughout the Michigan/Indiana/Illinois area, which was my first step into Street Art.
As I got more comfortable in the process, I began to incorporate spray paint into the wheat paste by writing quotes next to the images. As those quotes grew into letters and styles, then into characters and murals, I ran into a couple of people from a familiar art collective called INDECLINE. Aquatinted with their team, I was shared their files and imagery that I then began to wheat paste, stencil, tag, graffiti everywhere. INDECLINE is a big family across the world, spreading the message of love and peace while calling out the hypocrisy and injustice that is so common in society today, basically art activism. While traveling, I also met many different types of artists, showing me the other side of street art, which was murals and that type of business. This was where two worlds collided, and being on the outside looking in kind of thing, I saw weren’t really so different. On one side, you had the graff and taggers, and on the other side, street art and muralists. Both sides could have business implementation and make money and both sides also could do it for the culture and activism. I have always felt that I sat on both sides, because I loved art and the fulfillment I got from it for my soul, and because I thought I could do this as my career for the rest of my life and support myself.
This is when I met a man named Water Street Josh. This guy changed my entire life. He was a curator, a collector, an activist, and someone that motivated me to push for bigger and better no matter what. He showed me a path that, if I chose to take, would lead me to a career in art that would support a living. This began a campaign around the country to paint on everything and see everyone, including mural festivals that I had never seen before. We met a lot of special people, made a lot of great friends, and really gave me the confidence to make the leap into a business. This transformed me from just the streetwear I Seek Knowledge owner or the tagger ISK and PIXL to Tailored Truth the street artist. Since then, I have painted across the country in festivals, collectors’ homes, alleys, businesses, streets of all kinds.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
Nothing is ever smooth in the art world, especially in the street art and graffiti world. Graffiti usually is not profitable at all because you have long hard nights with high risk of being caught with no one asking to pay you. Street Art can be profitable with murals, canvas paintings, apparel, etc., but you also have both sides arguing about making money. I think great art can be anything and that there are millions of ways that one can make a point, express themselves, and make money at the same time. People always want to be on a team or a side like politics, where they feel the need to hate on the other side, never realizing we are all people who mostly believe in the same things. The biggest struggle is the one amongst ourselves, always trying to pull others down or worse, our own self down. Internal and External conflicts are very real in the graffiti and street art scene and something I have always had to deal with. Especially when I blend art and human rights activism.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I usually work with aerosol spray paints when doing street art, graffiti, and murals. I also use paint brushes with acrylic and oil paints, stencils, wheat paste, and rollers to achieve the look that I want. Usually, when designing pieces, I use Procreate on an iPad with an Apple Pencil to lay the design on a wall. I specialize in graphic design utilizing Photoshop, Illustrator, and Procreate in making logos, graphics, and murals for businesses, companies, and other artist.
When not doing designs for others to make money, I look to make a statement or share an idea that invokes the human condition complemented with the notions of philosophy, love, human rights, nostalgia, and global conditions. My biggest goal is to have someone see the piece that invokes an epiphany within themselves, which I believe to be the strongest and rarest feelings a human can experience. One of my favorites is to use cartoons and characters people are familiar with and then creating that character to have a strong emotional expression for people to connect with in a different but familiar way. I am known for using symbolism and subliminal messaging in my work to convey ideas within the piece that may or may not be picked up by the viewer. One of the coolest street art types of pieces I am known for are the cellophane pieces, where I plastic wrap between two objects to make a wall and then spray paint on the plastic wrap itself. This makes a cool effect and also makes street art possible almost anywhere.
Some of my favorite pieces of all time were when me and my friend Fupa made fun of the Trump vs. Clinton election by making Trump Hitler and Clinton a banker pig. This got the attention of the news and was shown on CNN. One of my nostalgic pieces with cartoon characters all depressed I put up in the historic Wynwood Miami that stayed there on the corner for over 4 years, wishing everyone was there. In a place that changes art within minutes, I was surprised it stayed so long. I had never seen such a place with art. It was so foreign, so different, so wild, that I wished I could have shared that experience with everyone. Since then, Wynwood has changed a lot, turning more corporate and ritzy compared to the gritty, chill street vibe it once had. I also really love space and the vast possibilities out there; my space designs are some of my absolute favorites, especially in aerosol, because it renders so incredibly.
The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you, and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
Covid was crazy for me. My art career and business was growing at an exponential rate, and the thing about murals, logos, design, etc. is that this type of work is for a lot of small businesses. When Covid-19 happened, small businesses were hit like crazy, leaving me out of work for a couple of years compared to the years before. I had to get a job to help ends meet, where I joined the legal licensed cannabis industry. The industry has been crazy up and down, but I get to do design now consistently, which has made me really happy. It seems lately that things are opening up more than ever, and jobs for murals, logos, etc. have been coming up.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tailored_truth/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TailoredTruthArt
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/tailored_truth
- Other: https://tailoredtruth.threadless.com/
