Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:22
#ArtistTalk | How to fund your art with artist, zine maker, DJ, & cat lover Eamon
It was during his years at La Roche that he started making his zine bedlam with the collaborations of his friends loved ones. He restarted production of that scene in 2017. As an artist, he has created a heap of work largely about cryptids and creatures of legend. His love of mythology and folklore go back to his early childhood. Amen I am so happy that we get to talk about all things art in life today
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:14
And so I wanted to talk a little bit about that because that can be such a scary part of the process for a lot of people. How did you begin making this particular kind of art? And you can go even back before then to the point that you were willing to start investing your own money in the creation of it to a larger level. And now get to the point where you have this incredible Kickstarter campaign asking your community for support so that you can move forward with these cryptid Oracle cards
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:00
You mentioned in your Kickstarter campaign that you have worked in retail for a really long time and it made me curious about one of the things that artists often have to juggle paid work versus the work that they hope to eventually get paid to be able to make or is part of the process or just something that they want to work on because they're passionate about it
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:13
And I think the fear for a lot of people in taking that next step and asking for funding or asking for community support is failure or it not going well or people not being excited. I love talking to artists about failure. In fact, I have a newsletter about it. I'm sort of obsessed with it just because of all of the things I've learned through failure in my own creative and arts practice and other areas of my life
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 1:02
Or what would you suggest as far as what to think about or some sort of checklist that maybe you would suggest to be like, okay, yeah, I'm ready. This is the time or this is what you've learned at this point about what has made your kickstarter and your community funding so successful for your Cryptid Oracle cards
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 0:46
Lastly, just because I'm curious and it's so fun, what is the thing that you are currently obsessed with? We know you're obsessed with cryptids and obviously making art, but I'm curious if there's anything else at this moment, throughout this funding campaign and all the work you're doing that's also influencing your work or project, whether it's a book, some kind of food, a moment in history, a certain material, paper, marker, paint, anything
Eamon McNamee
@bedlamboy · 4:56
Okay. So the actual story goes, I sort of lost a relationship in 2019. And part of it I was like, well, I think it's because I don't actually have the visual language that I used to have. And so I went ahead and was like, I should do art. I should do art again. I should do art. And that was just in time to decide. I will do an art every every day in the year 2020
Eamon McNamee
@bedlamboy · 5:00
I might have done small little arts here and there, but nothing in a consistent manner and nothing that allowed my skills to grow. So I suppose the message to other artists is it's never too late. I think I imagined one day when I retired, I would become an artist and I would have time to do these things, and that's the plan that I thought they would have
Eamon McNamee
@bedlamboy · 5:00
When it comes to art stuff, I look to people who were comfortable with failure. To be fair, my ex and I who are on good terms, there's a lot of things that I learned from them about how they make art and how they will just be comfortable with like, eh, it's not good. I'm like but yeah, like, the idea of sunk's cost fallacy really is something that has taken me a long time to grapple with
Eamon McNamee
@bedlamboy · 4:08
So think about that and like, yeah, just starting small and using those as templates for scaling something up is really helpful, but it also makes like a proof of concept, like whatever you want to make. Like, if you want to make a giant statue in the middle of downtown, make a small one and think about how much that was and what challenges you had. Yeah, I guess just think things through, which is the same thing we should be doing throughout our lives
Eamon McNamee
@bedlamboy · 4:16
When like brush pens came into my life I got really jazzed about those posca brush pens. They are a world changing device that I can only utterly endorse with my whole soul and whole heart. But long story short is I think I bring a big wide open heart to everything that comes across my table. And so I think I don't get lost on one thing unless it's a really big thing, and that's the actual story there
Bowie Rowan
@bowie · 2:33
And not only the ones that get immediate gratification or approval or validation through paid work or something that's really in service more immediately to other people rather than what can sometimes be the longer process of art making and all the uncertainty that that involves. So thank you so much. This was so incredible and so happy we got to have this conversation, and I want to open up this space for any comments or questions from anyone who potentially comes across this conversation at any point. Thank you so much again