Today we’d like to introduce you to Scott Tarbox.
Hi Scott, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’ve been drawing my entire life, mostly as a distraction from school and intense OCD. I tried a lot of therapy and medications but nothing really seemed to work until I began self medicating with drugs and alcohol. From 17-25 I was pretty lost in what I wanted to do or who I was, just trying to keep pain at bay.
When I got clean, over years I learned that community and passion are the most important things in my life that help me stay focused and I’ve also found the importance of art being used to tell stories and speak truth to power in current events. I’ve tried to give back what I was given in terms of being welcomed to a community of artists and being an advocate.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Yes and no. I got incredibly lucky early on, becoming a popular pin artists at the peak of pin popularity. It really was a blessing and a reliable source of opportunity and income. I knew it might not last forever as things often go the way of Beanie Babies and collectible spoons and lose their fever pitch, so I kept pushing for murals. They’re my favorite thing to do and luckily my work doing murals kept up and even increased while pins became less popular.
It really is feast and famine – some months I’ll think work is drying up and then a week later I’ll land the biggest job of my career. That being said, I do have serious concerns about sustainability with how the economy and cost of living is going. I don’t have a backup plan and now I have a mortgage and kids so I kinda gotta make it work
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I do so many different types of things. I teach, I draw, paint, build, install murals, create merch. But my favorite thing is definitely creating murals. I love the way that they interact with the environment and tell a story. There’s almost always challenges and obstacles to figure out and nothing compares to walking away from a finished mural
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Unfortunately I see mural festivals becoming less common. I see corporate work becoming more desired and adventurous styles being relegated to free walls, which for me just means a lot more commissions doing different stuff than what I’d rather be doing but that’s how it is. If you make art a job, it becomes a job and that’s part of it
We’ll see though, maybe there will be a big swing back toward funding adventurous stylized work
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tarboxtarbox.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tarboxx2
