That's Rachel, second from the left, leaning over to help someone during one of her Create & Sip events.
Here's me in the the BMX days, doing a wall ride over my sister Cheri's head. The Blues Brother Wall in Huntington Beach, 1990, still from my self-produced video, The Ultimate Weekend. Below is the Michael Jackson drawing of mine we talk about in the interview. It's in the front window of Rachel's studio right now.
At 23:20 in this radio show, you hear Rachel White start her interview with me. As most of you know, I'm doing a weird, unique form or Sharpie artwork these days I call "scribble style." While this interview starts out about my art, we spend a huge amount of time talking about my roots in the BMX/skateboard world in the 1980's. So it might be worth a listen to you old school and mid school BMX riders out there. I give several of you shout outs in the interview.
Last November, I finally made it to the First Friday Gallery Hop in downtown Winston-Salem. I was living in a tent in the woods on the outskirts of town. I became homeless as a way to focus 100% of my energy on making my art into a business. I looked horrible. I smelled horrible. And I had my big sketch pad wrapped up in two trash bags under my arm. I wandered around the open galleries on a chilly night.
I met a woman named Luba (I think that's it), who asked to see what I did. She was stoked on it, and told me to follow her around as she introduced me to people at several different galleries on Trade and Liberty Streets. Another woman, a energetic, tiny redhead, Rachel White, really loved my weird Sharpie art. Rachel had just moved her create and sip, wine and art business, Designs, Vines, and Wines, from her basement to the Studios at 625, right smack in the middle of the Trade Street art district here in Winston-Salem. Rachel was super busy at her first gallery hop, and told me to come back. I did. A month later, at the December Gallery Hop. I finally got some drawings to her in time for the February Gallery Hop. We've been working together on stuff ever since.
She started her one hour radio show on WDRB, out of Charlotte, and this was the second show, I think. She sent me the file, but it hasn't been out in a web sharable way until now. If you like my art, or want to hear about a bunch of the highly creative people that came out of the BMX and skate world, take a listen. You don't have to skip the first 23 minutes, it's cool, too.
Here's my Elvis Presley Sharpie "scribble style" drawing I just finished. I initially started this to go up on the wall at Earshot Music, here in Winston-Salem. Jane and Phred at Earshot were the first people to put my art up for the public to see, and gave me my first show here in Winston-Salem. I am really appreciative of that. But Elvis got snapped up by a man who bought another of my drawings from Earshot a while back.
At the moment, there's one of my drawings of The Ramones on the wall there. There's not much of an old school punk rock scene here, so nobody has snapped it up. I'm trying to keep two quality pieces up at Earshot, but I'm now swamped with orders. They are featuring another artist since my show ended, but the side wall has works by several local artists, myself included. So while I try to keep up with orders (a good problem to have), I need to do a couple for Earshot on the side, and a new piece or two for Rachel at Designs,Vines, and Wines on Trade Street, who also has my art up on the wall.
So, as you can imagine, my prices will be going up for original drawings after I finish those ordered right now, which is 6 to 8 weeks worth of work. Rachel has made a few large prints of my drawings of Dr. Maya Angelou, Jerry Garcia, and poet Mary Oliver. You can contact Rachel for those or me or Earshot if anyone's interested in The Ramones.
For all you Elvis fans out there, here's his classic song, "Do the Clam." Yeah, that's a real song.
Here's one of my favorite examples of the Doodle Wall idea. Years after beginning to do my Sharpie scribble style drawings, when I started to look up Sharpie art on the internet, Jessie Armand was the best around at this type of black and white work.
My original start to playing with markers for me way back in 2002 began with seeing a segment on making a doodle wall on big sheets of paper on Cindy Crawford's House of Style show on MTV. It must have been an old re-run, and it's not a show I ever really took the time to watch. I was just flipping channels one day, and the doodle wall thing caught my attention. I tried to do a mural on my wall on paper, and it completely sucked.
So I just kept playing with markers in different ways until I came up with my unique "scribble style" technique using Sharpies while living in the AAA Electra 99 Gallery owned by Fame Ass Arteest and taxi driving legend, Richard Johnson, in 2005.
Near the beginning of the interview below, you see a partially done drawing of a sea turtle. That's my take on a photo by Barspinner Ryan Brennan, who's become a hardcore free diver in Hawaii in the last couple years or so. If he likes the idea, I want to make some prints of the drawing to sell before too long and make us both a bit a cash.
I should have died about 6 or 8 times in the last 20 years. But I'm still here, just fat, with a mouthful of broken teeth, and I look like death warmed over. But I'm still here, alive, kicking, drawing and writing. Seeing myself on video I realized just how rough I look these days. Dang.
For those of you in the Winston-Salem/Triad area, you can see my Sharpie drawings in person at Rachel's studio: Designs, Vines, and Wines which lives in the Studios at 625, 625 Trade Street in downtown Winston-Salem. Or you can see some at Earshot Music, across the road from Hanes Mall, at 3254 Silas Creek Parkway, next to Marshall's, also in Winston-Salem. You can check out a bunch of my artwork on Facebook (Steve Emig in Winston-Salem) or on my Pinterest page.
I'm planning to be hanging out and drawing my Sharpie art at Rachel's studio tonight on Trade Street in Winston-Salem. The location is inside Studios at 625, at- you guessed it- 625 Trade Street. Saturday nights are an Open Art Jam there. You can see one or more artists (like me) actually working on our stuff. There's an open mike for poetry, spoken word, music, whatever. Chill out and watch, or join in, it's up to you. Rachel has "Create and Sip" art projects ($25- supplies included), about ten different ones, at her space, Designs, Vines, and Wines. You can do a project to take home, sip some wine (if you're legal, of course), and have a blast. Our friend Melvin will probably be there throwing out his great beats on his bongos, which always adds to the vibe and invites spontaneous dancing. It's always a good time.
I'm not an official artist there at 625, there are eight artists who are, all with different kinds of really cool work. Rachel at Designs, Vines, and Wines welcomed me in a few months ago, and I'm a featured artist in her space. You can check out the Kelly Slater surf drawing in the pic above, drawn in my original Sharpie scribble style, and a couple other original pieces of mine.
This video of a mermaid in the window of a Trade Street gallery is from 2010... and it has 90 views. About ten of those are mine. Every time I look for a cool clip to of the Trade Street scene, or the First Friday Gallery Hop, I end up watching this clip, because there are only a handful of clips, and most are old. That's a bummer, because the Winston-Salem First Friday Gallery Hops are a blast. So here's a tip for all the other artists in the Trade and Liberty Street scenes.
I'mSteve Emig, Winston-Salem's premiere Sharpie artist. Check out my Sharpie scribble style drawings and my doodle art stuff. Also, you can check out:
Facebook: Steve Emig (only one in Winston-Salem)
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/stevenemig13/ Winston-Salem Artists, do this: Take out your phone tonight. Shoot video and photos of SOMETHING at the Hop. Then put it on YouTube. If you're not sure how to do that, search YouTube for a how-to video. Then put it on Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, your blog, wherever. Help the world find our scene.
If you want to actually sell your art at a decent price, you need to let THE WORLD, not just the people walking around the Hop, know you exist. Let the world know WE ALL EXIST. That's what I'm doing. In the last week this goofy little blog has been looked at by people across the U.S., Canada, Australia, several European countries, and I got 63 views from Russia this morning. Not sure what that's about, but there are BMXers and artists there, lots of them. Or they may be reading my economic themed posts. Or they may be making bootleg copies of my Stevie Ray Vaughn drawing (go back a post). In any case, let the world know you rock on the First Friday Hop Nights Winston-Salem! Tonight, there will be no mermaids. But there will be Go-Go Dancersin the window of Studios at 625, (625 Trade Street) and near the stage at times. That's also where I'll be drawing live, at Designs, Vines, and Wines, in Studios at 625.
Come down and check out the artwork from a whole bunch of great artists and craftspeople, have a drink, let the kids rock the sidewalk chalk, stare at the Go-Go dancers when your wife's not looking. It'll be fun. Heckle me as I draw if you want to. It's OK, I was a taxi driver for years, I'm used to the abuse.
It's a hot summer night while still Spring, lots of people will be out and about. I'll try not to scare off the Go-Go dancers. Come join the fun. This Sharpie art Jerry Garcia drawing of mine will be on display and for sale:
Here's one of many videos on YouTube that will take you step by step through how to actually start a blog. I'm going to write about why you should start a blog, not how to actually do it. To learn any technical aspect of using a blog, social media or other modern technology, go to either YouTube or Google (or Bing if you're a Bingster) and search for a video or article to show you how to do it. People all over the world make these videos for every type of tech, they usually do it for free, and it's available to anyone online. This is how you learn new technology. Self-education. If this is a new idea to you, get used to it, this is an integral part of promotion or business these days.
Nobody knows how many blogs there are in the world, the highest number I've heard is over 440 million. Blogs have been around since about 2000, and come in all kinds of varieties. But basically it's a website the you add a new post two every so often.
Why should you start a blog for you business or creative work? A blog does a number of things. First, it gives you a web presence, it's something that people can find when they search the internet for your business or creative work. Second, a blog is a way to put out "content" to the world. People now expect to find most anything they need or want to know with a quick search or by asking friends for links. If you continually put out useful content (words, audio, and/or video) that's helpful, entertaining, or informative, you attract potential customers. Blogs can also direct online traffic to your website or brick and mortar business.
Do blogs make money? Some do, but not very many. ProBlogger is a great place to learn how blogs make money, both directly and indirectly. There's a big lesson about blogging in that last sentence. I just gave all of you a link that will take you away from my blog. Why would I do that? Because if you find my blog helpful, you'll most likely come back to it. So by sharing links that actually take you away from my blog, I'm adding value to my blog, and , hopefully, your life. That helps me in the long term. It's a kind of paying it forward in the online world.
Blogs can make money directly in some instances, and business owners, large and small, tend to think in terms of Return on Investment (ROI). If a business person invests $100 in advertising and then has $200 more sales, it's easy to measure the ROI. But the online world of blogs, vlogs (video blogs), social media, YouTube and other platforms don't work that way. These operate an entirely different way than traditional advertising, and that drives traditional business people crazy. If you're blogging for your own small business, big business, or building a small business like I am, I suggest you think of your blog as a gift to your customers and potential customers, not something that makes money directly. What can you give your potential customers, for free, that would be of value to them?
If my blog is not going to make money, then what's the point? The point is to provide free entertainment, tips, or helpful information to make a direct connection with people. Some of those people will become customers. Some of those people may refer you to other potential customers. Some of those people will take your information, move on, and never buy anything from you. That's the game these days. Almost every kind of information is available for free today. Like it or not, that's the way things are. If you want to be a player in business in today's world, you need to freely give everything you can to your community.
What do I mean by "community"?
As we transition into the Information Age, "community" doesn't just mean your neighborhood or city. For a creative person or business today, your community is everyone, everywhere who is interested in what you do. It's not just your customers, your community or "tribe" as Seth Godin calls it, is all the people out there, who know you exist wherever they may live, and interact with you in some way. For example, I don't like the drink Red Bull, but I watch the action sports videos they produce all the time. I'm part of the Red Bull community, though I never drink the stuff. I actually wish they would make a product I could buy.
As a business or creative person, your job these days is to serve your community(ies), and make some money along the way. There are two basic ways to find a tribe to serve. Either you find one that already exists, and start adding your ideas and value to it, or you create your own community. Or both. In my case as I'm building my art and writing business, I'm doing both. I was an active blogger in the Old School BMX bike community as a result of my blogging about the old days for the past decade. So when I initially started trying to sell my drawings, the old BMX guys I was Facebook friends with were the tribe I tapped into. Now I'm working on building a new community, starting with people in the local art scene here in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and others I connect with online interested in art, business, and the combination of the two.
A blog is a great way to help build a community.
With a blog, I set up the initial blog, figure out the design, and then I create a post. Posts start with a title, then usually include either an embedded video clip or photo, which makes a huge difference, and then text. The point of a blog, as I said, is to serve your community, not pummel them with advertising, old TV commercials, or other crap. CREATE GOOD CONTENT.
The best questions to ask before a blog post are: 1) What blog post would I like to check out? 2) Who are the people in my tribe? And 3) What can I give to these people that will be helpful, entertaining, and worth taking the time to check out?
Be yourself in your blog.
This is absolutely crucial, and really hard for many people. Most people, especially sales people and managers, continuously put on a front or a facade they use to talk people into buying something or adapting their ideas. As a blogger, you want to do the opposite. A direct sales pitch is the death nail of a blog (or social media post). Blog about what really matters to you, and, by extension, to the people who follow your blog. Authenticity is a word you hear all the time in blogging and social media marketing. If you come across as fake, you may be able to con people... for a while. But YOU WILL be found out before long. Remember, this is the Information Age we are heading into. The information about you will be available to lots and lots of people. If you're shady or screw people or pretend to be someone else, you'll get called out. Then you lose trust. Trust is one of the most important things in the Information Age. Once you lose a community's trust, it's real hard to get it back.
Here's an example. This is the new blog I just started for Rachel, who owns Designs, Vines, and Wines here in Winston-Salem. Rachel likes my drawings, thinks they'll be worth millions of $ some day (OK, hundreds of $) and hangs some in her studio space. But, after years in the tech world, she hates sitting there working on a computer doing social media and marketing. She'd rather be painting or helping other people create fun projects.
So we're doing a trade where I'll do some blogging and social media to promote her business, and she'll hang my drawings to promote my work. Here's the thing about authenticity. Rachel and I come from different backgrounds, have different interests (outside art) and use different words, phrases, and speech patterns. So if I pretend to be Rachel when I'm writing, her friends and community will know something just doesn't sound right. So I write for her business, but I write, as myself, and put a "-Steve" at the end of each post to be honest with her readers. I'll do a post on her blog introducing myself, and talking about our trade out. Then there's no deception, her community knows, "Oh yeah, Steve blogs for Rachel, and does some art she has up." When Rachel writes posts, she can add "-Rachel" at the end, and people will know it's her speaking in her own way. It seems like a little thing, but we're all bombarded by media from all directions these days. And if something feels fake to our way of thinking, we drop it and move on to something else. In today's media saturated world, people crave something "real." If you want your blog to stand out among the 440 million other blogs out there, you HAVE to be real.
There's a lot more to come on this subject in future posts here, so stay tuned. And if you're in the Triad/Winston area, check out Rachel's blog and come down, check out her work, and do a project and sip some wine. It's always a fun time in her studio.
Although I'm not an official artist in the Studios at 625 on Trade here in Winston, Rachel White has welcomed me in, and is an Energizer Bunny when comes to promoting art. She put these two drawings, done in my Sharpie art scribble style, in some competition with official judges and a cash prize. She is always bouncing between her own projects, guiding people through wine and art projects at her Designs, Vines, and Wines, ($20, wine to sip, cool projects anyone can do and take home), promoting art, organic gardening and promoting wines. When she gets an idea, she just goes full steam at it, so I don't even know the details yet. But these are two of my better works, and recent ones, so we'll see what happens. Thanks Rachel!
Update: It's an upcoming juried art show at Delurk Gallery that she entered me in.
