Today we’d like to introduce you to Nic Boone.
Nic, please kick things off for us by telling us about yourself and your journey so far.
I come from a desert town in Southern California. There wasn’t much to do around there except for drink, cause mischief, and if you were lucky- Play some video games. I suppose that is how that starts. I spend what can only be defined as an embarrassing amount of time behind a game controller. I was never someone who quite fit into the social norms growing up, so I found a lot of relief in those times. Any time I had to myself away from the prying eyes of my otherwise hyper-conservative down was spent playing games, and as I got older, thinking. The few friends I had I spent a lot of time wanting to engage with thoughtfully- and many of them weren’t really conditioned to navigate or want that. I suppose its good that some of them are still out there, its good to know that good people exist.
I hated my time in school. I graduated high school early and went off to my first college — a somewhat infamous school in San Francisco- where I really struggled. I couldn’t afford rent, my life outside of school was really awful, and I had never had the chance to have the education in art some of my peers had. I was a pretty awful person back then myself- which is a thing that I find myself still correcting today. Eventually, I had to leave college due to financial hardship I still suffer. I even got accepted to a school I had heard was much better in Pasadena, California, only to discover on my arrival it was another set of fraud, smoke and mirrors our education systems have become. Not even a year later, I was homeless again, bouncing from sleeping in a car or staying on couches. If it weren’t for the friends I made, I don’t think I would have pulled through.
I moved to Atlanta almost three years ago now. When I first got here, I didn’t know anyone. I was in such a deep pit of anxiety and depression about my future that I couldn’t see anything getting better. It manifested itself as an unhealthy work ethic for a time, creating a cycle of hyperfocus and crashes that lasted for days or weeks. But out of sheer random chance, one of my closest friends, an Artist names Mitch Malloy, met a local artist at a show for illustration in Chicago. I became friends with him, and we started showing up to a figure drawing group that he was part of. To my surprise, the group was run by Brian Stelfreeze – who even though he didn’t need to, ended up mentoring me a great deal. In my time with him, I felt like I had learned more than I have at any other time in my life. I felt a sense of purpose again and started to think, work, and act in better ways. I was so lucky to have people to talk about these ideas and skills within a way I felt I could act on.
Today, I am still improving and learning. Most of my pursuits are rooted in a want to self actualize, and define what that even is.
Can you give our readers some background on your art?
Most of the art I do is centered around illustration. I primarily work as an oil painter, but sometimes like to experiment digitally. I really enjoy the expressive, descriptive nature that those mediums offer without ever needing to get too overly detail oriented in my work. A good portion of my work is a mix of trying to plan the piece as much as possible ahead of time and adjusting the piece more holistically.
I have always been deeply inspired by darker subject matters. The process of creation and destruction is something I really envy, and I spent a lot of time admiring artists who have captured the complexity and subtlety that exist in what might otherwise be unpleasant. Growing up, the works of artists like HR Gieger, Zdzislaw Beksinski, and others really had a deep impact on me. The themes of a deep hysteria, of fear, and of desolation show up in a lot of work I enjoy- and so it shows up in my own work. There is something about the exploration of my art for me that almost passively now provides for me these darker subject matters.
Ultimately, what I do is tell a story- and everything I do is just a different method to tell another part of it. When a person engages with my art, I want to engage them in that story, and I want them to feel the mood of each work. There is a degree of production in the work I do, but what I really want is for people to engage in a very authentic, humanizing way with both my work and myself.
What responsibility, if any, do you think artists have to use their art to help alleviate problems faced by others? Has your art been affected by issues you’ve concerned about?
This is actually a question that has been on my mind for a long time. The answer is just F^@!-n awful. Artists in my field are lucky to get a break into this field of work at all. Once they get in, the struggle for fair pay and benefits for their labor is one most artist are only just beginning to actually learn how to fight. Organizations like Game Workers Unite are working to help artists [and the rest of game workers] to finally start getting a fair shake. Too often I hear again and again that people are struggling to pay rent, pay for meals, much less even have any semblance of a social life or family. To do the job I do, it takes roughly 10 years of training to finally start getting to a place where we can get competent enough to become employed- many of us attend predatory colleges that fleece us for hundreds of thousands we can never hope to pay back, with a promise that when you graduate you will find work in your chosen field. But that simply isn’t the case. Many of the times, these schools list any form of employment, even at minimum wage unrelated retail labor as “employed in their chosen field.” Life is incredibly hard for us. Even the top earners in these fields find they struggle to make rent, and often times can’t live outside of expensive cities due to the nature of their offices. The lucky ones manage to work remotely in smaller areas but live with a constant lack of job security and alienation for their labor. Many of them could not afford to purchase the work they create.
As for what cities can do to help – First, start forgiving student debt entirely, or better yet, adopt socialist policies in your local area. We must fight for free healthcare, for Labor Friendly laws, for free education, and to start having the wealthy actually pay their share. Adopt rent control policies, embrace social and economic justice for all. Here is an idea: something that would help a lot of us is if we just abolish ICE- or at least ban its presence in city limits. If you want to watch artists thrive, the solutions are fairly simple- organize to fight for something better, start addressing economic injustice, and stop putting more power and wealth into the hands of the rich in your city. Here in Atlanta, when you walk around downtown, I want you to look up at the skyscrapers and start asking if the people who own those buildings even care about your suffering.
What’s the best way for someone to check out your work and provide support?
You can always Check out my website, Nicboone.com, or find my work on Instagram, artofnicboone. I have kept to myself, and intend to keep to myself for a while longer yet. I feel that much of what I am pursuing isn’t something I am willing to share yet. But if you want to kick me over some sweet donation money, far be it from me to stop you from reaching out to me by email. For business inquiries, I can also be reached through my website.
Contact Info:
- Website: Nicboone.com
- Email: Nicolas.c.boone@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artofnicboone/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/NicBoone
Image Credit:
Nic Boone
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