Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Jones.
Michael, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I’m a fur coat baby, my father bought my mother a fur coat for Christmas, 9 months later… I’m sure that is why so many people are born in September. Since then I’ve been making stuff, carving my name in the bricks. In 94 I came to Atlanta and fell in love with the city. It became the fertilizer for my creations. My parents use to make the kids have a drawing contest, and I always lost, because mine were way over there, abstract then.
I have bad vision so my paintings are a reflection of my vision. Constantly moving objects, it’s almost as if I see thing vibrate, which is cool since everything is made of molecules. Glasses help me see clearly, but there is nothing wrong with my vision. I knew from a child, I was an artist, but only when I accepted it did I begin to find my vision. Now, I try to use any medium I can to get what is in my brain, out of my brain.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
I’d never win the lotto. Nothing is ever given to me, Things are placed in front of me and I have to choose, what will help everyone in the end. It was a long fall from heaven to this place called Earth but it was worth the trip. It’s like that ride at the water park, the water slide that falls straight down. You have to walk up all these stairs, you get inside this little rocket like thingy, the dude hits the button that opens the door, and before you know it there’s water pushing up your butt, not normal I tell you.
So it’s not a smooth ride. It’s more like a see-saw. You can’t go up unless you have someone else, and they have to go down, left foot right foot, one has to be left behind in order for the other to proceed. So when things get hard, I know I’m doing something right, because there something good coming through the hardship. People underestimate black men, but I rather be underrated than overrated.
Letter 75 – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
What is Letter 75? It’s a trip inside my brain. I create art. Some that will question things, others that will give no answer. I am traditionally a painter, but I like to use video, collage, sound, music as mediums to paint things. I can paint a picture with sound, I can write a song with paint, but what defines mine is the source of where it comes from.
Pain drives my passion, and people can sometimes sense it in some of my work. Other times its fear that drives me. The 5 story mural that I just finished helped me overcome a lot of things, so I can say it’s one of my greatest accomplishments. I learned that love always conquers hate because I hate heights, but I love painting. It’s hard to say what set’s me apart from others, I’m just a regular dude. Maybe it’s my approach to life and death and how they love to dance.
What role has luck (good luck or bad luck) played in your life and business?
I think luck is about your preparation. Because I’ve heard of people that won the lotto and their life turned to $h!t. Is that good luck? So luck to me has nothing to do with success or failure. Some may say well you lucked up on that 330 foot mural, because the original artist that was chosen to do it could not do it, but had I not been prepared to step up to the plate and hit the ball, it would have been a big disappointment on all parties involved, but especially for me. Bad luck…. ehhh.
Bad luck is also fictitious to me. I mean you can bathe in the stench of bad luck or you can get out of it and air out. I just try to learn from it all, take the good and bad and kiss the ugly. Preparation has played the biggest role in my success, that and patience. I had to learn patience, I’m still studying patience. I wanna be that fat alligator on the bank, waiting for that thirsty meal to sip sip sip, not that skinny gator chasing every little fish.
Contact Info:
- Address: 1450 Ralph David Abernathy #304 Atlanta Ga. 30310
- Website: www.letter75.com
- Phone: 4045436587
- Email: 75mixedmedium@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/letter75/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/75mixedmedium/
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