Michael Orwick — Embrace Fun and Experimentation

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For today's episode we sat down with Michael Orwick, a contagiously cheerful artist with a deep passion for capturing the atmospheric beauty of the Pacific Northwest through his unique "illuminated tones" style. Michael emphasizes the importance of embracing experimentation and fun in the artistic process, advising aspiring artists to focus on what they love and not be afraid to make mistakes. He shares his journey from studying illustration, to working in restaurants and bars, to full-time painting and traveling while pursuing humanitarian efforts. He also highlights the value of having diverse income streams as an artist to help one have more freedom to create on one's own terms and reminds us of the importance of having a work-life balance based on your personal needs. Finally, Michael tells us about his online classes and upcoming workshops!

Michael's FASO site:
https://www.michaelorwick.com/

Michael's Online Classes:
https://www.michaelorwick.com/workshops

Michael's Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/michael_orwick/

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Transcript:

Michael Orwick: 0:00

I think you can just paint what you love and things that are interesting to you over and over and evolve. I think it's important to go, okay, maybe I have a weak point. I can get into that. But I really think leaning in towards our strengths and things that we enjoy, if art wasn't fun for me all these years, and especially in the early years, when I was doing it blindly, like I was, you know, being a bartender, being a waiter, doing all these things, and I would come home and paint for another four to five hours. I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't fun. So I think that we learn through being focused in a way, but at the same time, have fun.

Laura Arango Baier: 0:47

Welcome to the bold brush show where we believe that fortune favors a bold brush. My name is Laura Arango Baier, and I'm your host. For those of you who are new to the podcast, we are a podcast that covers art marketing techniques and all sorts of business tips specifically to help artists learn to better sell their work. We interview artists at all stages of their careers, as well as others who are in careers tied to the art world, in order to hear their advice and insights. For today's episode, we sat down with Michael orwick, a contagiously cheerful artist with a deep passion for capturing the atmospheric beauty of the Pacific Northwest through his unique illuminated tones style, Michael emphasizes the importance of embracing experimentation and fun in the artistic process, advising aspiring artists to focus on what they love and not be afraid to make mistakes. He shares his journey from studying illustration to working in restaurants and bars to full time painting and traveling while pursuing humanitarian efforts. He also highlights the value of having diverse income streams as an artist, to help one have more freedom to create on one's own terms, and reminds us of the importance of having a work life balance based on your personal needs. Finally, Michael tells us about his online classes and upcoming workshops. Welcome Michael to the BoldBrush show. How are you today?

Michael Orwick: 2:01

I'm doing great. Thank you. How are you doing? Laura, doing

Laura Arango Baier: 2:04

great. I'm excited to chat with you, because we were just saying you're actually one of the happiest people out there. And it is contagious. I must say it is contagious.

Michael Orwick: 2:15

Good if you have any contagions, these are the ones I want to share. Definitely,

Laura Arango Baier: 2:19

yes. And of course, I'm excited to have you on the show, because I love your work. Your use of color is so and this is gonna sound funny, but it's delicious. It is delicious. Yeah? It is just a treat. Drive

Michael Orwick: 2:34

to make very lickable paintings. That's why I don't use lead

Laura Arango Baier: 2:39

paint. Yeah? Oh, good. No. Cadmium too.

Michael Orwick: 2:42

Well, yeah, you don't look very much of it, just, yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 2:47

but, but yeah, your work is absolutely gorgeous. And I love how you go from being it. They go from being very melancholic to very happy to very moody to all of these gorgeous in betweens. And I know that. You know that comes a lot from your, you know, your love of tonalism. But before we dive into all of that good stuff, do you mind telling us a bit about who you are and what you do? Sure?

Michael Orwick: 3:13

Michael orwick, born and raised in Oregon here and so a lot of the atmosphere and stuff just comes from the fact that Oregon is just constantly draped, clouded, fogged in whatever, just covered in beautiful, tasty atmosphere. And I just, yeah, my whole mission in my work is kind of the mystery, the ambiguity, and a lot of it's just about atmosphere and light. And yeah, I used to kind of be, like, saddened that we lived in such a people could perceive it as dreary, but it really isn't. It's just magical. And so, yeah, that's a lot of what I try to capture. You know, even though I've lived in Oregon my whole life, I've also lived in Australia for basically a year. We've traveled the world for a year, been to like 23 or 24 different countries, and, yeah, I'm just excited to call Oregon home. Like throughout all of that, there's definitely beauty everywhere, but Oregon feels right,

Laura Arango Baier: 4:18

nice. Yeah, yeah, there's something about the fogginess of, you know, the atmosphere, right, seeing, like, the really beautiful forest, just like, hidden behind, you know, sheets of fog and it just, yeah, it's, I know some people would think that it's kind of like sad, but it there is a mystery to it that I like, that you're reaching into, like, that magic that's I

Michael Orwick: 4:41

think nothing invites the viewer in, like a sense of mystery, yes, like come into this enveloping, unfolding story and discover it for yourself. And I think that soft edges are lost and found. Things just invite the viewer to be a part of it. And hopefully. Interest them. I mean, it's funny because I'm looking at this, like, long, horizontal back here, and I think that that's so colorful and bright for me, because Oregon does have, you know, beautiful, clear days, but it's still just sucked in with soft light. And,

Laura Arango Baier: 5:16

yeah, yeah, there's something about that Northern Light, like, up in in the northern, uh, northern most areas of the of the Northern Hemisphere, that's there's just something about even the color of the sun. Since you've you've traveled around, you also must have noticed that sometimes, I don't know if maybe it's the humidity in the air, the sun just feels different in every

Michael Orwick: 5:41

Yeah, and I think that's the joy of, you know, being a landscape painter and trying to, I don't try to paint fully representationally, but I do try to get the essence of a thing, or the essence as it's filtered through me, of a thing, of a scene. And, yeah, the light and the atmosphere is generally my gateway, my entry into that scene. Yeah, yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 6:04

yeah, totally. And speaking of you as a filter, actually, I wanted to ask you, when did you begin your path as an artist?

Michael Orwick: 6:13

Always ago, yeah, since the very beginning, I grew up on in a little town there wasn't, like, a lot of art, or maybe even any art, but my mom was an English teacher and a poet, and my dad was a doctor, and we lived on a little hobby farm filled with weird, mismatched pets, and some of my favorite times were just Going out into nature and just literally laying on the forest floor, looking up through the trees and watching the light sparkle through and sitting by a creek side and just watching the ripples of water. And I didn't really, you know, you don't think about it at that age. You just know that this somehow is interesting to me. But I drew and painted. I don't want to say suffer, but I have a pretty extreme dyslexia and ADHD. And for a lot of people, that would have been an issue, but for me, it seems to have just been like my again. My mom was a teacher, my dad was a doctor, and they just helped provide tools and reinforced my interests. And so I was really lucky that I just even all my teachers and stuff were just like, oh, you know, do this through your art. You know, do this science project through your art, do and so just kind of just kept evolving that way. I studied illustration in college, which was great, because it's all about storytelling. And, you know, how do you convey a whole book and, you know, just one image, or, you know, at least keep the mystery alive so they want to read the book. So I did that for a while, and, yeah, I worked in restaurants and bars for, I think, almost 10 years since the beginning of college through college, and then the first four or five years of my career, and I found it to be a kind of the perfect job. For one, it taught me to be with people and around people, which is a great counterpoint to being an artist in their studio. And for two, I was just able to the more I worked, the more I did shows, the more I was making money from my art. I was literally just able to work less and less and less, you know, from full time in the beginning to where I was just working one day a week, until eventually, I think I talked about this story before, but I right before our daughter was born, I showed up to work, and there was a new manager, and he looked at me, and he's like, Do you work here? I'm like, You know what? I don't think I do. And I just went home and yeah, my wife's like, what happened? I was like, I think I quit. Think I'm a full time artist now. And that was literally right before our daughter was born, and now she's 20, so it's been a long time since I've had a real job,

Laura Arango Baier: 9:03

I mean, real, yeah, quotations, that's insane and amazing and wonderful. And it's so great that you had such a wonderful support system through your childhood, because that is so key, you know, to have parents who are, you know, keen to see, hey, how does my kid, you know, view the world, and how can I make sure that they're supported in all the ways that they need to be, so that they don't, you know, grow up, you know, feeling any sort of, maybe shame or guilt or, you know, just because they're different, right? Um, so, right, yeah, super important. Oh,

Michael Orwick: 9:39

yeah. I joke with my parents that they raised three children. Actually, they raised a ton. We have so many adopted and you know, people in our family, but three children, one's a horse trainer, one's a beautician, and myself. So I was always like, you raised three kids with very illogical jobs as far as money is concerned. So we all love what we do. We all love our you know, they saw that early and supported us. And, yeah, that's really neat. And, yeah, there's not a day that goes by that I don't appreciate them for that.

Laura Arango Baier: 10:12

Yeah, oh, that's beautiful. And, yeah. And like you said, it sounds like you all chose very passionate careers, which means exactly, yeah, you had, like, the room to grow in those directions, which is good job, Mom and Dad. That was great.

Michael Orwick: 10:25

Good job, Ken and Lori, yeah.

Laura Arango Baier: 10:28

And then also, when you were studying illustration, right? When did you come across, you know, like the term tonalism, for example. And then how did that develop into your illuminated tones as your So, like your own genre, sub

Michael Orwick: 10:47

genre? Um, yeah, that's a good question. I would think it was so slowly over time, like, I think you start realizing you're gravitating towards a thing before you realize it has a name or a style or, you know what I mean. So, yeah, my first favorite artist was Maxfield Parish, and we had some posters and prints, probably like most American families growing up. We had Albrecht jur and Maxfield parish and a couple other artists, and not originals, but, you know, and I just really, really liked Maxfield parish's work, and so there was something in the luminosity and the layering, a lot of things I didn't learn till later. You know, how he was doing, what he was doing, but I just knew there was something there. And then, yeah, seeing tonalist works, where it's the simplicity, it's the tearing out all that's unnecessary, to invite the viewer in on this kind of minimal, direct thought process or question, and just making it conversational in a way. And so, yeah, I wouldn't say I actually knew it tonalism till after college. But I also, you know, love the luminists, which were also very glowy. And so, yeah, the reason I came up with the term illuminated tones is because I just found I laid somewhere in between the two of tonalism and luminism. And you know that I would post on Facebook pages and different websites or inter tonalist competitions, like, you're not a tonalist, you're a luminous and then I would do the same thing with luminous and like, you're more of a tonalist, because I like the looser brush strokes. I like the, you know, more impressionistic or abstracted work that's in tonalism, whereas luminism is generally very pristine, which I just, for some reason, don't care so much for. But I love the glow, and I love the color contrast and the temperature contrasts, and so, yeah, I guess, in a defensive mood, move on my own part. I just said I'm both. There's no term for this. I'll create my own. Working with my students, we, who are, I've got a couple pretty great writers in my classes. We just kind of broke it down and just came up with illuminated tones, which kind of rolls off the tongue nicely. And yeah, on my website, there's a little one paragraph right up that you can read and see kind of what it means to me, but what what it meant in the most part, what was most important to me was, as a creative person, you just don't want to be held to any you know, strict thing. So if it's my thing, everything I do now is right?

Laura Arango Baier: 13:43

Exactly, yeah, yeah. You're not playing by someone else's rules because they're more like guidelines. They're just

Michael Orwick: 13:48

I, yeah, I rewrote the rules. Yeah, yeah, exactly,

Laura Arango Baier: 13:51

and that's awesome, and I'm still figuring

Michael Orwick: 13:53

out those rules.

Laura Arango Baier: 13:54

Yeah, yeah. It takes time, because, I mean, when, especially when you have a sub genre that you know you're developing, right? It takes, you know, a lot of years of development and experimentation and seeing how it goes. And then that actually leads very nicely into my next question, which is, yeah, do you work primarily in just studio, work plein air or imagination? And then to add on top of that, how has illustration helped you create those imaginative landscapes?

Michael Orwick: 14:26

Ooh, good. Two parter. The answer to the first three part question was, yes, I work in plein air. I work in the studio. I work for my imagination. Again, I'm just kind of scrolling through some of the images that are back here, and besides the big horizontal, which is much, at least design wise, much closer to the reference photo, but all the colors have been changed. All the lighting has been changed. So yeah, I I like to we're. From multiple, multiple references. And I'm constantly telling my students that the reference, or pile of references, in my case, oftentimes, and a reference could be literally a rug, like just the colors in a rug. It could be a mug, like just, you know, handmade mug that's just beautiful colors. And how do I incorporate that into my work? So it's just a jumping off point. So yeah, I'm a big believer in kind of like the jazz thought of painting. It's just you start with one thing, like a rhythm or a movement, and then you alter it, make it your own. You filter it through yourself. So even when I'm outdoors playing air painting, where I'm so attracted to a scene, you know, something that made me stop my car and pull over, I'm still going to filter that I don't think I've painted like where I'm just trying to paint the thing as I see it. In years, I just think I'd be very bored by doing it. But I do again with my students. I tell them there's a great importance in doing that, because you're learning so much about how light and color and all those things work together. But eventually, again, I've been doing this for 20 years plus, is you build up these tools in this arsenal, and you're you're riffing on the idea. Something I like to talk a lot about with my students is that there's journalistic painters and that there's poetic painters. And it's a huge line, like it's, you know, where do you lie in between? Or not even, where do you lie as a person? But where does this image that you're working on at this point? Is it straight, poetic, or is it more sorry my hand is off the screen. More journalistic? And I think that's an important question. And I think while we're working, we can adjust that line. We can just go, oh, this accident happened. You know, as Bob Ross said, Right? Happy accidents. Or as we discover a color that we're mixing, it's like, that's not in the scene that I see, but I sure like it, and would love to include it, and just going off on that, and just, I think that's how it becomes our own, is the more we can bring ourselves into the image. But I do have to warn people that that also invites a lot more chance for disaster fee. Or, as my daughter used to say, catastrophe. Or, what was it? Yeah, disaster fees, yeah. And it's just, you know, the more you're playing, the more you're experimenting. And when you experiment and go really experimental, there's a chance the painting will go off the rails, yeah, but it's on that fine line that I really enjoy working.

Laura Arango Baier: 17:41

Do you like to live on the line of danger,

Michael Orwick: 17:45

yeah, but at the same time, it's always a bit of an experiment. You're always a little bit pushing yourself out of your comfort zone. And I mean, we've been saying it for 100 years, the camera does a better job of making photos. We do a better job of making paintings. So, yeah, yeah. So the second question was, how did illustration affect or something like that,

Laura Arango Baier: 18:09

yeah, how did you, how did it help you create convincing, imaginative landscapes?

Michael Orwick: 18:15

Great, yeah, from illustration. A lot of my early work was, like my first book was Lewis and Clark, but told through the view of the Native Americans, through the Quinault Indian tribe, right? Very few photos. In fact, no photos to, you know, get inspiration from and what that might have been. So that kind of got me on this path of like, Oh, I've got to meet the Quinault Indian tribe. I've got to go meet the chief and hanging out with his daughters and take photos, and get to meet these people, to get just even a beginning of a concept, and then do all this research on, you know, what Lewis and Clark were wearing, and they're different, you know, all these things. And so, yeah, it's about research. It's about and then in my last couple years, it was a lot of like fantasy, whimsical work. So I'd have a little kid holding hands with a giant grizzly bear looking up at the stars, you know, and it's hard to get the models to do that for you. So of course, you're mixing images. Or, you know, there was dragons, there was mermaids, and all these things that we have an idea of what they are, but I still want to make it my own Dragon, my own mermaid, my own interesting thing. So yeah, and then the other, I think most important part in the long run has been that there's a narrative to a painting. And again, on the more poetic side, I think I'm not trying to always tell the viewer what the narrative is, but I'm inviting them to become a part of the narrative. And there's so many elements that can help tell a story. You know, time of day, location, weather, colors, all these things. So, yeah, I think I'm when I'm painting or thinking about the painting I've been working on. You. It is kind of, what's the narrative, what's the story? But a lot in the last couple years, it's definitely lean more towards what's the mood, instead of, you know, what's the story? Story, but what, what do I want you to feel? What do I want you to think about? What am I hoping that you'll go into this piece and question and bring out your own observations in it? Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 20:30

yeah. That's, uh, it's an interesting thing, because I, you know, that makes me also think, like, What's the color story as well? Because I feel like with illustration, since it is much more playful, right? And I feel that there's much of a much more of a deeper study in terms of color relationships and color composition and how that that can alter an image, like, for example, just off the top of my head, like green usually is used in illustrative images that are mysterious to evoke, right?

Michael Orwick: 20:59

Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 21:01

so, yeah, I could totally see how in your work, specifically, you know, you have this beautiful use of these grays, for example. And I feel like gray is like the most underrated color,

Michael Orwick: 21:13

under percent. I taught a whole class on chromatic grays. Even that painting that's on the bottom was one of the demos from that class. It's just amazing that grays are everything. Grays are 90% of what we see. Even on a bright day, the world is gray. Yeah, no, in a bad way, it's just the colors aren't pure.

Laura Arango Baier: 21:31

Yes, yes, exactly. And that's also such a huge key into creating an atmospheric image, right? Because I think a lot of people might approach color in an exaggerated way, which is very natural, because we as humans need to see those colors and perceive them, right? But then when you really look at those colors and you compare them to each other, they're never quite as saturated as they seem. It's always, like you said, it's just toned down a bit, and that's where that realism window lies, isn't that, that little gray area? Quite literally, yeah,

Michael Orwick: 22:08

yeah. And it is funny because, yeah, I mean, I'm not against bright colors, and a lot of my students, you know, definitely lean in that. And I say, you know, bravo. But for me, it doesn't feel like me. I always feel like I'm pretending to be something else. So, you know, over time, as we're playing painting, we we begin to discover that about ourselves. And yeah, there's beautiful, brightly, brightly colored paintings, but I also like to save that splash of color to make it special. You know, it's that old saying, if everything's special, nothing special. And so, you know, oftentimes I'll save a patch of bright color in my sky or for some red flowers in a field or a barn or whatever else. So, yeah, yeah, color is really important tool. It is,

Laura Arango Baier: 22:55

and it's really about those even in life, you know, it's those contrasts, right? You if, if everything is gray. You know, it's gray if everything is bright as bright, but then if you have that really nice like sun, sunbeam just peeking through the clouds, right? It's that contrast that makes it so much more vibrant. Actually, it's really funny how you can literally paint an image that's mostly black and white, but you add a little touch of color, and suddenly the whole image is colorful,

Michael Orwick: 23:24

right? Yeah, I talk about it in the form of a diva on a stage. And if the diva is not happy, if, like all the other people on stage, are competing for interest and focus, she's gonna go crazy, right? You've gotta give her her light. You've got to give her her space to reveal and show off. And, you know, unfortunately, background characters are necessary to make, you know, the diva sing, to make the diva show. So, yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 23:56

yeah, that's an excellent point, because, yeah, that I like the tie in with, like, music and theater, because it is very important to have that aria that the lead singer has, and then the backup singers who are, you know, buttressing her, so that her voice really stands out. So it's

Michael Orwick: 24:14

Yeah, yeah. Quick note on that was so funny. When I lived in Australia, there was a song on the radio and as a some punk song. And I really wish I'd have remembered who it was, but right in the middle of the song, the lead singer goes, everybody solo, and every instrument goes crazy, and it's just a cacophony of sound. And I just thought that was so such a clever, funny thing that, yeah, if everybody's showing off, everybody's doing their special thing. Nothing can be even heard.

Laura Arango Baier: 24:45

Oh, my god, yeah, yeah, it's, that's, I feel like that is such a great explanation, also for composition, and the importance of composition exactly because you need to lead the eye, or like you don't need to, but if you want to create an image that tells a story, right? You definitely want your eye to be guided around the image in a specific way. And that's something else that I think illustration really teaches very nicely, is yeah, really teaching people, yeah, where to look and where the eye should go next. And it's usually directional cues, right, and color cues and receding colors,

Michael Orwick: 25:20

edge, quality and temperature, all the things, yeah, every yeah, I've changed my like thought process from help to guide the viewer to when I go back and I'm finally critiquing my work, I don't even want to guide them. I want to lead them beautiful, yeah? And, you know, not always. Sometimes I want them to completely meander. But other times it's like, no, no, no, no, no, stop going over there. We're going over here. And then once you get to this spot, then you can look around,

Laura Arango Baier: 25:49

yes, exactly. And that's that is successful composition right there, which that's amazing. And also, actually, this leads into my next question, which is, when you talk to your students and they're really looking to improve their technique and, you know, find their artistic voice, which is something a lot of us are concerned about, especially at the beginning, what advice do You give them

Michael Orwick: 26:19

to have fun that you know, I just, I think that, you know, a lot of schools are like, No, you have to paint this bust, you know, a figure in black and white for a year or two. You know this, I already had this conversation with you, and that's great. I understand the technical side, but I don't think we should torture each other. I i think you can just paint what you love and things that are interesting to you over and over and evolve. I think it's important to go, okay, maybe I have a weak point. I can get into that. But I really think leaning in towards our strengths and things that we enjoy. If art wasn't fun for me all these years, and especially in the early years, when I was doing it blindly, like I was, you know, being a bartender, being a waiter, doing all these things, and I would come home and paint for another four to five hours. I wouldn't have done that if it wasn't fun. So I think that we learn through being focused in a way, but at the same time have fun, but then also being very honest with ourselves. Sometimes that does mean being a little bit hard, but also being a caring parent, you know to ourselves, and saying, you know you're working, you're trying. And one of my biggest sayings for myself is that every painting is about the next painting, that every painting is here to teach me something, so that the next painting I would like to think is going to be better. But a lot of times it's just, I'm learning a thing. I'm I'm getting a little bit better on one tool, maybe not painting incomplete, but it's yeah, just every painting is about the next painting. And we have to have so many, unfortunately, so many bad paintings, or less than successful paintings, and we have to thank them and just say, you know, I appreciate your lessons. And on we go to the next one, and you know, it's probably still going to suck, but at least I've learned a little bit of something and it's going to be a little bit better, yes, yeah, so yeah, that taking that minute to at the beginning of my self critique sheet is what do I love about it? And there's usually something I love in every piece, but I'll be still heartbroken that it didn't, you know, live up to my expectations, and didn't do all the things. So then you go on and you tear yourself in the painting apart a little bit, but in the beginning, it is Thank you. What did I learn

Laura Arango Baier: 28:56

at BoldBrush? We inspire artists to inspire the world, because creating art creates magic, and the world is currently in desperate need of magic. BoldBrush provides artists with free art marketing, creativity and business ideas and information. This show is an example. We also offer written resources, articles and a free monthly art contest open to all visual artists, we believe that fortune favors the bold brush. And if you believe that too, sign up completely free@boldbrushshow.com that's B, O, L, d, b, r, U, S, H show.com. The BoldBrush Show is sponsored by Faso. Now more than ever, it's crucial to have a website when you're an artist, especially if you want to be a professional in your career. Thankfully, with our special link, faso.com forward slash podcast, you can make that come true and also get over 50% off your first year on your artist website. Yes, that's basically the price of 12 lattes in one year, which I think is a really great deal, considering that you get sleek and beautiful. Website templates that are also mobile friendly, e commerce, print on demand in certain countries, as well as access to our marketing center that has our brand new art marketing calendar. And the art marketing calendar is something that you won't get with our competitor. The art marketing calendar gives you, day by day, step by step, guides on what you should be doing today right now, in order to get your artwork out there and seen by the right eyes, so that you can make more sales this year. So if you want to change your life and actually meet your sales goal this year, then start now by going to our special link, faso.com forward slash podcast, that's faso.com forward slash podcast, yeah, yeah, that's it's the harsh reality of any craft is, you're, you're not going to make a perfect anything for a while, right? Because you're learning and having to make peace with that is, it can be really hard, especially for, I would say, you know, from my experience, maybe you also maybe went through this where a lot of people who start their career as artists, or they're starting on that path of the artist, they think this is a bad painting, therefore, I'm bad, right? Which is, it's such a dangerous thought to have, because you're learning, right? So, like what you said, you said, you know, being a good parent to yourself and giving yourself the space to be understanding that, hey, you know, I don't think Da Vinci was perfect the moment he was born, right, right? No, yeah,

Michael Orwick: 31:34

no. And the more experimental, the more you're testing and trying new things, the more you're gonna fail. I mean, you're setting yourself up for that and applaud your bravery, and just yeah and yeah, nobody has to see it. Just you and write a note. Thank the painting. What did I learn? What can I do differently next time? And keep painting. Yeah, totally. Paint it, burn it. Paint over it, all the things. I mean, I paint over 40 to 50 paintings every year. I just have a big annual go out in the backyard with a big mask on, sand them down, and paint over them like, and it is people think, like, oh my god, I can't believe you're doing it. Oh, you know, I would take those paintings, but it's very cathartic just to go. You know, I don't need this, what I call mental like, karmic baggage in the back of my studio, all these paintings, like, why don't you love me anymore? Thank you for your time. The next painting me better. And I like painting on old paintings, I like, like the ghosts of painting past, kind of coming through and building up the next painting so

Laura Arango Baier: 32:49

and then also the texture, I think, yeah, just adds another layer of interest to when you apply The paint, it just does something to it. It's seasoned,

Michael Orwick: 33:03

yeah? Seasoned. That's a good word. Yeah? No, I like that. I did Wine, yeah? And I think there's something to be said for a painting. Sometimes they're three and four paintings deep, right? Because just nothing's quite worked out over the years. And it always makes me laugh when I'm like, Oh my gosh, this painting has three, four little ghosts of paintings that I can see. But on we go

Laura Arango Baier: 33:26

yes and yeah, and on we continue to go with every painting too, which is the important part, you know, not not stopping. Or at least, you know, whenever you can, you know, don't stop. And actually, speaking of not stopping since you've been very passionate right, about continuing your career as an artist. What was it like for you? I know you already started to mention it at the beginning. What was it like for you when you made that jump into becoming a full time artist? What was that time period like for you? I mean,

Michael Orwick: 33:58

scary, because we had a new baby and I was very optimistic in how much I could actually work and be a stay at home father with my daughter, well, my wife, you know, and but this, I don't know if you can barely see behind this big painting is a desk, and my daughter and I shared this studio for 18 years, and she was my studio mate, and we Have another studio on the other side, over here, and that was awesome. I loved having her in the studio with me, and she challenged me. She painted mostly abstracts, which is kind of funny, but now she's going to art school in Boston, and we still, I mean, even yesterday, for about two hours, had a phone call just looking at her work, looking at my work. And, yeah, I was really lucky. It's definitely quieter, cleaner, but not right now, but cleaner, and I get to listen to the music I want to listen to in the studio now. But, um, I miss her, and so, yeah, she, you know The Bjorn thing where the baby just gets strapped against your chest. There's lots of photos of me painting with my dog. Her in my thing. And then eventually she's reaching out, grabbing the brush. And eventually, I mean, the floor is just covered in paint, because she would sit on the floor and paint. And yeah, she had like, eight or nine gallery shows by the time she was like, 12 or 13. And yeah, and that was, yeah, it was a fun journey together. That trip we did around the world was based on her and we called it studio everywhere. And it was an idea that she came up with of, like, what if we went to orphanages and painted, and we took art supplies and did a project, and we did with every school, every orphanage, every group that we met with, we painted with over 500 kids from around the world, and it was, how do you see yourself? And so we did self portraits, but they were super open, open ended, like they could be whatever they wanted, like I am a dolphin. I am, you know, whatever they wanted, and the language was always a barrier. So it was very interesting to see what they came up with. But it was a such a neat thing to just travel and paint with kids and the fun way to see the world, yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 36:06

yeah. I don't know if that answers your question. I mean, yeah, I think what, what's beautiful about it is it seems like you're paying it forward. You know, like your parents supported you and then you supported your daughter, and now you know she's buddy, like, this budding artist who's, like, really moving forward with her career as well, which is so beautiful to hear, I think, just the image of, you know, you having your stuff in front while you're painting, that's adorable. That is so adorable. I love that. Um, yeah, that's awesome. That is so awesome. And then, you know, obviously, with the traveling, it really does broaden the mind, and it broadens, you know, your art as well, the stuff that you paint, and what means a lot to you, which is really awesome, and it touches people's lives too, which is another, Oh, I bet all those kids Still remember that.

Michael Orwick: 37:01

Yeah, no, we still get messages from a couple and yeah, it's neat. And yeah, I mean, the whole motto on my website, the first thing you see is, explore, create, share, and that is what I try to live by. And like, when people say, what do you do? Like, part of me wants to just go, I look for beautiful things and try to share it. And I mean, I couldn't think of a better life than that? Yeah, see, my life is so much beauty the world and I mean, it sounds like, what a crazy thing to say.

Laura Arango Baier: 37:32

It does seem crazy, but I think if I had to pick I would pick that. I mean, it's, it's, it's better to look at the bright side of things as much as you can, and to, like Howie said a lot earlier, you really have to, you know, spread that happiness when you feel it, make it contagious. Which I think you're definitely achieving that with your work and your humanitarian efforts as well, which is really cool, yeah, of course. And then also I wanted to ask, and I know it's one of those things that most of us worry about, which is income streams as artists, especially when you quit a day job, quote, unquote, right? So in what ways have you personally diversified your income so that you know, you're not worried that, oh, you know, this month I didn't sell enough paintings. Or, Yeah, sure.

Michael Orwick: 38:28

I mean, one of the early things was just getting galleries all over the place. I found, you know that a lot of my galleries were in kind of touristy areas, and touristy areas have hot times right during the year. So if you diversify where your galleries are, then you can kind of go, Okay, now it's this season over here. Now it's this season over here. It also allows my ADHD brain to go now I'm painting California. Now I'm painting, you know, Oregon. Now I'm painting, you know, wherever. And so it's fun for me to kind of bounce around and just okay, I'm preparing for this season in this gallery. So that was a part that was kind of early on, kind of like, I'm like, Oh, I discovered the secret, you know, to how to make galleries work. Because some of them don't sell for like, five or six months at a time, because it's just so quiet. Then I do sell prints, which has never been a good part of my marketing, but it's nice again. It's just I don't think art should be for only the super rich, God bless them, for buying my big work and working with me so I can do the right big works. But at the same time, I think that anybody that appreciates art should be able to have art and so that I also teach one class every week. As you can tell, I'm a bit of a talker, which you know, when you're working by yourself in the studio can get a little lonely. So it gives me that chance, not only just to hear my own voice, but to. Hang out with people that have the same or similar interests, you know, and just talk about art. It's amazing that people will want to spend three to four hours a week with me and just talk about my favorite things, you know. And so that's really nice. So I say that I teach because I need to, otherwise I'd explode. I need to be with people. Yeah, I'm a social person, and unsocial job, anti social job. So that's the main things I I'm trying to work with more designers, and work do more hotel projects and like large scale things I really do, like painting big, but it's they pile up pretty quickly here in the studio. If you have a bunch of six foot, seven foot paintings, and you don't have a market for it, so I do like and I'm working more towards finding some of that. Yeah, I do a lot of commissions, which, again, I enjoy. I turn down way more commissions than I take. It has to be something that I would want to paint. I'm to that point, luckily in my career, where it's I don't just paint everything and do anything for money anymore. So, but mostly, I think maybe just because of how I set up my website, or whatever, people self edit a lot of times before they get to me like, oh, he doesn't want to paint my grandma. He doesn't want he doesn't want to paint my dog. You know, I want to paint your land, the landscapes that you know are of special interest to you. Or, Yeah, think that's about it awesome,

Laura Arango Baier: 41:34

yeah, yeah, yeah. Those are really reasonable income streams. And actually, you picking different galleries in different hot spots like that. That's, first of all, genius. Second of all, I love that. You know earlier, you know, you mentioned working towards like in terms of your strengths, right? And for sure, one of the strengths of anyone with ADHD is the fact that we can hyper focus like crazy on one thing hardcore, and then drop it and jump to the next thing and focus on that hardcore. So I think you know working with that, making sure that you're fulfilling your own needs as a person who has a different view of life and a different way that your brain works, it's awesome that you found a way to make it work for you without feeling bogged down, like, for example, like how you just said, like, with commissions of things that you don't really care about, there's nothing worse than dragging your feet on a painting that you absolutely just want to forget about, and then you're kicking yourself in the butt, because why did I say yes,

Michael Orwick: 42:33

absolutely, yeah, and I've said yes to a lot of paintings. Hopefully I never see this video, but you know that we're really difficult. I wanted to do any I would rather do the dishes than work on this painting that I don't want to do. You know what I mean? And so, yeah, having that focus, having that interest, like this painting again, behind me is the big, this big horizontal as a commission. And it was a dream. It was so fun. I loved our conversations and how we just came together so quickly. And, you know, some clients are dream clients, and actually mostly our dream clients anymore, just because I think I've figured out how to self edit. And I'm not rude, you know, I just say I'm probably not the one for you. And I can give them a couple names, and you know, if they're friends of mine, that focus more on portraiture or more on structural, you know, buildings and things they're always happy to, you know, get a, at least a potential client sent their way. So, yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 43:30

that's excellent. Yeah. And then at first, you know, how did you manage taking on commissions of boring things, like, were you able to

Michael Orwick: 43:42

complete that? I came from an illustration background, true. So I was doing projects early on that just weren't exciting. And it's funny too, because when you first get hired, they're like, We love you. We love your style, we trust you. And by the end of it, it's a, you know, 10 person committee of everybody's nitpicking and they're contradicting each other, and that was why I got out of illustration work, was just, it just felt like I was just a hired gun, you know, on a lot of projects, and it just wasn't fun. And I learned a lot. I learned a lot about being time efficient. I learned a lot about organization. I learned a lot about working with good clients and difficult clients. So, you know, I'm thankful for that time, but I was also very thankful when I didn't have to do it anymore. I used to tell my wife, this is when I first got into my first two galleries, way back in the day, and I was still doing the fantasy, whimsical stuff, and that's what was in the galleries, the illustration stuff. I had figured out that if I did my illustrations in a particular manner, that I could sell them through galleries, as well as get paid by the book publisher. So I was making double the money. So I was doing personal paintings. Like, of hikes and trips and things just for my wife and I, and lots of little plein air stuff. And I told her, when I retire, I can't this is what I want to do. And about two months later, one of the galleries came to pick up some of the work for the gallery, and they saw my personal stuff, and like, Oh, could we show this? And I was like, Sure, yeah, actually. And it did so much better than the other stuff that I was like, I guess I retired. I guess I just gotta paint what I want now. And just, yeah, it was, it was really nice, really interesting, that that worked out pretty early on, but I didn't force it. I was just painting for me. And it was literally, I've always had this mindset that a day well spent painting should get rewarded with a Day Afternoon of painting, but it's painting for myself at that point.

Laura Arango Baier: 45:50

Yes, yes. That's very for you for

Michael Orwick: 45:54

four hours, I'm going to paint for myself for two as a, you know, as a reward, because during that four hours of painting for you, I'm thinking about what I would like to paint.

Laura Arango Baier: 46:08

Yeah, no, that's brilliant. And also, I think, especially in work that you do for yourself, so much more authenticity comes out, right? It's almost like, in one piece when you're doing it for someone else, it's a little bit like using a different font when you write, and then when you're doing this stuff for you, you're not concerned about that, and you're just letting yourself be free and liberated, which is so important.

Michael Orwick: 46:36

Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, you're a little more cautious, and you're definitely thinking of, does this make me happy? No, does this make Laura happy? Like, I know Laura from our conversations, Laura likes pink and white and earthy gray colors. Okay, I gotta make sure I'm getting those in. Whereas, if it was just a painting for me, I would think of those things, but at the same time, I would be like, but this is fun. This is interesting. Let's go here. Let's do that, you know, yeah, how

Laura Arango Baier: 47:03

did you know my favorite colors? Oh, that's great, but yeah, yeah. And that ties in really well with what you said earlier, about, you know, finding your voice. And really, it's just about finding the fun, which is so key. It's so key because obviously, when you're trying to become like an artist, there's this economic pressure, which can oftentimes really dampen someone's fun because they're worried and insecure about, you know, oh no, can I pay the bills next month? Right? Which is why I would say a lot of artists take on day jobs. It's like a okay, I can relax. I know my bills are going to get paid, and now I can focus on the fun, which is so important.

Michael Orwick: 47:50

Yeah, it is. I mean, I could say the other side of that too, though, is like I was in the early days taking on all these jobs. I mean, I was doing murals and restaurants and bars and painting people's like, murals in their kids rooms. I was taking on anything and everything, but I was also learning how to paint, right? So any project I would just go not what I want to paint, but I'm learning to paint. I'm learning to mix colors. I'm learning and people like, I, you know, people that I graduated college from, like, Oh, you're such a sellout. You're, you know, you're willing to paint anything. You're, you know, you're painting cute scenes, but in my back of my head, I'm like, who's a sellout. You're going to work. I'm painting, right? And if you can get paid to paint, especially in the early years, just say I'm getting paid to learn. It's like getting paid to go to college, right? Getting paid to go to school, yeah, do your internship. So, yeah, it goes both ways. I'm fortunate now that I can, as a general rule, not do what I don't want to do, but in the early days, boy, no,

Laura Arango Baier: 48:58

yeah, yeah. And, you know, everyone chooses the path that they want, and definitely like, like you said, it's not worth being judgy about like, someone's choice of listen, I went this way because this is what's benefiting me. It might not benefit you, but it works for me, and that's what counts in the end, because here you are. I mean, you're literally painting all the stuff that you want, and you're experimenting as well, which is really cool, like, how, earlier you showed me you have a self Barger that you're you made with, like, leftover pain, which is So, yeah,

Michael Orwick: 49:30

I was gonna say, like, what am I important? You were asking me, like, what do I tell my students? And one of the important things for me is especially for students have more time to paint, because some students get an hour or two a week, right? They have families, they've got jobs, you know, and they want to learn. But for students that have time and the resources, you know, maybe they're retired is also have a side project or a side journey, or things you're asking yourself in particular. So at the end of the day, when you're painting, I've always been like, frustrated that you might be throwing away a bunch of. Eight. So I'd always just mix it up into big piles of gray and try to reuse it. But instead, what I did was do a really silly portrait. And every day, at the end of class, I just look how thick it is. Let's see, oh my gosh. And it's just all the colors from the end of the day, and I just put them on there. You can see me, right? And it's not, I'm not worrying about the colors, I'm only worrying about the lights and the darks. So, I mean, yeah, it's, it's not nearly done. It's still in progress, but this is about six months every day, at the end of the class or end of my session, I just grabbed some paint and put it on the spot. So it's just fun to have little weird. I mean, besides you and your audience here, nobody ever has to see this. But it's just fun to keep art fun, don't it's too serious to be serious. Is the saying too serious to take it serious? And Yeah, have fun, but be focusing, be learning, be challenging yourself at the same time, yeah, yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 51:04

yeah, totally. And I feel like, well, my last question is, actually, you know, what advice would you give to someone who wants to become a full time artist? But I mean, if there's only, if there's anything else that you would like to add,

Michael Orwick: 51:17

um, what advice? I mean, I think that the way I did it worked out for me is having a job that I just, you know, did less and less like having a job that was also I was learning important lessons again, about working with people being, you know, working with difficult clients, being in a bar, in a restaurants, or, you know, you got a lot of difficult clients, so and Then just being able to do less and less so, because I didn't really enjoy working in restaurants and bars, I was very ambitious to make my money on the other thing I was doing. So it didn't mean I waited for projects that made money to paint. I painted so that I could get more projects, get more galleries. I think too many people wait for things to happen to them, and you've constantly gotta be working and constantly be doing work so that you can share the work. And you know, my daughter's in college right now, and it is not about her grades. I keep reminding her she's getting good grades, thank goodness. I mean, that's nice, but I'm like it. Nobody cares. No, never. Not even one time has anybody asked me, like, Okay, I want you to do this commission for me. What were your grades like in art school? It's all the portfolio. It's only the work that you can show that you've done before that's going to get you the next work, and no gallery is going to let you in because you like I want to paint this, unless you've painted it already and can show it to them. So you just keep working and keep doing more of what you want. And it's a discovery, like even what I want to do does change gradually over time, but, yeah, that's it. Just keep working perfect. Keep playing, keep having fun, keep experimenting.

Laura Arango Baier: 53:11

Yes, yes, exactly. The playfulness is so key. Like it because it's, and I've said this in the past, which is, you know, we don't do this for the money. The money is obviously really great, but primarily, this is a very, you know, an internally motivated pursuit, right? This is something that we do because we love it. And even many artists that have interviewed like you start at such a young age, they say the same thing, where they were like, just, I had to do it, you know, it was, I have to, have

Michael Orwick: 53:42

to do it. Yeah, when I take a vacation and don't take my paints, I end up not liking the vacation towards the end, like, Okay, let's get home. Like, but I can take my paints with me. I can take, you know, I have to paint. It's how I observe the world. It's how I take it in. And, you know, been married for a long time now, and my wife understands that. And you know, she'll go for a hike or, you know, read a book and give me my time. And yeah, we paint because we have to Yes.

Laura Arango Baier: 54:12

Yes, very beautifully said. And then do you, yeah, of course. And then do you have any upcoming shows, workshops, etc, that you would like to promote. I

Michael Orwick: 54:24

have weekly online classes that if you go to my website, Mike, Laura wick.com, you can kind of see when they're starting. I think the next one may actually be in September. I think I may take the summer off to do more plein air work and more travel, more camping. Then as far as shows, I I try not to do too focused of shows. I try to just keep sending work to my galleries at a constant pace. I find that that's better. I don't like the stress, and I don't like if you do like one or two big yearly shows with. Works for some artists, but also something horrible could happen, the weather, the you know, whatever else. And that's happened multiple times in my career, where I'm like, I've been preparing for a big show, and then things just don't work out, whatever it is, and I've put too much on the line. So I prefer as just a a way to mitigate pressure and stress. I'm always working, so I literally just okay, I've got five more paintings. I'll literally just send emails to my galleries. Would you like this one? Would you like this one? Send them out, and I think that that a slow drip, a slow feed, is better for me. Yeah, yeah. Different way of working, but it's, it works for you. Like a lot of, a lot of my painting friends are, like, without a show, I just hardly paint, and I've never needed that pressure. And in fact, I don't like it, because then I get to the show and I'm like, Oh, that one wasn't done. Oh, that I don't I like to live with them. I like to be with them.

Laura Arango Baier: 56:03

Yeah, yeah. There's a level of pressure that is tolerable, in my opinion. Like, I know some people love that pressure. They love the sleepless nights, and they'll do it again and again, and that's awesome, awesome for them. I think I would crack so hard under pressure that I'd be like a little egg just, you know, scrambled up

Michael Orwick: 56:27

absolutely this, this big, vertical or horizontal behind me. It's not due for two more months, and it's already been done for about a month. And, you know, I like just to be able to look at it. Ooh, a little more here. A little more there. I just as soon as I get the project, I start attacking it, because I want that extra time. Because there's times where I'm like, Thank God, I have another month, you know, it didn't work, my experiment, my idea, you know. But other times it's nice to like, Oh, I get a painting for a little while, and when I get tired of it, the owner gets to take it. Awesome. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 57:02

yeah. And that highlights a little bit more of, like, the, you know, the phrase, which is, with great freedom comes great responsibility. And when you're an artist, you know, you make so many decisions that are just because, like, just because it fits better for your your schedule, your lifestyle, your temperament, like it's, it's so broad that it's, it's really awesome to hear your perspective on how you've made it work for you, and how you've again, like I said earlier, you know, you work to your strengths, and you've worked to in the way that makes your brain work, in the way that you Need it to, to get from point A to point B, yeah, yeah, awesome, yeah. I'm just

Michael Orwick: 57:45

like you, if I get over stressed, then a lot of things go out the window. And I, yeah, I don't sleep well, I don't I do everything wrong. So, yeah, trying to avoid stress. So it's just that right amount of stress. Like, if I stress myself out now, I won't be overly stressed out later. Yeah. So, yeah, a constant thing I'm telling my students again because is just know thyself. And we're all different. We all like different things. We you know, just because I say a thing doesn't make it right. It's only right for me. Just yeah, know thyself that you know, if we go to a gallery, you me and 10 other people, we're all going to pick different paintings that we just adore and love for different reasons. And yeah, that's, that's great,

Laura Arango Baier: 58:25

yeah, yeah. That opens the field to so many different visions that anyone can have for for their type of work and voices and all of these, these things. That's why it's such a a wholesome career. In that sense, there's, in my opinion, there's really no competition, because everyone has their own way of doing it, and it'll be appreciated differently by different people, and that's what counts. But at

Michael Orwick: 58:50

the same time, it's super fun to watch your interviews with these other artists and go, I never thought of that. Oh, I never you know what I mean. Like you're hearing these different life experiences, and you're like, Oh, I could bring a little that into me, into my work. That's very cool. Yes, I think that's what's so neat about these. It's just a conversation between you me and all the people from before and all the people that will come after, and then the viewer as well, having their internal dialog and going Mike's crazy. Oh, but that part was nice. I should use that. Yeah,

Laura Arango Baier: 59:21

yeah. And also people who might resonate too. Maybe they also have ADHD, and they're trying to cram themselves into this tiny box. Of you got to do this and this and this exactly in this order, where they don't realize that they have more freedom than they think, which I've been there, totally been there. So

Michael Orwick: 59:41

thank you so much for your time. I've got to go walk a dog here, otherwise she's going to go crazy. Got new a new puppy here. So

Laura Arango Baier: 59:48

yeah, thank you so much, Michael, this was an awesome conversation. I'm definitely I have a lot more serotonin now.

Michael Orwick: 59:56

Hey, good. All right, let me know whenever you need some. Yeah, of course.