Today we’d like to introduce you to Josh Bauer.
Hi Josh, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Well, I was born and raised in Northeast Ohio. As a kid, I was always messing around with some kind of art. My mom had to make sure she always had some paper and pens in her purse so I could keep myself entertained while at a restaurant or event. I was always doodling on something as a kid. As I got older and got into school, I started to realize I had some talent for art. Once I hit high school, I took every art class that was available, including two different art classes in one year. That is where I was introduced to painting, at that time I was not a fan, but in the future, it would be my main way of created art. I had a great showing at my Junior and Senior year art shows and event won most artist in our senior yearbook. Sadly, once high school was done, I was a bit burnt out from art and while away from it for about a year or so.
In 2008, I had the opportunity to move down to Florida, and took it in an instant. After moving down, I started to check out comic conventions, like MegaCon, and some other amazing art events around the area. I was inspired and motivated to get back into creating and decided to try painting again. Around 2013, I had my first small art showing at a small coffee shop in Sanford, FL. I was incredibly nervous about displaying my paintings, but the owners were amazingly supportive and helped push me to get my work out there. Then that led to my first event which was Alive After Five in beautiful, Downtown Sanford, FL, then a month or so later, and then my first comic con, Ocala Comic-Con, in Ocala of course. The first year or two of doing comics conventions was amazing and my work was pretty popular. Lots of sales got to me some amazing to news and had an incredible time.
Since 2013 I have had some incredible opportunities and some not-so-great ones. It was a bit of a roller coaster to say the least. I use to do a least two shows a month throughout the state of Florida and event got to go out of state a few times. The farthest comic con I traveled to was in Lexington, Kentucky which did not turn out as profitable as I had hoped, but was still a fun trip! I was able to be a guest artist at several local comics shops and some events as well. Around 2017/2018 things got a bit interesting. The comic cons were not as profitable as they once were and it seemed like my artwork was not good enough anymore. I was honestly was about to quit it all.
In 2018 some friends at the time, known as the KitchenKillaz, asked me to join their online Facebook show to live paint while they played acoustic music in people’s kitchens. When I live painted, I usually had an hour and a half to two hours to paint a 12″ x 36″ canvas painting. Those sessions tested me on speed, patience, and technique. They helped me become a faster and better painter when it was all said and done. The live painting session kicked off a whole new side of my art career and in 2019 alone I did 53 live painting sessions. In that time, I got to live paint in a dozen or more kitchens, live on stage at a few events, an album release party for Landon Noland, events for Stormy Harley Davidson, events for the web series Hangin with Web Show, and even restaurants like Steffano’s Trattoria and Devine Wine and Grill in Ovedio.
Then 2020 and the pandemic hit and put a stop to all the live painting and comic con events. In this time, it allowed me to take a much-needed break and walk away from art for a while. Even though there were a tone of live painting gigs and many events, I wasn’t having a lot of growth in sales or social media. I was honestly running myself ragged and my art was suffering from it. After about a six-month hiatus I decided to paint a piece for a December 2020 art show at Hourglass Brewing which was Back to the Future themed. Who could pass up an opportunity to paint the Delorian? That piece got a lot of interested and ignited my passion for painting once again. After that, I hit the ground running, and over the last couple of years, I have become more of an online artist and have had some amazing luck selling more originals through social media than I ever did at events. I have also made sure to be a part of every art show I could at Hourglass Brewing, in Longwood, FL, and Deviant Wolfe Brewing, in Sandford, and have had some great success as well. Nowadays, I am focused on creating amazing paintings and building my social media presence as best as I can.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The quick answer… not at all. There have been many different comic cons or events that I put in a ton of money and work into, then at the end of it I didn’t even break even. There have been times I put my heart and soul into a painting and it gets no attention or sales. I am constantly trying to figure out how to get more attention to my social media pages and build my sales. You also have to watch people trying to take advantage of you in one way or another as well. Then there is always trying to have a healthy work/life balance with a full-time job and this side art job…gig…whatever you want to call it. Over the past few years, I have constantly been arguing with myself if I should quit or not.
Luckily, I guess I am just too stubborn for that! I always have an amazing wife, mom, and family that support me in every way they can. I have a whole support team that keeps me going. I have fans on social media that I have never met in person pushing for me. Also, I just really can’t stop. The need to create always comes back and can’t be ignored!
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
So, my main focus of work in acrylic paint on canvas and I paint a little bit of everything. One day I will paint a piece of AEW wrestler, CM Punk, and the next I will pint a starry mountain top landscape piece. You never know what you are going to get from me. I also love to paint pop culture icons like Spider-Man, Batman, The Boondock Saints, and more. I have painted on canvases as small as 7″ x 5″ all the way to 30″ x 48″. My current favorite size is 12″ x 36″, which makes my work look more unique. I have been told that the way I use my acrylic paint and brush strokes is very unique. When I am at an event, I always have people guessing what I use and many people either guess chalk or something along those lines. I think I am also known for my messy splatter style. I don’t know if there is an official name for my style, but I have referred to it as “Controlled Chaos”. I also like to put my own twist on things and get views of iconic characters you don’t normally see, like Kingsmen Pikachu!
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Being real. I am always me. I never try to put on a fake persona or what act a certain way just to make a sale. The guy you see behind the table at a comic convention is the same guy you will hear as a guest on a podcast or meet in the street. I am just me and I don’t sugarcoat anything. Doing anything, ever, is not always rainbows and sunshine. If an event didn’t go well for me, I am honest about it when asked, not mean just honest. If I painting is not going well, I show that I am hiding it for a while or thinking about destroying it. I always try to be my true self and it seems to work for people. I have had people constantly come back and want to work with me again and again. They know when working with me they will get the real and they appreciate it.
Pricing:
- 12″ x 24″ painting runs around $200 plus S&H
- 12″ x 36″ or 18″ x 24″ paintings run around $275 plus S&H
- 24″ x 36″ painting runs around $375
- Stickers are $5 each
- Bookmarks (of paintings) $5 plus S&H
Contact Info:
- Email: jbauerart@gmail.com
- Website: JBauerart.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jbauerart/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JBauerart
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/jbauerart
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/JBauerart
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@jbauerart22?lang=en
Image Credits
Toni Mongiat
