Today we’d like to introduce you to Jimmy Arca.
Hi Jimmy, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
For the last five years I have been running my business, inoiseaguy, out of Dallas-Fort Worth, and in 2024 I started travelling around Texas to sell my artwork at different pop-up art markets. The First Friday Art Walk in Lubbock and Punk Rock Garage Sale in Houston were some of my favorite events to vend at, I must have done both of those about four times each. I ended the year off with a bang and travelled to Florida to participate in the Milk Mart in Orlando. I have family in Florida so it was easy for me to visit and stay for a while, but when I did that event, I had no idea I would be moving there in just five months.
On November 15th, 2024, I got let go from my job as a graphic designer creating mailers and email campaigns for car dealerships. It was a high demanding job that was wanting quantity amounts of work per day, therefore taking the time to experiment and create something original was stifled. We relied heavily on reusing designs, utilizing A.I. to design for us, or pulling clip art off the internet to put in our work to get things done quickly and all of this was depressing to me. The higher ups at the job could see this, so they let me go.
After that had happened things were up in the air for me, but I continued to work on my business and eventually started looking for another full time job. Luckily, I was able to land one as a print production operator in Orlando, Florida, and I have been living here since May 15th, 2025!
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?
Because I always try to have a full-time day job, I don’t solely rely on my business to make a living. This gives me the freedom to take things slowly and try different things with my business. If I have an idea that could be a long term project, I don’t have to worry about getting it done as soon as possible to start making money.
With that said, there can be struggles that do discourage me from time to time. Last year I tried vending at a lot of markets that I have never done before, so I was dipping my toe in the water to see if they were any good or not. A lot of them were not very good and I wouldn’t break even. It was at those times that I didn’t think my business was any good. But it was important for me to remember that it was only one market and that the one bad market doesn’t define my business as a whole.
Appreciate you sharing that. What should we know about inoiseaguy?
For those unfamiliar with my business, inoiseaguy. I describe it as experimental animation meets illustration meets zines. I hand-draw all my animations and scan the frames into the computer to make them as gifs. Then I sell the individual frames from the animations to people at the art markets I do. Each frame has a QR code attached to it, that when you scan it with your smartphone, will play the entire animated gif that the piece of art comes from. The gifs are uploaded onto GIPHY.com, which I have been uploading on since June 2020. Over the last five years all my gifs on that website have amassed a total of 3.7 billion views!
My whole business is built around combining the old with the new. I use a lot of vintage technology like my 1983 black and white Sears TV, with more contemporary elements like internet gifs, QR codes, and smartphones.
inoiseaguy (stylized in all lowercase) is a play on the phrase “I know a guy.” The “noise” in my business name has multiple meanings. My art style which sometimes is scribbly or cluttered is something that I have described as “visual noise.” The static that my old TV produces when showing my work also brings the visual noise element. When I first started up my business, I was a fan (still am) of noise music. Whether it would be japanoise, power electronics, ambient, or field recordings; I saw a lot of similarities between the artists in these genres and myself. For one, the DIY practices and putting out a piece that has a limited amount of copies available to where it’s so hard to come by. A small punk band on a budget may only release 30 copies of an album on cassette or cd that they all hand-crafted themselves, same idea with my business. I only have 30 frames from this animation available to buy, it’s first come first serve to whoever wants one.
Two people who have bought an animation cel from me at different times from the same animation have met before, and I got to see them bond over the work and why they love that animation. This made me realize there is a community of fans of my business, who may not all know each other, but are united in a way because they own different frames from the same piece of animation. Like my work is the mutual friend between these people, which brought a whole new meaning to my business name. My fans my not know each other, but they do know a guy (my artwork and animations).
What are your plans for the future?
As I mentioned, I already participated in the Milk Mart here in Orlando and it was fantastic to me! As someone who has just moved to Orlando, I would love to return to that market and find other good markets in the area. I’d like to find the art scene here and make some new friends.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.jimmyarca.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/inoiseaguy/
- Twitter: https://x.com/inoiseaguy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@inoiseaguy
- Other: https://inoiseaguy.shop/
Image Credits
Jimmy Arca
Diana Montez-Arca
