Welcome to The Truth in This Art, your source for conversations at the intersection of arts, culture, and community. I am your host, Rob Lee. And today, I'm excited to be in conversation with my next guest. Born and raised in Connecticut, childhood trips to New York City exposed him to the creative potential of reinventing public spaces through art and design. Inspired by mid century American cartoons and skate culture, he's become known for his vibrant murals and studio work, which combines vivid explosions of color with a surrealist pop art perspective.
Rob Lee:His work features gleefully twisted characters that create an unsettling yet captivating world. Please welcome Greg Mike. Welcome to the podcast.
Greg Mike:Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.
Rob Lee:Thank you for joining me today. Thank you for coming on, and, I'm a little jealous of the hat. We'll have to talk about this afterwards. But, you know, before we get into sort of the larger topics of the conversation, and we we spoke a little bit briefly be you know, before hitting the record button, I want to invite you to to introduce yourself, if you will. I find often when, you know, a guest for podcast not always mine, but a guest for, like, podcast and interviews, they hit maybe 1 or 2 things.
Rob Lee:Inevitably, something is missing, something that really peers into the soul of who the person is. So I wanna give you the space to introduce yourself and your own words.
Greg Mike:Of course. Well, my name is Greg Mike, artist designer, based in Atlanta, Georgia, currently painting all over the world. Just got back from Amsterdam, actually. We can jump into that a little bit later. But, yeah, grew up my entire life painting and doing art since a very young age.
Greg Mike:My family kinda introduced me to the arts very early on, you know, with theater and music and, painting and drawing and just something I fell in love with. I've always been into the arts and street art, my entire life as long as I can remember. At a at an earlier age, I was, you know, painting the more, I guess, traditional stuff, you know, just landscapes and taking art classes. And as I got a little bit older, I got into snowboarding, and, I was living up up north in Connecticut at the time. And That kind of led me into skateboarding in the summer.
Greg Mike:And, through skateboarding, I learned about graffiti and started painting on the streets. And, you know, that led me to street art and, went to school, Florida State for design and art. And I've been in Atlanta, close to 20 years now, which is crazy. Never thought I would I would be in the city. It was never part of my road map or, so it was kinda interesting to end up here, but have had, my gallery and agency that I started 15 years ago, ABV here in Atlanta.
Greg Mike:But, it's kinda just all happened organically over the years as I started traveling and painting all over the world. I felt like there needed to be something like this in Atlanta. So it's been cool that I've kinda integrated that into my practice and, you know, my work is having a space like this to bring artists here. And, yeah. Just been painting all over the globe, and showing work and painting murals, and then here we are today.
Rob Lee:I like that. You're you're giving it all away. I might have to be tapping back into some of my questions, but, you know, let's let's let's go back a little bit because I think it's always one of those things that that stick out for us. When you think about those those early experiences, especially with this sort of the fact that you have worked globally, you have work everywhere, as you were touching on. You know, is there a really like early experience perhaps with street art or as you touched on even, you know, some of the other arts theater and so on that really stuck out that left a mark for you when you, you know, think of back when you think back on this is where this began for me, this particular experience.
Rob Lee:You know, I used to call it the crime alley question if you're into Batman lore. What was your crime alley for you when it comes to art?
Greg Mike:Yeah. I think growing up, you know, I was so influenced by, like, just the cartoons that I would watch. I remember, I think, at an early age, that really inspired me just and you can see it now. It's still, like, very apparent in my work. The, you know, the clean lines, the bold colors, bold bright colors, like, the action, the energy that you see in cartoons.
Greg Mike:I think as a as a kid growing up, I would just sit in front of the TV and and fall in love with just watching, you know, all the old school retro Disney stuff. And, I loved how those characters moved and were animated and all drawn by hand at the time. I think really just that all mixed. Like, kinda just like really got me hooked. And then it just, you know, the more I got into it and the deeper that I dove and went down the rabbit hole, like, the more I got addicted to just art and public art, street art, and getting things out outside of your typical studio.
Rob Lee:I dig it. You know, I I I'm a big cartoon fan as well. So you stop mentioning cartoons. I'm waiting for 1. I'm waiting for you to, like, yes.
Rob Lee:So when I was watching, like, Animaniacs back in the day, it's, oh.
Greg Mike:I watched it all, man. Everything from Animaniacs to the Simpsons to, I mean, Beavis and Butthead to all the, you know, Disney stuff to Looney Tunes. I mean, you name it, like, all that stuff I was just in love with. Still am.
Rob Lee:Yeah. There there is a, you know, we have these inflection points. There is a version where I'm kind of filtering off that I could have been a cartoonist. Like, that was an area I was into. And, I did illustration, like, before getting into podcasting, as sort of my creative outlet.
Rob Lee:And I've been doing this, you know, nearly 16 years, you know, art, comics, and maybe to a degree, cartoons was the direction I wanted to go into. And, you know, being into a lot of different things, like early nineties, Fox, you know, you get that Saturday morning, like a hookup. It's like, okay. We got x men. Great.
Rob Lee:We got Spider Man. We got Silver Surfer. You know, all of that stuff or even going back, and I'm gonna really age myself, I used to con my dad to record all of the old, like, cartoons, like the defunct sort of Ninja Turtles, GI Joe. I'm like, yo, can you put this on a VHS? Because I'm choosing between school and and missing my cartoons.
Greg Mike:Yeah. I remember just, like, running home from school and just, like, plopping in front of the TV and just, you know, just sitting there and just zoning out and getting lost. It's cool because I have a kid now and he's, you know, I have 2 kids, but my son is, like, super into cartoons and everything. So it's like, it's cool to kinda like see myself, you know, in him and just like how lost he gets in that, those worlds. You know, I think, like, especially our era, you know, it was, like, we didn't have phones and internets and tablets and, you know, it's just like that's all we had, which was, like, kinda like a a view into this outside imaginative world.
Greg Mike:Right? Like, you know, that it probably answered a lot of questions or sparked a lot of things that were going on in our heads, as kids. So I think that helped, like, spur the idea of, like, imagination. Yeah. Right?
Greg Mike:Because for me, it was just, like, the TV in the woods because I was, like, living up north. And it was, like, that's all I had. It was, like, going out in the woods and, like, building forts and, like, sitting in front of the TV and just, like and maybe watching MTV and, like, figuring out how to record, like, crisscross video or something on there. But that was about it, you know?
Rob Lee:I before I move into this next question, I you know, back in September, because I'm crossing a lot of different areas of creativity and I think trying to democratize it. Right? And it's not just I'm talking to fine artists. I'm talking to street. I'm talking to a a litany of different people that piqued my interest.
Rob Lee:And I during this sort of journey of doing more than 800 interviews at this point, I got connected with a bunch of cartoonists and artists in, in Columbus, Ohio. And we're having this, like, intellectual panel on sort of the, the, like, almost activism component to arts into cartoons and trying to talk really intellectual about, like, sort of family guy when this happened. And I'm like, it's come full circle. It's like I'm doing an academic thing, but I'm talking about cartoons in the discourse. So that's that's really
Greg Mike:cool. Yeah. Well, I feel like a lot of times, like I mean, illustration and cartoons are like a easy way for people to understand and relate to things. I mean, I see that with with my work, too. I mean, I try to keep my work, you know, pretty colorful and happy and positive, but it's like, you know, it relates to kids at a super young age.
Greg Mike:And then, like, the nostalgic element can relate to, you know, people that are, you know, 30, 40, even older. That, you know, brings it back to, like, a time and place of, like, happiness. But it's like, it's like for that. I mean, that's art in general, but I definitely think with, like, cartoons and illustrations, it definitely makes it easy and and consumable for folks.
Rob Lee:So for for folks who who are undipped, you know, could you describe, like, sort of your work, like, the key characteristics in it? Like, obviously, colorful. You know, that's a piece of it. And but what is essential or that essential piece to your style? Like, what separates maybe I guess, what is that signature for a Greg Mike piece?
Greg Mike:Yeah. I definitely think, you know, my characters and my color. Like, I have, like, a running character called Larry Loudmouth that's, like, in a lot of my work, which is just, like, usually square chip tooth mouth that says phrases that are either submitted by, you know, people in our community or friends or family or fans or collectors. And it's became more of like a voice that's larger than mine, which is cool. It's like this character that's kinda like animated by, you know, the voice and thoughts and of people larger than just my my my head and my brain.
Greg Mike:Right? But, yeah, definitely with my work, it's these these reoccurring characters. It's a touch of nostalgia. It's the loud, bold, bright, colorful. It's like, you know, a lot of the clean line work.
Greg Mike:I think people a lot of people know that the design aspect of my work. You know, I'm I went to school for graphic design and and, studio art as well. So I have a little bit of balance on both sides of, like, the traditional, like, studio fine art drawing side, but then also, you know, the design aspect where I'm very big into, like, balance and color theory and color stories. And, and then, you know, just mixing and collaging all that stuff together, I feel like it's really for me, with my work in general, it's like I wanna bring people to a place of, like, you know, remembering when times are, you know, easy and fun and enjoyable as a kid. I think there's a lot of stress nowadays with everything that's going on in the world.
Greg Mike:And, like, if you can make people have, you know, happy memories of their youth, I think that's successful and then bring some positivity into, you know, neighborhoods or communities when you're painting these large, bright, colorful murals, I think that's a win.
Rob Lee:Stope. So in in in that the the start off portion, the the ideation, like, well, like, how do you start when you know you wanna work on a on a piece, you know, you wanna work on a mural, you know, that this is a project that you're gonna engage and gonna put some time towards. Like, where does the process start? And I'm saying that selfishly. Right?
Rob Lee:Because I'm in this stage. I'm looking for what I'm doing for my next season. And I'm like, alright. Am I too far ahead? You know, things could change, but, you know, because I steal from you, you artist types.
Rob Lee:Right? I steal from y'all. You know, I let y'all say y'all thing, and I'm like, alright. So Greg said this. So what is the the where do you start?
Rob Lee:How do you start?
Greg Mike:A lot of the times, you know, it really is, you know, project specific, you know. Depending, for example, like, if I'm going to Cincinnati and painting a mural, for example. I painted up there for blank, 2 years ago. You know, they'll usually send me a wall. And then the wall, I'll usually go and do some research on the community in the area in the neighborhood.
Greg Mike:And I try to do my, you know, some work, some history work, and figure out, you know, what how I could create a piece that resonates with the community that, you know, also, ties back, you know, from a history standpoint, whether that's, like, for example, pulling nostalgic characters that might have a nod to something that the city is known for, things like that. But then on the on the other side, like, someone might send me a picture of a wall. For example, when I painted in the Swiss Alps for Vision Art Festival, they sent me a picture of the wall. And immediately when I saw the architecture of the building, I saw faces on the building and characters on the building made up of the windows on the wall. So, like, it really depends on what the project is and and what I'm painting and and where the piece is gonna live.
Greg Mike:You know, like, something that's in the studio might be a little bit more personal that I know is a canvas that's, like, I'm kind of attacking it more like a journal, or it's like, okay. Now I'm just getting thoughts and feelings out. Yeah. But it really depends on the audience that's interacting it with it, the location of the piece, the architecture, of whatever the substrate is that I'm painting. And then that all mixed with just, like, how I'm feeling at the time.
Greg Mike:A lot of my work is just like me trying to portray things that I can't communicate with words. This piece that I just did in Amsterdam, at Strat Museum out there, like, it was just all based on, like, feelings and thoughts that I that I couldn't convey via words. So it's a lot of my work is kinda, like, that emotion of, like, trying to get out what's inside my head and, you know, my body and my brain that I can't speak. You know, that's why all you see a lot of these characters that are, like, yelling and, you know, loud and and bold and energetic. It's like it's really I'm trying to convey that that feeling inside.
Greg Mike:And that could be, like, a lot of that stuff could be, you know, feelings that I'm dealing with with current events that are going on, you know, with within the United States, right, or whatever in our in our area or just in my life. So it's, like, trying to take that and put all that energy into art. And usually, it's happy and positive, but most of the time, it's it's loud and energetic. And there might be a little bit of, like, some sinister element in it too that I don't think I'll ever get rid of that's just, like, been in me since the old, like, painting on the street days and, you know,
Rob Lee:Low just a low edge. Just a low edge.
Greg Mike:Yeah. No.
Rob Lee:That that's that's important. I think, you know, it has to have a a feeling element. There's always degree of, like, personal touch to it. When when I do these and really I'm I'm sitting here and doing an interview, I'm, you know, trying to if we're using, let's say, basketball as a reference point. Right?
Rob Lee:I'm just trying to be Trae Young. I made a real Atlanta right there for you specifically. Yeah. Yeah. You just try to get hand the ball off.
Rob Lee:And, you know but I think that that personal touch in it, that's what makes it real. That's what separates it. Like, anyone can interview you, but my approach is gonna be sort of different. I'm trying to get to how the thinking goes into the person's work, and I think that's what you articulated there. It's very much it's coming from you.
Rob Lee:It's, you know, an extraction. And I think a lot of times when we're holding on to these things, especially when we're doing something creative, it's just like, no. You didn't really give your full there. You coulda gave more. What do you really have to say?
Rob Lee:What are you really feeling about this particular thing, or what's going on in your mind, you know, at that moment. And, you know, is there, like, a, like, a project, let's say, recently, you were touching on Amsterdam. Is there a project that that sticks out, you know, specific? Could you set the stage for us, like, that was very memorable for you?
Greg Mike:Yeah. I think, like, from a just a location standpoint, like, from, you know, something that one of those, like, pinch me moments kinda was when I painted in the Swiss Alps in Amsterdam sorry, in in Switzerland. That I think was one of those moments where I was like like, I had, like, a kind of a little epiphany just, like, thinking, like, wow. This is wild that art and painting and sticking with something for so many years is now allowing me to travel all over the globe. Because I was just, you know, I painted this huge wall out there.
Greg Mike:And then I had a day off, and I got to go up to the top of the Swiss Alps mountains. And I just looked down at the village that I painted my mural in, and it just kinda all hit me, you know. And and it just, you know, I'm a strong believer of just, like, you know, anything you put your time and energy into hard work, eventually, you're gonna see success in that. It's just hours. You know, you could do anything you wanna do in the world.
Greg Mike:You just gotta put in the time and the energy, and and you're gonna reap the benefits of it. But I think at that moment, that was one of those, like, when it all hit. And even when I was just out in Amsterdam, I had one of those moments because it's, you know, it's probably the largest street art museum in the world, if not. And just thinking, like, you know, it's crazy because I was a kid who got denied to art school, and now I'm painting in a museum. Right?
Greg Mike:So it's like it's stuff like that. That really just makes me feel humble, blessed, excited. I mean, there's so many different words and feelings when when you have those moments, but, I'm a believer in hard work. You know? Anybody can do anything if they put in the work and the hours.
Rob Lee:Yeah. You get us a that's a really good sentiment too. I'll I'll say say this before I move to this next question. I I had the opportunity in the last year to, try out teaching at a, an art school. Right?
Rob Lee:And it was a art school, like, focused on, like, high schoolers, and I was one of those kids that didn't get in when I was their age. So being able to come back as a teacher, I was like you know? And it was one of those sort of full circle moments, and, you know, like, you were touching on that edge is always there. The pettiness is always there for me. It's like, yeah, I'm back.
Rob Lee:You're gonna see me one way or the other.
Greg Mike:Yeah. No. I definitely carry that stuff with me and, like, it I keep it as kinda, like, you know, fuel fuel for my fire. Right? I mean, I saved, like, our rejection letter.
Greg Mike:I mean, I ended up going to school for art and but it wasn't a fully art school, you know. I'm not gonna mention the name, but there was a school that was, like, my dream art school. Right? And I didn't get in there. And I saved the rejection letter.
Greg Mike:And I ended up drawing, like, a middle finger on the rejection letter that I still have to this day. I've never really posted or shown it. Maybe a few close friends. But I think, like, you kinda need those moments sometimes in life that can help you push through that you you kind of when you're feeling a certain way, you dig into that core memory and that really is like the gasoline in your tank that helps you, you know, go full steam ahead and and work longer hours and push harder and, really just, like, rise above, you know, where you're typically at at the moment.
Rob Lee:Yeah. Sometimes I keep those instances. I always joking, before we got started that I flub my intros. Right? So when I go back through the editing, and I'm like, look.
Rob Lee:I know how to talk. Why am I botching this so much? But it's it's one of those reminders that you know? And I and I think I get something from this that this is the part that's important. Right?
Rob Lee:The conversation that we're having, me doing this flowery intro is gonna be there in post, but the conversation is the important piece. And I think through really thinking about it and really thinking about, like, am I messing this up? Am I bad at this? And really interrogating that, it helped me understand what was important about the conversation, and it's not necessarily how it's framed. It's the actual conversation.
Greg Mike:Yep. For sure. And I feel like everybody I think everybody has those moments of doubt. I know. I mean, even as myself as an artist.
Greg Mike:And I think the artistic process is one of those too where it's, like, halfway through, you're always doubting your stuff. I know I talk to a lot of artists. They're like, I hate 90 90% of my work until it gets to about the 90% mark. And then I'm like, oh god. Okay.
Greg Mike:This is coming together. It's looking good. Alright. And then at the end, you're happy with it. But I know a lot of artists I talk to that deal with that.
Greg Mike:That's like that, like, self, you know, reflection. You feel like your world's falling apart.
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Greg Mike:And you're the worst artist in the world. And then when you see the final product, you're like, okay.
Rob Lee:That survived it. Yeah. Yeah. I I remember this interview recently. I saw maybe a clip where I think it was talking about writers, and it's just like, oh, yeah.
Rob Lee:You're 90% done. Cool. You really you're you're that 50% point. That's great. You got 50% of the work done because the editing and all of that stuff that goes into it.
Rob Lee:So I I wanna get your your take because I as I see, you know, obviously, the hat you're talking about a little bit earlier, ABV Gallery Agency. So let's talk a bit about the creative direction in your work there, and let's let's also talk about the Outer Space Project. Let's get into it. Like, give me sort of, like, how you approach sort of creative direction, and I have a second point about, you know, outer space, but at least wanna, like, talk about the, ABV portion first.
Greg Mike:Yeah. So I started painting, you know, outside of Atlanta, I think around 2009. And I would, like, go on these, you know, these creative highs basically because I go to these bigger cities. I'd paint these big walls. I'd meet all these awesome artists, galleries, curators, you know.
Greg Mike:And then I'd come back to the city, and I just kinda feel like I'd lose that, like, that energy. Because at the time, like, Atlanta didn't have, you know, a a an artist gallery like ABV is today. I mean, now there's multiples, but, that was, you know, showing street art, contemporary art, pop art, and pops realism, and all this stuff that I was into. So that was, like, what inspired me to create ABV was, you know, just the having a space that I could bring in artists that I was meeting from all over the world to Atlanta. Because there's a lot of people that don't get the chance to travel the world and see all this art.
Greg Mike:So I wanted to create a space here that could do that and, you know, bring talent to our city. But then also, there were so many awesome, incredible artists I was meeting locally that, you know, we were hosting, like, our drawing nights where we just bring a bunch of artists together and draw and drink beers. And, like, all these things were just, like, little ideas and thoughts that now have evolved into, like, the mural festival, like Outer Space Project or massive drinking dual events, which we've been doing for 15 years where we're now we're ringing in, like, 80 artists at a time with DJs, and all the artwork goes up for auction. And all the artists draw live, and you have people that are coming in that are pre, you know, prepping their canvases and bringing little easels in. And, you know, they're taking this serious where it was when we started it, it was just, you know, 5 friends hanging around drinking beers, doing little doodles, and tagged on notebook paper.
Greg Mike:Right? So it's cool because everything's that's happened has just been like an organic growth that started with just like an idea, like me traveling and and wanting to bring artists to Atlanta, but now has grown into this, like, massive production. Whether that's like our art shows in the gallery, or these events that we're producing like the mural festival or gallery shows. 4 years ago, I walked into the building I'm in now. I'm actually in the back of my private studio here which is, 85 100 Square Foot Church.
Rob Lee:Yes.
Greg Mike:I've been wanting to buy a building because I was renting for 15 years, and I'm like, you know, I'm probably gonna hopefully put in another 30 to 40 years, right? So I was like, I wanna buy a building that we can design and build out. I came across this church that, they had up for sale, and it took it was a 4 year process. We gutted the whole thing all the way down down to the the studs and the dirt and all new drywall, electrical, lighting, everything. And, just built basically like a creative dream space.
Greg Mike:And, yeah, that's where I'm sitting now, my back studio. But here we have our we have a 5,000 square foot gallery. I did my solo show that just wrapped a few weeks ago here. We have a gift shop. We have a bar.
Greg Mike:We have conference rooms, our design agencies. So everything's all in in one, room, one house, which is nice because, you know, I have basically like 3 tiers. There's, you know, or or 3, I guess, avenues. It's basically like the Greg Mike Art Brand, which is all my murals and fine art stuff. And then there's our agency, which is all our commercial projects, which we're doing collaborations with brands, sports teams, you name it, developers, just figuring out how to integrate art into the into the, commercial world.
Greg Mike:And then there's the gallery, which is just strictly fine art stuff. So it's cool because they all kinda play together, you know, at certain times when the timing is right. Like, if there's a project the agency's working on, you know, you ask about the creative direction, I might step in and say, here's 10 ideas for this client about or 10 artists that would be a good fit or, you know, 10 concepts for an activation for a music festival or here's the look and feel and direction that I'm seeing for this project. And then my team, which is incredible, you know, they take that. They incorporate their own ideas, and then they run with it.
Greg Mike:And then they'll come back and say here, you know, here's what the client said. Here's some feedback. How do we interpret it? You know, where should we go with this? So, you know, I'm able to step in.
Greg Mike:I can go upstairs. I was just up there, you know, before this podcast, having a meeting with the whole team about outer space project, our mural festival that we started. And it's good to just be have it all under one roof where I can just balance, you know, throughout the day. I can be in my studio for a few hours, bounce upstairs, do some agency client stuff, go in the gallery, and talk with Nate, our lead, you know, curator there, talk about future shows and artists we're working with, and really just have it under under one space. Outer Space Project, that's our our mural festival that we started years ago.
Rob Lee:Yeah.
Greg Mike:And, we've painted over a 100 murals in Atlanta for that. And our next one's coming up the 18th through 23rd, but we we split our lineup half local, half out of state so that we support the locals. It's always a big thing for us. And now with our building here, we're doing a lot bigger focus here in our neighborhood, invest more in this community. And, yeah, it's like a week of programming of artist talks, art shows, secret walls, live art battles, you know, murals all over the city, live art, DJs, music, action sports, skateboarding.
Greg Mike:So all that just, like, culminating into 1 week long event, and then we do a big party at the end of the week called the Big Bang Block Party. So, yeah, that's kinda like that project is kinda my baby that we've created that really is just like, you know, because we self fund it all ourselves and just put everything we can back into the community to bring more art in the neighborhood and and help Atlanta. So it's exciting. That's that's coming up just in a few weeks. So trying to get all the details done for it.
Rob Lee:No. That is that is so dope, and thank you. You you actually answered 2 other questions in that. So like I said, sometimes you just let someone cook and have to deal with these. Let me let me stop myself.
Rob Lee:And, also, secret walls, I heard. You know? Shout out to Terry. I interviewed him a few few weeks back. And, yeah, I I had the, the ABV website up, and I'm looking at the visuals of the space.
Rob Lee:I was like, this is metal. This black church, this is so cool. And, you know, this is the first time. This will be a first, right, that I've said this on this podcast. There's a few people that know, kinda your the picture you were describing, your rejection line.
Rob Lee:There's only a few people that know about this. I wanted to do a podcast studio in an abandoned church that we have a lot of, like, empty churches here. It's something about I wanted to call it the church a pod, you know, and really build that out and really make it a thing. Very similar purpose in that we have a lot of people who feel like it's inaccessible to do this creative stuff and, like, have, you know, a podcast, studio as part of the full mix, but being being able to offer a space I'm based in Baltimore, so being able to offer a space that folks can come there and it really serves the local, you know, situation here. And, you know, that's what I'm hearing throughout this conversation in your work serving this Atlanta community and, you know, artistic community and this other piece that that you touched on as well, sort of, you know, being able to travel to all of these, like, other spaces and do work and make work and have that experience.
Rob Lee:And it's something about being able to travel to other cities as an artist, as a person who's an appreciator of art, and I'm saying it from my perspective, that it gives you new insights that you come back with. You know, like, how can I apply that at home? How can I make that something that fits here?
Greg Mike:Exactly. No. A 100%. I mean, I get so inspired when I'm on the road and traveling. I mean, I don't know.
Greg Mike:I always, like, use this comparison, but, like, if you ever, you know, notice when you're in your own city and you're driving, you kinda go on autopilot, you don't like you like, did was that light red or was it green? I don't even remember because I was thinking about what I gotta do in an hour. Right. You know, versus when you're in another city, like, you're so alert because everything's so new. And I feel like your brain's kind of processing things like in a different fashion than when you're just like in your mundane, like, you know, your schedule of what you do every day.
Greg Mike:Right? When you're in these other cities, you're, you're looking at things way different. You're looking at a street sign. You're looking at the architecture, You know, and for me, traveling's like a huge part of just, like, getting inspired. I mean, that, and that could be driving 30 minutes outside of the city, but just outside of my normal everyday route, right, to the office, to the studio, back home.
Greg Mike:But I love, like, yeah, like you're saying, like, going to these cities and seeing things and figuring out how you can implement it. And, you know, for me, I think I've always been, like, an early adopter of of just trends and, whether that could be, you know, music. Right? I'm the guy that's, like, always sending people Spotify tracks. Like, hey.
Greg Mike:You know, have you heard this yet? Check this out. Or on socials and, you know, sending people things. You know, look at this design or this lighting or this sculpture or how'd they do this or, I'm constantly doing that. So I think I do find pride like going to other cities, meeting artists and being like, have you seen this artist work yet?
Greg Mike:You gotta check it out. Flying them to Atlanta or bringing them work in this in Atlanta and then showing them in the market. There's some joy in that for sure.
Rob Lee:Absolutely. I feel the same way and sort of just kinda being ahead of the curve, a lot of times, and I get some of these interviews. It's like I'm the first time that they've been interviewed. Does some not the first time someone's asked about their work? I'm like, yeah.
Rob Lee:And for me, again, it's, like, there's some pettiness there. I'm a good guy, but also I I I have an edge, and I'm just like, yeah. I have exquisite taste. You know? And and that was one of the reasons why I was like, I gotta talk to Greg Mike.
Rob Lee:You know, that was sort of the thinking. When when this was coordinated, I was, like, I got, like, 1 or 2 slots, and they were looking at so it was, like, who's your who's the who's the main person you wanna guess? Like, if we can get Greg, that would be great.
Greg Mike:Here we are. Yeah.
Rob Lee:Here we are. So and we're definitely gonna touch back on, you know, our space project, again in the Shameless Plugs, but I got sort of sort of, one more real question and then some rapid fire questions I wanna rock with you. And this this sort of last personal question is bridging sort of having this this intersection where, you know, you talked about the commercial piece, you talked about the creative direction, you being an artist, having the curation, and, you know, being in a spot where it's a lot of connective tissue, like, locally with artists and externally with artists. If for someone that's doing that or aspires to do that, what piece of advice would you give them? There's a lot of moving parts, especially when you have your own, you know, your own project and your your own work that you're doing as well, and it all is sort of, like, together.
Rob Lee:How do you keep it all organized? What advice would you share for someone who's like, I wanna do this, or I wanna do something similar to this?
Greg Mike:Yeah. I wouldn't suggest anyone doing what I do because you don't have a life, and it's a lot of stress and anxiety. No. I'm just kidding. I'm not kidding.
Greg Mike:But now I I I think everything that I've done has been a slow growth. You know, it's not like I just woke up one day and I was like, I want a team of 10 people because that's where we're at now. Right? And it's, you know, it's like it started with 1 intern, you know. And that was years ago, and it just grew naturally as we grew.
Greg Mike:Because I didn't know, you know. Also, like, it was like everything that I was doing, I was learning as I was going along. Like, I didn't go to school for business or, you know, everything was trial and error and, you know, meeting the right people and networking and just keep going and and keep pushing and, not stopping and being relentless of even though if you you might have some failures, you know, learning from that and taking Ls and turning them into lessons and keep pushing, you know, foot on the gas pedal no matter what. I think for me, a big thing was getting out and supporting other artists and networking and being involved in the community helped strengthening everything that we were doing. I know there's a ton of artists that are always like, what's the secret?
Greg Mike:How do you get booked on a festival? I mean and I tell people, it's like, you gotta get out there. You gotta talk to people. I mean, it's a it's a hard thing for a lot of artists because a lot of artists are introverts, and they just wanna stay in their studio and and paint. But there's also, you know, there's also there's also so many artists out there now where it's, like, very difficult, and you gotta kinda break through the noise and and be heard and and make sure that you're at these events, whether that's like Art Basel, even if you're painting or or showing at a fair or not, I think it's important to be there and to be seen and to talk to people and introduce to introduce your work to people.
Greg Mike:You know, we have tons of people that email through our gallery website, sending their work, but I think the strongest and and most, connections that we've made and shown in our gallery space are people that have shown up here, have had a face to face connection. You know, even if that's pulling me out of a crowd and being like, hey, Greg, you got a second? Like, I'm gonna look at your work. Right? Like and I'm gonna be more attentive if I'm there in person versus an email that comes through with the, you know, 300 word, Chad g p t crafted, artist statement, and a and a link to your your website.
Greg Mike:So, I mean, for us, it's like all the people, I would say most of them that have been here have been people that we've interacted, like, in real life. And it's been cool because a lot of the artists have like started as just, you know, they'll do a drink a doodle event, then they'll get invited to a gallery show, and then they'll get asked to do an agency project, and then they'll be featured as a muralist for our project. And it just continues to snowball in in that fashion where it's like, you know, you just gotta get that one foot in the door at one of our smaller events and then just, like, build it up. Yeah. And, I mean, the other thing is social media is a great tool.
Greg Mike:You know? It's an incredible tool and the Explore page and all that stuff. Curators, I mean, including myself, I'm curating for our our projects. I'm constantly looking at that stuff. You know?
Greg Mike:Use it wisely. It's free marketing. If you're dope and you're doing great work and you're putting in the hours and your work is gonna show for it and people the right people are gonna see you with the Internet nowadays. So it's, like, there's no secret sauce that I can tell you that you can, you know, mix in and and, you know, your emails are gonna explode with invitations to gallery shows. But I will tell you, if you put in the hours and the time into your work and master your craft, people will notice and find you.
Rob Lee:Gems, jewels. Great. Thank you. This is that was great. Thank you.
Rob Lee:Thank you. And I I think that's definitely, it's really sound advice. It's great advice, and I think that brings us to sort of the the last chunk of the pod, the rapid fire portion. And, as I tell people all the time, you don't wanna overthink these. These questions are just I said what I said, sort of the answer.
Rob Lee:So here's the, I got 4 of them for you. Here's the first one. Did you mention your Spotify songs? And that was this is already here. I didn't just write this, by the way.
Rob Lee:If your art style had a theme song, what would it be? I know.
Greg Mike:That's hard because I I play records and DJ, and I've been into music my entire life. So I'm already talking too much on this rapid fire. Maybe, like, Outkast, so fresh and so clean, you know, from Atlanta. I paint very clean. And Strat just used that on one of my clips in the Amsterdam, and I was like, you can't use that.
Greg Mike:That's too cheeky. I was like, Atlanta, like and then I was like, you know. I like painting really clean. I want
Rob Lee:it to be painted like
Greg Mike:it's printed. That's one of our mottos, like, in my studio or when we paint murals and I have assistants working with me. I'm like, gotta make it look like make sure your lines are super, super clean. So, you know, you want it to be fresh, bright colors, and you want it to be clean and crispy. So I'll go with that one.
Rob Lee:I like it, and I and I like the explanation for it because it's just because I was like, that is a little cheating. Then you expose, like, alright. You win. Yeah. You win on that one.
Rob Lee:Yeah. What is the wildest place that you've actually painted or even gotten inspired from a mural? Like, something like a place that's just like, alright. I'm gonna put one here. I don't know about this.
Rob Lee:It's
Greg Mike:Yeah. I've already said Amsterdam and the Swiss Alps, so those are top 2, but I also have to throw in the Dali Museum in Saint Petersburg. I grew up loving Salvador Dali. You know, he was one of my biggest inspirations. I mean, you could probably see him.
Greg Mike:I mean, obviously, he's more realistic in terms of his work, but, yeah, just like the whole, like, melting of everything and kinda like the surrealistic nature. So, yeah, I'm a go with that one. If you haven't been there, go to Saint Petersburg. Check out the museum. It'll blow your mind.
Rob Lee:I dig it. So you're in Atlanta. I've never been to Atlanta. So I'm curious, if I'm coming to Atlanta, you know, where the players play. I had to throw that in there.
Rob Lee:What would be the food item that I have to get? Because when I was in Columbus, but at that that cartoon festival I was talking about, I was like, yo, what's your food here? I never got an answer. I was there for 4 days. So I don't wanna run into that in Atlanta.
Rob Lee:I don't wanna talk to Keith Lee about his recommendations. I wanna get your recommendation. What would be the food item I have to try if I'm visiting Atlanta?
Greg Mike:I think a lot of people that come in town wanna try the barbecue here. I think that's definitely, like, a go to. Fox Brothers over, over here is is pretty decent. Terry, actually, from Siegfried Falls, every time he comes in town, he's like, we gotta go to Fox Bros. And it's usually at the end of a trip after a night of one of our events, and I send him on his way nice and full and feeling good.
Greg Mike:So I'll probably take you there. Yeah.
Rob Lee:That's tight. That's tight. I've I've heard of Fox Brothers, so shout out to you. And here here's the last one, and you probably remember that I may have queued this one up before we got started. What's your favorite color?
Greg Mike:Blue. Definitely blue. 100%.
Rob Lee:Yeah. So I kept this background up.
Greg Mike:I know. I know. It matches all the blue things that are right behind my computer right now. Yep. Yeah.
Greg Mike:Blue, I don't know why. I think just like the the cool, calm, collective, like, you know, it's very chill, but it still got some punch. I think maybe I I grew up I spent some time by the ocean when I was younger when I lived in South Florida, so maybe there's a little of that, like that teal element of of the blue
Rob Lee:range. Yeah.
Greg Mike:Yes. It's kinda tranquil. Right? But it can be punchy at times when you use it. Right?
Greg Mike:Absolutely. Blue skies are nice too. You
Rob Lee:know? Yeah.
Greg Mike:It used to be red though when I was a little kid. It was red. It went from red to blue. So I think that was, like, when I was into karate, and I was a little more aggressive,
Rob Lee:you know? So you're you're creating a a follow-up question that I'm not gonna ask you because you're you're so blue was mine for a long time, and it's now red. So that's why I just Damn.
Greg Mike:I have this, like, Maybe I'll switch back. I don't know. But I definitely, like, have refined my palette. Like, in the past few murals, I've been using, like, a lot of, like, just the CMYK colors, you know, and a little bit of yellow too. I like the the punchiness of yellow.
Greg Mike:And you got yellow right there on your screen too. Blue and yellow.
Rob Lee:Is it?
Greg Mike:White. There we go.
Rob Lee:It's intentional. It's all fine. I hit the button as we so that's kinda it for the rapid fire and the real questions. And in these final moments, there are 2 things that I would like to do. 1, I wanna thank you for coming on and spending some time with me.
Rob Lee:This has been great to connect. And 2, I want to give you the opportunity to tell folks about the outer space project dates, social media website, all of those things. Basically, it's a shameless plug portion. The floor is yours.
Greg Mike:Well, yeah. Great for taking the time. Thank you. I appreciate that as well. You know, I had a great chat with you.
Greg Mike:And, outer space, yeah, it's coming up 18th through 23rd November. It's a few weeks away. And all the info is just outer space project dot com. Our handles on Instagram are just at outer space project. I'm easy to find online too.
Greg Mike:Just Greg Mike on Instagram. Greg Mike dot com. ABV is just ABV Gallery and ABV Agency dot com. So definitely, you know, tap in with us. Try to come out to some of our events.
Greg Mike:Hopefully, I run into some of y'all one of these days on the streets, and, yeah, we'll chop it up. But thank you again so much. It was fun.
Rob Lee:And there you have it, folks. I wanna again thank Greg Mike for coming on to the podcast and sharing a bit of his creative story with us and sharing the story of the outer space project. Returning to Atlanta, November 18th through the 23rd. And for Greg Mike, I'm Rob Lee saying that there's art, culture, and community in and around your neck of the woods. You've just got to look for it.
