Today we’d like to introduce you to Nick Murray.
Hi Nick, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I got the writing bug early. Not exactly sure when, I think I was 9 or something like that. I’m not sure if it was all the animated shows I was watching but at some point I took up drawing too. Writing really got me in to language and a lot of the stuff I was watching when I was young clued me into the fact that visual art was really just language for the eyes. Samurai Jack and Batman TAS were big influences. Those shows excelled at creating atmosphere and so immersion happened easily. I did film school in college, which kinda taught me “grammar” for photography and then after I graduated, I was shooting a lot. As for the writing, a friend of mine got me into spoken word poetry around the time I was gonna graduate and I still do some of that with some friends who play music.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Ha, no. Definitely a bumpy ride. So much of the struggle is internal. I think the artistic impulse is an attempt to assign meaning to experience, especially when so much of what we go through as people can seem so random and senseless. And then, we teach each other to ransom our self-worth for the sake of being perceived positively by people who may never really want to know us. So you flail around, making things you don’t wanna make, betraying yourself all the while. Some of it’s external, how do I create art and feed myself at the same time? Which isn’t the real question, the real question is why do our material conditions force us to choose between making dope shit that I’m deeply connected to and working multiple jobs that take all my time? Some of it’s definitely comparison, measuring where you are against where other people appear to be standing. But the journey of being someone who is making art is accepting that there’s enough room and enough time. Some of my favorite artists made some of their dopest work when they were much older than I am now. That’s really cool.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
So I do a few things. Most of my time is spent working behind a coffee bar, I’ve been doing that for about little over 8 years. I wouldn’t necessarily consider coffee an art so much as a craft but I think it’s been an arena that has given me the opportunity to hone my creative instincts. It’s taught me the value of developing skills beyond just technical proficiency, like curating atmosphere. I do consider coffee a sort of medium. I’ve been a photographer for a while. I guess I would say I specialize in photography. It’s something I’m still a bit reluctant to claim for some reason but ya. What I’m most proud of right now I think is just my instincts. Having good instincts and trusting your decision-making as an artist is so important, even if it takes you to a difficult place. Internal conflict can establish a sort of emotional temperature where some good art can grow but that conflict shouldn’t be so intense that it paralyzes your ability to choose. I’ve definitely gotten weighed down by the sheer amount of things I could do, I’ve tried to chase the mirage of perfection. Sometimes giving up is how you win.
Is there something surprising that you feel even people who know you might not know about?
Probably that I’ve played the guitar since I was 12.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/omaridotm
- Other: https://behance.net/omarim
