Today we’d like to introduce you to RJ Artuso.
RJ, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I was born and raised in Broward County. My parents separated when I was only a few months old. I’ve moved around and lived in different parts of the county over my lifetime as a result. I went to high school at Northeast High in Oakland Park. It was around that time that I started to get into music, acting, and artistic things in general. I took drama class and was in Poetry club. That established the basis for my love of writing and performing. I graduated from Northeast in the summer of 2013 and attended college in the fall of that same year. I went to Florida Atlantic University for five years graduating in the summer of 2018. While I was there, I met people of like-minded passion and drive. I decided, as a result, to start pursuing that passion and started a music production company with some friends from school. My goal is to get my own message out there and try to have the same impact on others that many great artists have had on myself. I also am working through the company I started to hopefully help other aspiring artists in the area do the same.
We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do, why, and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
I like to tell stories more than anything. I like to make music that gets people to think, hopefully differently than they normally do. I’ve learned through my life experience that we are all not that much different from each other. And I hope that my art can help to create a dialogue in a healthy way, that allows people to think about and talk about those differences. I am naturally a poet, but I have begun to record music. The first thing I released was a remix I was challenged to do talking about the shooting that happened at Stoneman Douglas High. I know the power that art especially music has on the world. And especially for the youth. They listen to music when they are in their most emotional of states and look to it for guidance. My goal is to send them a positive message and influence them and others to take action in a healthy way to make the world a better place.
The sterotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
I would say that you need to create a proper budget. In that budget, you will set amounts for all of your bills, rent, food, car payment, etc. You need to allocate a bill for your art as well. It is important to set it into writing, so you make sure to maintain its importance and not just view as something secondary to your living expenses. If it is your primary goal, it needs to have primary importance. Also creating a business entity such as an LLC or Inc I believe is an important step. This will provide you with many legal protections and allow you to write off the money you spend on your art when you file for taxes. As an artist you will want to protect yourself both legally and financially and being incorporated is the best way to do that. It will also allow you to open a commercial bank account where you can streamline and separate the money you make and spend on your art from everything else. This may help to provide a clearer picture of your finances.
Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
I post my work on my social media accounts, rja6294 is my username for everything.
Contact Info:
- Phone: (954)-867-6061
- Email: rja6294@gmail.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rja6294/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/rja6294
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/rja6294
- Other: https://soundcloud.com/rja6294
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