Meet Iron Gordon

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Iron Gordon. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Iron, so great to have you with us and we want to jump right into a really important question. In recent years, it’s become so clear that we’re living through a time where so many folks are lacking self-confidence and self-esteem. So, we’d love to hear about your journey and how you developed your self-confidence and self-esteem.

Confidence comes from experience, like most people I suppose, the more experience I have in a particular area, the more confident I tend to feel in my ability to handle situations within that domain.
I gained experience by rarely turning down clients work. Even if it felt like it didn’t fit my style or aesthetic of art, I wanted the work experience more than I wanted to have some sort of artist expression.
I feel that was a good way for me to develop my confidence and expand my skill set into mediums I would have never tried unless a client asked me.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I go by the name Iron Gordon, I am an artist that primarily focuses on hand lettering, woodcut outs, lowbrow style painting, and I post all my projects to YouTube. The videos tend to be me explaining what I’m doing, so they are sort of an informal how to.
If I’m not talking in a video it’s close up shots of me painting with lo-fi hip hop beats over the footage. It’s a vibe. Or whatever the kids are saying these days.

Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?

I went to school for graphic design and I believe that helped me in some ways hone in my artist eye. Graphic design, was my art school, It helped me be more critical of my work and not justify every paint stroke with some flippant excuse. I learned to pay attention to my line weights and how to look “handmade” but having equal parts excess and edited. Being a graphic designer on a computer taught me how to be a better artist with traditional mediums.

Graphic design also taught me how to produce work under deadlines and not be so married to a project that I had to make 100 revisions and just reach a point were I’m ok with what I have produced and i know the client will be happy. I know a lot of artist would scoff at this idea, thinking that I’m not truly creating art, and rather am acting more as a machine for the client. But at the end of the day Im being paid, to make art within a style perimeter that is my own.

One last piece of knowledge, that comes up in everything I make whether painting or in video editing is that everything goes through an ugly stage and you just need to push forward until it’s not ugly any more.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

I feel like the clock is always staring at me. I can’t ever seem to find enough time to get done the things that I need to get done and the things I want to get done.
I’m sure that could be remedied with some sort of therapy or coaching, but that’s just more time spent away from the other things.
I say all that as a bit of a joke, but it is something I’m conscience of, and am making efforts to be better at.
I like to make list of priorities that need to get done for the day and that list gets broken down into list of personal life, business, social media, and client work.
Also I ask Siri to remember to remind me later about ideas I have when I can’t stop to explore the idea right then. These methods aren’t anything profound but I find them effective.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @iron_gordon
• Youtube: @irongordon

Image Credits

N/A