We were lucky to catch up with Adam Easterling recently and have shared our conversation below.
Adam, we’re so excited for our community to get to know you and learn from your journey and the wisdom you’ve acquired over time. Let’s kick things off with a discussion on self-confidence and self-esteem. How did you develop yours?
My confidence has always come from setting myself apart from the crowd. Growing up, I changed schools a handful of times, and was “the new kid” more than once. The challenge of establishing myself in a new place was scary, but I found that once I started expressing myself, everything in life always seemed to get easier. Making that connection at a young age, gave me so much confidence because it taught me the value of expression, and how to lean into my talents.
I was born in Cleveland Ohio, and lived there until I was 14. For the last year that I lived in Cleveland, I went to shaker heights middle school for a year of 8th grade. Once again, I found myself starting another school year as the new kid at a new school, but this time was different. My cousin Malcolm was already a student at this school, and everyone loved him. He grew up in the neighborhood and was a standout football player in the community. With that said, this was the best case scenario for me going into the school year knowing no one.
Except for one thing, Malcolm was recently diagnosed with stage IV bone cancer. He passed away halfway through the school year, and I moved to New Jersey with my family 6 months later. I was crushed. I started high school feeling completely depressed from the loss of my cousin, but also feeling so intimidated by the idea of starting my life over in a new place. I knew that I didn’t want my first introduction to people to be “the kid who’s cousin just died”, even though thats how I saw myself. So i decided to express myself the way that I know best, share my art and see what happens. This worked just as well for me then as it had in my past, and this also gave me more confidence to pursue my art.
I went on to create a clothing line in high school to honor my cousin. This brand was a vehicle to so much later successes in my life, and really set me up for adulthood because I learned so many valuable lessons as my business expanded far past my greatest expectations. My confidence especially since then, and probably my whole life, has come from knowing that through my art, I have an innate power. I don’t need anything but myself (and a tool) to create art, and there’s no telling what can happen when I authentically express myself.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’m an artist and designer, and I work specifcally in the fine art world at an artist’s studio. I essentially run a print shop inside of this studio. My main role is managing the printing of large format media, most impressively, a flatbed UV printer thats bigger than most studio apartments. My journey to where Im at now has been interesting, and I’ve found a career making art for a living, which still blows my mind some times.
Although I’ve always loved to draw, computers and cameras have always captured my attention as well. I learned graphic design so that I could start my clothing line, and then I learned motion graphics while working at complex magazine. Throughout my career, ive been lucky enough to learn new skills at different jobs ive had, and now I have a position where I’m using so many different skills and tools to create one of a kind art works. im often using several computers and multiple pieces of equipment to make one piece of work.
my goal is to find a space in New York and create my own printshop, which would also double as a community space. Ive always seen the value in exposing people to things unknown to them, so it’s ultimately my goal to facilitate a space that can allow people to learn new skills that might empower them in their own lives. Inspiration is a powerful force and I’d like to create a space where that can happen regularly. While I dont have a solid plan to actualizing that space at the moment, I do plan on hosting a screen printing workshop in the summer
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 think three of the most important qualities that impacted me were perseverance, confidence, and humility. Perseverance is so important because so much can be said about people that just stick it out. Continuing on, even when things are hard is often what separates those who get the things that they want, vs those who don’t. Confidence is important because at the end of the day, you have to believe in yourself before anyone else will. And humility is important because, at least in creative fields there can be a pressure to perform at an advanced level at every step of the way. This is unrealistic, it’s important to be okay with being fresh, and unskilled at something that is new to you. Even if you’re very skilled in one area, be comfortable with learning something new, and becoming better with practice, without feeling embarrassed about not being good at this thing.
To close, maybe we can chat about your parents and what they did that was particularly impactful for you?
The most impactful thing my parents did for me was simply being supportive of my artist passions. I dont come from an arts background, but I was never discouraged in pursing it. I learned later in life some of my peers that were amazing Artists, had family suggest that art wasn’t the best career for them to pursue. This caused me to have a greater appreciation for the support my parents provided through my youth.
My mom actually made me sign up for computer graphics in 10th grade! I didnt know what that was, and she signed me up for it as an elective course. This is where I met my favorite teacher, who later changed my life as well. I learned a lot about graphic design from this class, and later became the head art and design editor of our school’s newspaper. Which gave me a lot of skills that I use in my work today. This class was my first introduction to print and production design.
But overall, my parent’s general support impacted me greatly. I always felt like I could do anything, as long as I did my best, they’d be proud of what I was pursuing. And that felt great knowing that growing up
Contact Info:
- Website: Neverstopinfinity.com
- Instagram: adameast
Image Credits
Billboard photo: Taisuke Yamada Photo of me in front of “Make Peace With It”: Khidr Joseph Photo of me in front of “find some balance”: Rebecca Kliggerman
