Meet Nick Dunkenstein

We recently connected with Nick Dunkenstein and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Nick, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

My work ethic is pretty much passion and project driven, imagining ideas and being creative keeps me going when times get hard. Diving into creation and letting it consume me helps me get away from the outside world, and be in a place that feels safe.
I use this part of myself to meet people, so I enjoy collaborating, which helps keep me motivated and grounded. While motivation isn’t hard for me, I can have moments of self doubt and worry if I hit road blocks.
I love telling stories and seeing others enjoy escaping into other worlds themselves, seeing others feel more than just living a mundane 9-5 life, and if I can provide that outlet for people, it makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something.

Let’s take a small detour – maybe you can share a bit about yourself before we dive back into some of the other questions we had for you?

It can be really difficult for me to describe myself anytime i see the question; tell us about yourself. I’m always wondering, “What do i say about myself”? I wear a lot of hats!
So most of the time I call myself an enigma since i feel like artist is only part of my being, but i love art. I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for it.
My art is also multifaceted. I create comics, I paint and illustrate, I create new life with bones. My passion for comics has always been there, since i was very young, adoring cartoons. My finer art involves more symbolism, and is a different style from my cartoons, and my bone work comes from the part of me that wants to keep memories of those passed alive. Grief is connected to us forever, and death is always near by, i hate how so many people forget that and shoo it away like a bad thought. In my assemblage works that use animal bones and even dead bugs, i like to create a type of memento mori. Normalizing the discussion, eliminate fear and create a love and respect for what comes natural.
And so while i consider myself an artist, i enjoy being involved in bigger pictures. If i can get involved in making art of any kind with others, i will – from silly movies to music projects, and even haunted houses – I like creating and turning a goal into real life. I like being with people and making dreams come true, I enjoy helping others.
It’s all art.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?

Connecting with people. We need connection. So many people want to do things on their own, and that can be excellent, but having connections – REAL connections – will help you even more. Don’t shy away from collaborations, and don’t write off things just because you may not want to be involved with an idea that feels so different from your goal. I’ve had a lot of people ask me how to get to the end goal of something, but the end goal is hard to get to if you dont have friendships.
Find people with like drives and minds, and connect.

Dont stick to just one thing. Learn more than one skill. If you want to make comics, learn to draw AND write. Learn to read other comics, learn what makes the best the best, and the worst the worst. Learn styles, and learn how to speak to the audience. You’ll have a hard time making something if you only know how to draw panels and stick figures.

Do stuff on your own time. This is a tough one because its hard for us to have our own time these days, since so many of us have more than one job, and are stuck in survival mode, but you cant wait to be picked up. You need to create and make stuff, sure you probably wont make any money for years, but if you keep it up, its possible, but money isnt the goal. Telling a story should be.

Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?

I can be my own obstacle thanks to suffering from high anxiety, and with how depressive the world is. Trying to survive is difficult when it feels like everything is stacked against you. Im still trying to learn how to overcome these things by just pushing through, but i know that’s not going to be enough eventually.
Teaching myself to take up space and speak with my voice rather than my paints, has been hard also. Sadly, this is something i still have to figure out, but trying to find a community, or a place that accepts me, is always on my mind.

Contact Info:

• Other: https://www.webtoons.com/en/canvas/the-pandemic-diaries/list?title_no=830542

  https://linktr.ee/panoramapancakes

Image Credits

image of Nick on stage by Liz Murphy-Thomas