Meet Takeo Faison

We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Takeo Faison. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Takeo below.

Alright, so we’re so thrilled to have Takeo with us today – welcome and maybe we can jump right into it with a question about one of your qualities that we most admire. How did you develop your work ethic? Where do you think you get it from?

My mother. For as long as i can remember she’s worked multiple jobs to support us up until she started her own business. Even at that point she was the first person in and last person out the shop.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

my name is Takeo Faison, I’m a multi media artist and designer based out of Tampa, Florida. My journey has been a life long endeavor always being artistically inclined and as I progressed and got older the need to make this a sustainable life long lifestyle became paramount. As an artistically inclined kid I was always into drawing, tracing, coloring, anything I could get my hands on. My mother throughout my early childhood was a trained printmaker and thus I spent a lot of my early years surrounded by art in many shapes and forms. throughout school I wasn’t the best so my prospects for college weren’t the widest and thus I ended up going to our local community college, Hillsborough community college, where for the first time in my life I would take formal art classes and eventually begin my own personal journey into printmaking. this journey would eventually lead to screen printing, graphic design, fashion design/illustration, creative directorial work, painting, jewelry design etc. I would insert myself in any artistic project or endeavor I could get my hands on and use that to further my own technical skills and knowledge eventually leading to my own practice/ brand called “cowboy by takeo” based out of st. Petersburg, Florida. This is a deeply truncated sequence of events that is continousy being built upon every day as this is a life ling endeavor now just a passing hobby.

in my day job I paint/customize shoes for a living while in my freetime I generally focus on creating in whatever means moves me that day. currently Im in the process of redesigning my website and archiving previous works to prepare for a solo art show and/or fashion show within late 2025 to early 2026.

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 the most important part of being an artist is staying consistent and trusting the process. great things take time, skills need refinement and like folks in the gym you have to work at it to see results. its very rare that the most talented person goes the distance if they don’t work to refine their talents/skills.

Art in a lot of ways on a creative/creator level for me is a process of creative problem solving. I feel like more often than not I’m looking for creative solutions to things/ideas I had in my mind that don’t pan out the way I imagined but with an open mind, I find that my ideas usually end up more interesting when they deviate from what I initially imagined or planned.

Stay flexible and malleable. you can’t be married to any one idea in a world of constant ideas and influences, the linger you sit on a fixed idea the higher chance somebody else will do the same/similar idea. with that I find being flexible creatively is how you stay above that problem.

What was the most impactful thing your parents did for you?

Believe in me. Give me the tools and self confidence to be myself. Trust in my ability to make my own choices and dictate my journey without judgement or shame

Contact Info:

• Website: https://cowboybytakeo.com
• Instagram: @takeo.faison @cowboybytakeo
• Linkedin: Takeo Faison
• Youtube: @cowboybytakeo

Image Credits

shot by @papa.louche