I wish I had understood at the outset that community support and appreciation for your art is equally as important as financial support. Some of my best fans, if you will, do not regularly purchase art from me. However, they sing our praises on social media and so on. I think this is just as valuable as a purchase given the crowded field that we compete in today. Reputation for quality will get you far.
As a part of our series about “5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist” I had the pleasure of interviewing Rob Sherman.
My name is Rob Sherman and I am the creative force behind Rob Sherman Designs. I am a third-generation artist and metalsmith specializing in the contemporary use of turquoise while paying homage to historical silversmithing techniques. I also own Mountain Song Jewelers, a brick and mortar full-service jewelry store that my wife and I started seven years ago.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I was born in Texas and lived there until my siblings and I went to be with my grandmother in northern Arizona. Later on, we moved back to Texas. My grandmother did her best with sparse economic means. I spent my childhood dwelling at various times in a variety
of accommodations– in a tent, a shotgun house, a tarpaper shack, and various rental houses. We ate everything from deer meat and government commodities to items we had retrieved from dumpsters in the dead of night. I was a voracious reader, and loved to
draw and daydream. For a while, we lived on the same block as the public library in Prescott Arizona. Those were fine days indeed. Around this time my grandmother decided to go “back to the land” and build on a piece of vacant land that she owned in the
Texas hill country. She was ultimately unsuccessful in this venture. I will always appreciate my time in Texas because of the personal freedom it granted a teenage boy–fishing and swimming, tracking wild game, and working on farms and ranches. The end of
my childhood was when I quit high school and rode in the back of a friend’s pickup truck to Austin to find work. Later I would obtain my GED and go on to earn a bachelor’s from East Tennessee State University.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
I was a stay at home dad after the 2008 economic crisis, and I made a job out of what I knew. I had worked on my own air cooled Volkswagens since college years before. I began buying and selling old VW cars and parts, operating out of the garage under the
apartment we lived at the time. It was a dead-end job because I quickly realized that the availability of good used parts to resell was dwindling. One day I stopped what I was doing and grabbed a pen and paper. I brainstormed careers that interested me that
I could start with very little money. I kept coming back to the one that remained after I had crossed all others off the list for being too impractical– jewelry. I called my mother, whom I had emotionally reconnected with, and told her about my conclusions.
She informed me that my older cousin Robert Drozd was an award-winning silversmith and artist from Arizona. So I called him and he agreed to teach me.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
In my first two years of silversmithing I did not have great tools. I soldered with a plumber's torch, used old silver quarters for sheet metal, and so on. An incredibly kind local jeweler must have heard about my work, because she called me to the retail space
that she was vacating. Barbara Evans practically gave me the more costly tools that are essential to producing high quality jewelry. My car was completely full–a buffing machine, an ultrasonic for cleaning jewelry, and so many hand tools. I was and still
am humbled by this sincere and kind gesture. I wasted no time in putting those tools to work. Mrs. Evans and I are friends to this day. I don’t know if that is the most interesting story that I have, but it is a memory of kindness and selflessness that
I cherish.
What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now?
I am currently working on belt buckles with inlaid stone and scarf rings for European scarves. Oil painting has also placed me under its spell. Learning a new form of artistic expression can be daunting, but I find peace in the free and open abstracted landscapes
that I paint. I also love the bold high key colors that are achievable with painting, offsetting warm against cool colors, and so on. I will always love metalsmithing, but I refuse to be typecast as an artist.
Who are some of the most interesting people you have interacted with? What was that like? Do you have any stories?
Some of the most interesting people that I have ever interacted with are other artists and vendors. One person in particular is a lady named Mary that had a bead shop in Alabama. The downstairs was her retail space, positively full of beads and findings from
around the world. The upstairs was her living quarters. She had a vibrant energy and warmth about her. When I asked her why she carried fine beads as well as plastic beads, Mary told me, “Pretty is pretty. Doesn’t matter what it’s made of or who made it.
If a person likes an object, that is what matters. The material is not important.” Despite the fact that I use the finest turquoise I can afford to put into jewelry, I have not forgotten the lesson Mary taught me that day.
Where do you draw inspiration from? Can you share a story about that?
I draw inspiration for my work from the memory of my great uncle Jack Harrison. He was the first in our family to learn silversmithing and employ that skill professionally. A native of Oklahoma, he traveled west to Arizona and began mining turquoise and silver
and making jewelry. My older cousin and mentor Robert Drozd was his step-son. Jack also dug water wells for folks around the Prescott Arizona area. Water is life, and without water one will not last long in the desert. I make the best art I possibly can
because I hold the elders in high regard and will not dishonor their memory by making inferior finished products. It’s the least I can do for those who paved the way for my success.
How have you used your success to bring goodness to the world?
I have used my success to help children in adverse living conditions. I donate money to buy shoes for local children. I support the band and engineering programs at local high schools. Our company donates personal hygiene items to local schools. In short,
we try to fill in the gaps in service in our local community. I tirelessly answer any questions about art that local youngsters ply me with. Charity begins at home, my grandmother repeatedly admonished.
What are your “5 things I wish someone told me when I first started” and why. Please share a story or example for each.
1 . I wish that I knew I could make a living with art. It bears repeating. You can make a living through art. Will it be as easy as sitting in a cubicle and organizing spreadsheets? Maybe, maybe not. I distinctly remember sitting in a Wal-mart parking lot in
Miami during a show, hoping that someone would buy a piece online so that I could afford a hotel room that night. So much depends on the acumen of the artist. However, I am living proof that you can make a living and positively impact those around you through
your art.
2 . I wish that I had known how much money you could earn as an artist. I made more in my first year as an artist than I ever did working for anyone else. Is money the ultimate yardstick to measure artistic prowess? No. Money is another tool in the artist’s toolbox. And it opens doors.
3 . I wish I knew how important financial literacy is and how important it is to run your art business like a business. Lacking an MBA, I took it upon myself to read every book imaginable on business management. For example, I recently was given the opportunity to buy the shopping plaza that Mountain Song Jewelers, our brick and mortar jewelry store, is located in. Sure, the initial payment on the real estate was painful, but I have no regrets. I am ensuring that I will always have assets and options as I age.
As I progress along my artistic journey, I keep my eyes open for additional opportunities.
4 . I wish I knew that professional art education is no guarantee of professional art success. I have witnessed artists hindered, in my opinion, by what their instructors taught them. Some of the best artists I have seen have been self-taught. Please know that
I am not attacking art schools. I am saying, though, that if you want to make art then you should do so. Tomorrow never comes.
5 . I wish I had understood at the outset that community support and appreciation for your art is equally as important as financial support. Some of my best fans, if you will, do not regularly purchase art from me. However, they sing our praises on social media and so on. I think this is just as valuable as a purchase given the crowded field that we compete in today. Reputation for quality will get you far.
You are a person of great influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be? You never know what your idea can trigger. 🙂
If I could start a movement today, it would be to make housing affordable again for all Americans. One way to do this would be to curtail the massive purchases and manipulation of the market of single family homes by large corporations. These corporations have absorbed a vast amount of available housing in communities and have driven the prices up above what working class families can afford. I know it’s legal. That doesn’t mean it’s morally right.
We have been blessed that some of the biggest names in Business, VC funding, Sports, and Entertainment read this column. Is there a person in the world, or in the US whom you would love to have a private breakfast or lunch with, and why? He or she just might see this.
If I could have lunch with anyone, I would have to say David Yurman. A welder, then a silversmith, then branding and scaling to his namesake company today. I commend him on his many successes. I understand that some may say that he left art when he embraced commercial success. I would love to hear about the journey that led him to where he is today.
What is the best way our readers can follow you on social media?
You can find my work on Instagram @robshermandesigns Also see Rob Sherman Designs on Facebook.
This was very inspiring. Thank you so much for joining us!
It was my pleasure to contribute, and I hope that my message inspires people to follow their dreams and aspirations.
Rob Sherman: 5 Things I Wish Someone Told Me When I First Became An Artist was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.