Artist Interview: Mike Nicholls

**Mike Nicholls:**

**Creativity Begets Creativity**

by Liên Johnson

UMBER is a stunning magazine. Striking images in rich tones of black & brown - shades of grey, coffee, and ... umber, are printed on its thick, matte paper, alongside delicious illustrations, fonts, and graphics. The articles flow from beginning to end as different threads of one connected story, each contributing its part to the theme. It doesn’t have much in common with the glossy magazines you’d see in the checkout line -- you aren’t bombarded with brash and cheesy ads trying to sell you celebrity endorsed stuff. Thoughtfully curated and beautifully designed, UMBER, “the creative thinker’s graphic journal” is one of those magazines that you pore over, keep, and return to to be inspired time and again.

The passion behind UMBER is artist turned publisher Mike Nicholls. Mike is a Creative Generalissimo with many stripes: illustrator, designer, maker, writer, founder, creative director, editor, publisher, marketer, distributor, salesman, deejay, and father. I recently had the opportunity to sit down with him at his studio in Oakland to learn about his journey from young doodler to publisher.

When did you first think of yourself as an artist?

I've been drawing my whole life. My dad is a visual artist, too. A painter. He's from St. Vincent of the Caribbean, the West Indies. He made the Carnival costumes. He was a painter, musician, muralist, and designer, too. Everything that I'm doing, he did. But I didn't grow up with him. When my mom divorced I was four or five. I've always drawn, always created, always designed, but I never saw myself as an artist. I was just all - this is what I do. This is what I enjoy. This is my outlet. Since I was young, I stuttered a lot. So creating and drawing was my outlet to just speak.

My takeaway - Our earliest interests give us insight into our deepest passions. As young children, we simply did what was fun and brought us joy, unencumbered by ego, self-consciousness, or the idea of what we “should be doing.” It would be a good exercise to reflect and think about what brought us joy as our younger selves.

Do you remember the first time you got paid to do art?

I lived in Atlanta from 1994 to 1997 while going to school for illustration at The Art Institute of Atlanta. There was this event called FreakNik where black folks could just come out and party, celebrate. Now growing up, I was very green - not conservative, but I didn't like to party. I liked to dance. So I would go to parties to dance, not to be in the scene. But FreakNik is a scene, and sometimes it's a little raunchy, a little crazy. You know - things are happening all over the place and I never felt comfortable in that scene. In 1997, I knew I was going to move to Chicago to go back to school for graphic design to do more marketing and logos. So I decided to design a t-shirt for FreakNik. I was getting my haircut at a barber shop and I had my t-shirt. This other guy was selling his t-shirt, too. We were both trying to sell t-shirts to the same guy who had cut my hair. The guy who cut my hair was picking which shirt he wanted, right? So I hold up my shirt, the other guy hold up his shirt, and he said, "I'm going to pick his, because his is classy." And I was like, “Oh, wow! He just bought my shirt!” You know? He bought it for a reason! Not just because it was a FreakNik t-shirt, not just because it's about the event, but it was like - oh, this shirt looks different. That was the first time somebody actually bought something I made. I drew it, designed it, came up with the concept, printed it.

My takeaway - The best ideas are the ones that are actually brought to fruition. Just jump in. Follow your passion, nurture those precious seeds inside you and write that book, draw that picture, print that shirt, record that video...

How did you get started with UMBER Magazine?

I got started with UMBER first through hip hop, actually. Hip hop, being a fan of hip hop, recognizing that I am hip hop. At a young age it gave me all the tools to be creative and expressive. With hip hop you have graffiti which is the art, you have DJ-ing which is the music, you have rapping which is the poetry, and you have break-dancing which is the dance, the movement. All those things inform why I'm a graphic designer, why I love music, and all the things I love. So really I say that UMBER, the birth of UMBER, is intertwined with hip hop.

My takeaway - Our interests are deeply interconnected and inform and inspire each other both consciously and unconsciously. Write a list and examine the things to which you are drawn. Perhaps a pattern or connection will emerge and facilitate further exploration.

If he hadn’t pursued design & illustration…

I would have done music. Back to hip hop again--when I was growing up I stuttered a lot. I just couldn't get the words out. I went to speech therapy the whole time from kindergarten until my senior year of high school. In the last year, senior year, the teacher therapist was like, “You should talk to rhythm. Every. Time. You. Talk. Tap. Your. Feet. It may sound weird, but at least you're getting the words out and not grabbing for things and trying to force the words out.” I always loved rap. I always would do little verses here and there. Even from the time I was 10 I would always do something like that - music, hip hop, lyrics - as a hobby. I would make hip hop beats (I still do from time to time).

Or, if not music, I would have been a fashion designer. When I was a kid, my mom had Elle, Vogue... she got all these magazines. I loved the fashion, right?! But I would make the women black. I would draw the same shape, give them hips, give them Afros, because I love the designs of the clothes but I just didn't see me in it. Or something that represents where I'm from. And so, yeah. I would have done music. Music or fashion.

My takeaway - our interests are often nurtured by our play and positive experiences as children. If you’re trying to reconnect to a creative life, look back to those things you gravitated toward as a child and perhaps revisit those creative exercises and see what happens.

What gets your creative juices moving? What gets you really excited?

Music. Music. Music. Music is the intertwining thread. Music gets me moving, gets my brain working. Re-establishes my rhythm. It moves my hand in a certain way. It moves my body in a certain way. And it makes me see visions of what I want to create. So music is the thing that gets me going, hands down. Any type of sound in general, but definitely music. You know, one of the most important things in music is that outside of the whole movement, inspiration, and feeling good, it's a way to express your culture, it's a way to identify your culture or to identify somebody else's culture, all through music. Music defines certain moments of your time - you know, it's, "Oh! I remember that time!" when you hear a certain song and you recollect whatever you were experiencing during that time, where there was pain, joy, tragedy. Music is that connector. And so, hands down, music.

My takeaway - creativity begets creativity. The more you can expose yourself to experiential creative expression, whether it’s through music, art galleries, workshops, new media, new ideas, the more you will be informed and inspired, both consciously and sub-consciously.

How has your identity informed you as a creative and entrepreneur?

Your identity grounds you on this earth, grounds you on this planet, where we live. I always really see us as spiritual beings. We're just energy, right? And so are our skin colors, our names, our identities, our genders, it's just a way we can talk, can have a conversation, and say oh that's Mike, he's X, Y, Z. So I think you know, but I know that my identity informs my artwork, informs my perspective, informs my, you know, the way I look at the world, how I engage with the world.

My takeaway - This is simple, but it’s golden: Your identity, your nature, nurture, passions, experiences, and environment all inform your perspective, your frame of reference. Ultimately, we are all the same, made up of souls breathed into cosmic dust. It’s up to us to examine our perspectives and try to understand where they come from, how they inform our choices, and continually try to grow and evolve ourselves to contribute more meaningfully to the world.

What advice do you have for young creatives who are just starting out?

Even if you're still unsure, you feel like you still don’t have the confidence yet, just show up. Work at a company for a little bit. Learn as much as you can while you're there. Establish a vision for where you see yourself wanting to go. Always, always hold on to that vision. That vision is the most important aspect. There are some people who are looking right to being self-employed and do that. I think that's great. That's awesome. But sometimes it's good to have that small part-time job so you know there's some steady flow, right? Or if you're in a position where you already know people who are already in that space, hang out with them. Shadow them. If you don't have that? Work at a job. You know, the best job I ever got was at Kinko's because you're printing all the time. I printed some stuff for free because I worked there. When I was in college, all my friends in art school had to worry about the printing lab and stuff not there. It was a mess. I didn't. I just went to work, printed it out, and that was it. Paid half off or didn't pay for it at all. It kept going. Worked at a place that you can actually print your work, whether it's at a print shop, Kinko's type company, a little printer, little printing press, somewhere where if you have an idea, you can print it out.

My takeaway - Just showing up is the best advice. Working at places that support your passion, whether it’s paying the rent or, better yet, if it enables you to do your craft in some way, is a step in the right direction even if you are not prepared to take the leap and make your passion your full-time gig. Do work that supports your passion, even if it’s just work that keeps the lights on.

How does your work help you realize your values?

I became more brave with UMBER. I became more comfortable in showing up in spaces that I normally would not want to go to, because when you attach your passion to your vision you're self actualizing. You're blossoming. UMBER allowed me to be comfortable with who I am, even more so than I was before. Show Up, you know I'm saying? And Be Visible. I think that it allowed me to be more visible. The confidence is definitely there. I still get nervous but certain things are over. I feel like I'm not fully actualized, but damn near close.

My takeaway - We grow when we take risks and allow ourselves to be vulnerable. Simply showing up is self actualizing your passion. Feeling uncertain and insecure is a normal part of the process. Confidence follows and empowers you to take even bigger steps.

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A note on this interview series: As a woman who has long relegated her artistic pursuits to after-thoughts to the normal grind of everyday life, I am on a mission to learn more about the various experiences and practices of other artists in order to take my own creative journey to the next level. We humans are all so incredibly unique: in our histories, paths, habits, ways of seeing, learning, and connecting. It is important for us to honor our individuality and continually learn so that we might discover what speaks to our own spirits.

In this PHNX Artist Interview Series, I aim to uncover what methods and hard-won wisdom of other artists might speak to my own creative journey in order to further advance my artistic life. In doing so I hope to provide insight into how you can do the same.

*UMBER’s Sound Issue is out now online and at these stockists.

**Mike’s interview has been edited for clarity, flow, and length. This article was also published on Medium.

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