We had the good fortune of connecting with Michael Young and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Michael, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
It took me a very long time to fully realize that working retail since I was 18, with the occasional mural here and there, had finally burned me out. Getting joyfully fired from my last retail job ( I was 55!) was the push I guess I always needed to just go with murals. It was incrddibly liberating and it proved to me that I had more ability to improve my happiness than I ever thought possible.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
First of all, murals are my life, my heart and a colossal source of my self-confidence and identity. As I’m sure is true with a lot of artists, when there are times I’m down, sad, or low on self-esteem, I can go out and look at some of my work and think, “You know, that’s pretty good. I think I did pretty well on that.” That’s when the art heals the artist. I never planned to go the way of murals, but they seemed to be the one art form that people kept wanting and what used my creative juices the most! I tried creating art that hung in galleries, but I didn’t have the patience or courage to wait for it to be sold. Murals have scope, size and impact. The joy of my life is seeing people realize the attraction murals have. I really don’t make murals to make a statement. I create them to transport people from where they’re standing into worlds beyond walls, and more importantly, I hope, to create for the client something better than they imagined. If it’s for their business, I want it to pull it’s weight and help out; if it’s for their home, I want it to enhance and contribute. Each time I can do that, I know I’ve done something right!

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Estes Park is indeed a remarkable town. It’s been my home for almost 40 years so it has so much of my family’s history. I love sharing what Estes has to offer… including a few of its (ahem) stories. My house is over 100 years old, so that’s always a good place to start someone’s visit…you can’t beat an Estes Park sunset from a cozy porch. Somehow it happened that I have almost 30 murals in Estes Park, so if my company is interested, just giving them a tour of where they are will take them into incredible restaurants like Poppys, Lonigans Pub, Ravens Roast Coffee house and The Sugar Shack. Village Bagels happens to be home of my most creative works! My murals can take them to Bart’s Liquor, Rocky Mountain Pharmacy, our local hospital EPHealth, even the Bank of Colorado, and even Redrum Tattoos! If they just want to relax in our town park, there’s even an electrical box disguised as a
rustic cabin! The mountain beauty of Estes, however, is the ultimate experience. It has been a good town to me, and I’ll always want to give something back to it!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Here is a very appreciative shoutout to all of those very supportive people who see the strength and beauty of murals, and allow me to create them! And an incredible chunk of gratitude goes to my art teacher at Columbine High, Jim Bornemann, who probably said, “We have this huge, ugly wall. See what you can do with it.”! A piece of wisdom concerning an artist making it on his own came from my dad. He was a truly gifted pianist and organist his entire life…never did anything else. He would say, “Son, I may be poor… but I am really happy!”

Youtube: https://youtu.be/CK_cPord5vo?feature=shared

Other: I can be contacted at luciyou@yahoo.com.

Image Credits
Michael Young

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