Meet Owen Murphy | Illustrator

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

Hi Owen, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
For one, my dad was self employed for most of my life. As an artist himself with a hustler mentality he figured out several ways to make a living while being artistic as well as doing the grind work to pay bills and put food on the table. Watching him do that absolutely made an impact on me. While I attended community college in South Jersey, I worked as a delivery driver at a local pizza place. I can’t remember why my boss said this but he looked at me and said, “If you can work for yourself, do it. Don’t end up working for some schmuck like me for the rest of your life.” I thought he was an admirable guy and that advice stuck with me. Once I started at Salisbury University, my professors guided me into illustration. I saw my mentor professor’s son, who was 4-5 years older than me doing gig posters and other freelance work for a living. I thought that if I wanted to be a professional at something, I need to get people to pay me for illustration and design work. I decided to do that on the side as a hobby after I got home from the print shops I was working at. Working at print shops taught me the screen printing process and business of merchandising. I’m an obsessive person and hyper focus on things I’m passionate about so when I realized I could actually make a living doing my freelance full time, I took a leap of faith and its been working out in my favor.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
My art is inspired by my 34+ years of life on earth. Everything I do is an interpretation of my experiences and it’s all channeled through my mind onto paper. What sets me apart from others would be the fact that no 2 people live the same life, so my experience is being captured the way I interpret it through my craft. I’m proud of what I have accomplished though it was not easy. It takes a lot of discipline and hard work. Literal blood, sweat and tears. In the process of doing this, I have learned how to be a better person which has made me a better artist and becoming a better artist, has allowed me to grow more as a person. I’m always trying to do better moving forward. I reflect a lot on the past and how not to repeat certain behaviors just like I do with my art. We can all do better.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
Assuming cool events lineup perfectly over the course of that week and I have unlimited money and energy, my wife and I do a lot of hiking so during the day we’d go the reservoir or one of the state parks and hike along the rivers. At night I’d hit Fed Hill to get pizza and beers at Pub Dog before heading into the 8×10 for a Cris Jacobs concert. The next night I’d say go get dinner at Mothers and slide over to Magooby’s Joke House to see some stand up comedy. There would be at least 1 night down in DC for dinner literally anywhere because the food down there is so damn good and a concert at the Anthem. I could probably fit in and Orioles game because that would give me an excuse to go to one. One night I’d take them out in Hampden (Baltimore neighborhood) for beers at Union and dinner at Papi’s Tacos. My house is on an acre and I like cooking so I would probably cook a steak dinner and we’d have a fire after hitting up the Cow for ice cream. That Farmacy is a brewery by my house that has a cool vibe so one day we’d go there.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
This list is long. First off my wife, Lauren, for putting up with me and believing in me through all of it. Other people if I’m going to fire off a list would be my parents, my in-laws, Glen Trosch of Psychedelic Art Exchange, Matt Weiss & Josh Jachowski, The Grateful Dead, Paul Flexner and any other art teacher I had, everyone in the 8×10 family, my friends, the bands and managers I’ve worked with continuously over the years, all the other artists who inspired me and/or gave me advice on how to do this thing, Ram Dass, Eckhardt Tolle, Alan Watts, Paulo Cuelho, Albert Hofmann, my dogs especially Gremlin, I could probably keep going if I tried.

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