Today we’d like to introduce you to Justin Ek.
Hi Justin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I had always worked. As early as I remember, we were working. Our family always had a business, sometimes it was cleaning apartments sometimes it was working at a pawn shop. We’ve had restaurants and blacktopping companies. When I was in high school, my dad took a job with a painting company that was painting our local shopko. He has no experience with this trade but our family needed the money. Shortly after the job started the company quit the job and the general contractor asked my father to finish the job. He purchased a paint sprayer and that was the start of our painting company.
We always worked for our painting company, Bellissimo Paint and coatings and after high school, I joined the ownership team
I also had no experience painting and learned how to be a great commercial and residential house painter through grit and determination.
Our life was hard and full of pitfalls. That life left me with a strong desire to heal and to create. House painting satisfied that need for a long time. But the neighborhoods around our house painting business buildings were being vandalized and graffitied on a weekly basis.
I came up with an idea to create a community mural to transform the community’s desire to create and destroy into community beauty and health.
Our painting company lead that effort and after that first mural, my desire as an artist grew. I now work full-time as a painter and artist. We fill businesses and buildings in our community with art and cultural activities
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Our life has been strife and full of trauma and destruction. My father moved to America alone at 11 years old. My folks met and had 2 children in high school. It has been a very difficult life, one our family has alchemized into a beautiful story and successful enterprise.
Work has been at the heart of our journey. Tenacity has been our compass and living life with the lense of helping others have blown wind to our sails
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I create art through emotional energetic process. I have videos on Tik Tok that demonstrate that process. From sword painting to chair-throwing to pointing in a tuxedo and slapping paint with a wig. You must let go of your restrictions and continue to remove barriers until there is nothing left but to create. I have an unquenchable desire to paint to create art and to connect with the community with public art and cultural celebrations.
In addition to being a visual artist. My artistry is also in installation. Taking over the entirety of Old Town Mankato and transforming it into a massive day of the dead celebration full of detail and art was my greatest accomplishment as an artist
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I am an indigenous person (Mayan) who transforms not just my trauma and struggles into colorful beautiful art. I feel a calling to bring awareness to important issues, to interpret the frequency of society and transcribe it visually into our world.
I assign no permanence to my art and happily destroy pieces many consider complete.
Pricing:
- From 5$-$2000 (I have paintings for everyone.)
- Murals are always different based on circumstances.
Contact Info:
- Website: Bellissimopaint.com
- Instagram: Justinm.ek
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/BellissimoPaint/
- TikTok: Movingone
Image Credits
Festival shot by 38th Street Photography
Bison shot by Smell the Roses Photography
Justin with his paintings by River Valley Woman Magazine
