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

Hi Iron, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
When I first get into any project, I get fully immersed in it, obsessive really. It’s all I want to think about and that doesn’t create a healthy work life balance, especially for someone that is a parent.
But I have a desire to create and make. When I first started posting my art to social media it was just an exercise in consistency for me. Something that would help keep me accountable for making something creative.

Then people started buying my art, then people started asking for commissions, then I started posting the process of me making the commission pieces on YouTube, then I started to make money on my Youtube videos. It became all I thought about. It was the most financially “successful” I had ever been as an artist. I felt the need to constantly make content, while having a full time job, family, social life.

I had to step away. I took about a 3 year hiatus from all my content creation to focus back on the more important things in my life. My son being the most important, I can be an artist at any point in my life but I only get to grow up with him for a short period of time. One day he wont be under my roof, so I need to balance the time right now while he is.
I’m just now starting to get back into content creation with a much more metered approach. My abilities as an artist and my YouTube channel suffered in growth while I was gone, but that’s okay. There’s plenty on the social media table for everyone in every niche. I’ll catch back up.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
I have a love for the automotive world, specifically lowrider and hot rod culture. Those worlds over lap a lot and I draw inspiration from them both. I learned how to do candy paint from looking at the kustom kulture rods and lowrider community. I lean into being lowbrow artist from the hot rod world, which then showed me how to do hand lettering.
I love showing people how I make my art, and explaining that you can create a quality finished piece with mostly simple to obtain supplies. My main paint of choice tends to be a simple can of rust-oleum spray paint and a piece of wood as a canvas. I think my main audience at heart are the DIYers that aren’t afraid to watch a video and take a stab at it them selves.
I continue to grow as an artist and business owner by consistency over time. Catering to my audience with content I think they want to see. Also trying to get back to everyone that comments or ask questions. Which isn’t easy and goes back into the whole work life balance thing.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I really enjoy hunting for new to me clothes, I would want to swing through shops like the Hundreds or Bodega. Flightclub is always a good time, Bait has a crazy amount of things to look at.
If someone is visiting So Cal you have to take them to a taco shop. There is no shortage of them, I don’t even have a favorite, they are all good.
One day would probably be Venice beach for the graffiti and skatepark and really the just the spectacle of it all. I don’t know, something like that.
It’s fun to show people your environments, it’s also fun to be a tourist in your own city sometimes too.
But with everything I just mentioned it sounds like we are spending most our time sitting in traffic!

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
Right, nobody is 100% self made. I would want shout out every single person that has taken time out of their life to watch one of my videos, commented, or reached out to me in regards to my art. It motivates me to keep pushing forward and stretch my skillsets.
Also shout out to my son for being my daily motivator, he is the epitome of my focused energy to be better than I was yesterday.

Instagram: @iron_gordon

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@IronGordon

Nominate Someone: ShoutoutLA is built on recommendations and shoutouts from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.