Northern Michigan Voices is a series by 9&10 News reporter Olivia Fellows in which she interviews a person in the community about a story from their life. Everyone has an interesting story to tell, and we want to give you a voice, Northern Michigan! To submit your own story pitch, see the bottom of this article for more details.
In this edition, Olivia talks to professional artist and mural specialist Austin Fabinski. Despite being based out of the Detroit metropolitan area these days, Fabinski continues to grow his deep connections to Northern Michigan’s natural beauty through visits to his cabin in Indian River to build inspiration for his pieces.
Hear from Fabinski on how he approaches his pieces and how Northern Michigan has been an integral part of his art education:
Q: Tell me a little bit about yourself, and how you got into the type of artwork that you do.
FABINSKI: I am an international muralist and I’m based in Metro Detroit. I used to be an elementary art teacher, and in 2019 I went to pursue being an artist full-time. I joined an artist group, which is called the Artist Academy Group that is run by Andrea Ehrhardt. She made the group to teach other artists who want to go full-time and she teaches the business of being an artist. I was always good at art, I became an art teacher. I learned the ins and outs of being an artist, having an LLC, having a business and how to market myself. I eventually went to social media (and) I got on TikTok. Andrea is the one that got me on TikTok, and I started posting videos. I eventually went viral when I started wood burning, and in 2020 I got mega-viral. I got over 400,000 followers and started selling my art worldwide.
Ever since then, I’ve been painting walls all over. I have murals in three countries, and four states. One of my ultimate goals is to get a mural in every state. I should be at five by next year.
Q: What specifically really drew you to mural art, and can you tell me a little bit about your personal process?
FABINSKI: In college, I love working on large pieces so I always wanted to do a mural, but I’m the type of person who wants to know what I’m doing before I do it, especially for something like that. I worked with Andrea on mirroring and more techniques, and I did it because I was already doing really well with my wood burnings. I learned those techniques and that really helped me grow my skills. Some day I want to do a mural on a huge building maybe in Detroit.
I also really enjoy doing mural pieces for private homeowners and AirB&Bs. A lot of Airbnb hosts are having artists come in and paint murals for them, and it’s for social media too. I really like helping clients make rooms unique and themed by creating the murals.
Q: Do you have a favorite mural that you’ve done and can you describe what it’s like in the moment when you unveil your work to your clients?
FABINSKI: One of my favorite ones is that CJ’s Brewing Company in Commerce. I love grayscale, and it’s a huge, 20-foot wall mural, and it was a painting of their brewmaster brewing their beer. It consumes the room and it gives it a vibe. For an in-home one, I did line artwork that’s “sketchy” and you don’t see that often. I did it in their bathroom and it was a small bathroom, but the mural gave it so much depth. It made it feel larger than life because it was a landscape piece. When you see their faces, you end up knowing you did the job right. It goes back to teaching when things clicked for my students, you’d see it all over their faces, and those are the two things I always enjoyed. When their face tells everything, even before they speak, you can see the emotion on their face and whether they love it or not, that’s what I look for.
Another good example is I did a garage where I painted a whole beach scene in the garage because the owners, wanted that to reflect their happy place. They wanted to come home to their happy place, so they drove up every day to a beach in their garage and I made that possible for them with mural work.
I don’t want to make your house boring like the stereotypical house, I want to make it more. Make it the best feeling in your life, I can take you anywhere because art has no limit.
Q: Is there anything that has inspired you living in Michigan, whether it’s up in Northern Michigan or where you’re at in Detroit, that has inspired any of your murals or art? Are you hoping to expand your work into more areas in Northern Michigan?
FABINSKI: Oh, yeah, I’m actually in talks with someone in a Petoskey right now for mural work. I also wanted to do the Petoskey tunnel. I love the nature, I love the animals in Northern Michigan. I really want to do some nature-themed murals, especially for hunters. They have their trophy rooms, and I would love to do a landscape in some of them. For cabins, I love to do wood burns for them. I have a cabin up north in Indian River, and I go there often for inspiration. I’m often up there going golfing, and I just love nature and experiencing animals, especially in the U.P. because we know there is more nature which I always enjoy getting exposure to.
Q: What do you want potential future clients to know about the process that you go through in working with a new client and the way you approach the process of creating a mural that’s unique to them?
FABINSKI: It’s all about communication, and I’m very open. I’m very blunt, I am very honest. I know art is expensive, but I’m willing to work with my client. If it’s a payment plan for like, even 12 months, I can find a way. One thing about teaching that helped me is that I’m good at all styles. I had to teach all styles, so I can paint all styles so even if you want something so realistic that you can’t afford it, we can find a style that will make you happy and you can get something on your walls.
I get people to start opening up and telling me what they feel like, what color moods they would want and if they want something more cheerful. Or it’s all about color theory, understanding you don’t put yellow and red in your kitchen because that’s just going to make you hungry. That’s why McDonald’s is red and yellow. Things like that.
Q: As a former art teacher, what would you say to educators about the importance of art education in rural schools, of which there are many in Northern Michigan, for students?
FABINSKI: The biggest thing about having art is, yeah, the creativity is a huge thing, but art helps with problem-solving. You’re using your knowledge to play around with it and figure it out. That’s the biggest thing I got from art education. You look at a project, you look at all sides of it and you figure out how to work with it. You don’t just fail at it. You come to a decision to make it work and figure it out. When I was a teacher, that was my biggest thing, is teaching was problem-solving skills which so many students benefit from. Everything has its place, but you can’t get rid of art because we won’t have anything. People forget that art is the basis of and can be incorporated into so many things in education.
Art is something that is a feeling, and it’s an appreciation that I feel like we’re losing in society. It’s so important because people don’t realize, like I said, it’s all around us and we should be appreciating everything. Your phone that you have, a designer designed it, that designer is an artist. It takes so much skill to be able to do certain things, and people need to appreciate that because it is a job like anyone else’s job.
MURAL MASTER
MURAL MASTER
MURAL MASTER
Q: As somebody who’s grown a career, found clients and found success in the art world what advice would you have for young people who might be striving to do the same?
FABINSKI: You have to be your best advocate. If you want to pursue something, you have to give it your all. Don’t listen to the negative talk inside yourself and from others, because it’s totally possible, and there are people out there who can teach you as well to make it because they have made it. Find someone who’s living your dream life, and if you can talk to them, talk to them. If you can follow them, learn what they’re doing, follow them and learn.
I always recommend that for artists who are doing it now and want to get more full-time work, I send them to Andrea’s podcast. She has a podcast and she interviews artists from all over the world. It’s great knowledge, everyone tells their story and how they’re making it so there’s so much knowledge out there. Seek it. Don’t do it by yourself. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, because there are people that are already doing it.
To keep up with Fabinski and his work, you can follow him on his official Facebook page, Instagram, TikTok and professional website.
Have an interesting story of your own? Email Olivia and provide a brief summary of your story, and we will contact you if we’d like to tell your tale. We’re interested in all sorts of stories, too! Sad, happy, exhilarating, inspiring— we’d like to hear about your story and share it with the community!
Note: We will ask for photos as well (or take one if possible), it helps immensely if you can be sure you have pictures.