Connect
To Top

Check out Jake Daurham’s Artwork

Avatar photo

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jake Daurham.

Jake, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
Ahh, I began typing with thickness and realized it said “briefly” walk you through my story, so I deleted the book I typed up and I’ll give a much more brief run down…

I tend to go by my name, Jake. I’ve always had a passion for creating, building and making the ideas in my head come to life. Along with a rather lonely childhood, I found joy in doing good and early on, and promised myself to make a positive difference when I grow up no matter what. Today, I’m 23 and I’d like to think I’m oddly successful for my age/path. I can say that there were a few important events that made me into who I am. They start with high school/finding my platform, a breakup, the loss of my brother, my beginning of first Friday, the loss of my aunt and then the start of my business.

My passion for arts was finally given a platform in high school. From media production, graphic design and intro to art, I dug my roots into painting. I excelled in each art class I took, but painting offered the most reward when I would finish my piece.

Becoming more known for my paintings, I was able to build my confidence throughout my art. After High School, I got into a relationship which ended nine months later leaving me depressed and sure of a few things. One being, I WILL do what makes me happy in life. And two, My hunger for creating and skills I’ve acquired, have proven to ALWAYS be there for me, even when all else goes wrong. So from here, I knew the direction to go, just not the destination. It was at this point, I decided to call myself the Captain of my own life. Captain Daurham.

Spending a while of time coming up with ideas to create a business with and researching, I found myself being another unmotivated teenager who was mostly all talk and good intentions. My family had one other artist in it and it was my older brother. Ernest Tre Daurham (Tre), was a tattoo artist who was much like me in a lot of ways. We had many conversations and business plans to use our talents and help the family prosper, but like everything else, I (we) let it drag on. Until May of 2015, my brother Tre was in a car accident while working for a street sweep company and died at the age of 23… (I was 20). From that day, I promised him I’d carry his legacy and I wouldn’t waste time anymore. I had a job to do and because I partially blamed myself for allowing us to waste so much time, I used the crushing pain of my brother’s death as fuel to get my ass off the couch and make something of ourselves.

From here, I inherited his tattoo equipment and learned to tattoo. Yet, adding another skill to my tool belt, that to this day allows me to live my artist lifestyle. Fortunate for me, it’s like painting.

Later in November, I was able to meet the amazing owners of Public Image, who allowed me to paint live every first Friday outside their salon. Darryl and Kim Brandt are the entrepreneur idols I aspire to become and it all because of their giving and loving nature. Today, I’ve been nearly painting live outside public image for three years every first Friday. Its thanks to this opportunity, I know its all possible and have been able to build up a legitimate following.

Following on to May of 2016, I wake up to another horrific day of having lost my aunt in her sleep for unknown reasons. The woman who’s essentially been my second mother all my life and always told me that I’ll do something big and important was taken from us with no warning. Again this left me devastated, but having lost my brother a year earlier, I knew how to cope that felt best fitting… I told her I won’t disappoint her and I’ll put work in that I felt defined her. From that day, I wasn’t just hustling to survive anymore. I began to treat my line of work like a business, and I did so.

Because of her, a few months later I was led to pursue an opportunity that came up in August, which then led me to where I am now. In October of 2016 at 21 years old, I opened Earthbound Tattoos LLC and had three artists working under me. From here, I’ve been creating art regularly and have instilled positive habits/a strong self-discipline. Living every day with a growth-based mindset, to always improve my crafts and stay in constant motion sailing towards the destination I aim to create.

Throughout my journey, I’ve done many other things from teaching art classes to children, host Wine/Paint classes and even was able to fly to South Africa to volunteer and paint a mural for the township of Masi. But it’s hard to fit ALL of it in here ya know?

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
My art is centered around a few things. My portraits are mostly an attempt to become the best version of artist-self and prove that I can do and create anything without the “college” education system.

More importantly, in the grand scheme of my career, I wish to instill a deep curiosity for wonder in the world, that’ll expand and individuals mind and awareness over my selected content. Be it content on an important matter in the world that we’re shutting out of our line of sight or even one’s own self. I wish to change the world in a positive manner with my art.

What do you think it takes to be successful as an artist?
I believe an artist’s success isn’t an objective standard that we can define. They may be financially successful making poor quality artwork with a large enough fan base. They may be skillfully successful, having the ability to create anything from their mind out of any material, but can live a life with zero acknowledgment/praise. My personal level of success I wish to achieve is more so the second one, where I can one day create anything out of anything. I’ve always found my passion burning at its strongest while creating something, period. Building a project out of wood and creating a useful piece of art, like a custom easel. Designing a circuit and bringing my art and technology to life, like a custom tool. Painting a hyper-realistic portrait to pull emotions out of the viewer. Or even being able to tattoo a design that I created that I feel is MY piece of art.
The standard I hold for myself in the long run consists of learning to create anything imaginable, out of any source of material I can get my hands on. That’s the version of successful artist I live to become.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
My work can be seen on my Instagram @Captain_Daurham, my Snap Chat @Daurham, my Youtube @Daurham and every First Friday of the month, I paint live outside of Public Image on 333 E Roosevelt St #114, Phoenix, AZ 85004, from 5pm-10pm.

Contact Info:

Image Credit:
Vital Visions

Getting in touch: VoyagePhoenix is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.

Related Items

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More in