Meet Michael Butzine of Snood City in Downtown

Michael, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Well, my mom brought me in this world at a time when she was the art teacher for various programs like that of the Boys and Girls Clubs around downtown Phoenix. I was raised as an athlete with the crazy energy I had, but also had these practices of drawing, painting, and journaling that she would encourage me to do. It was not until college that my athletic career ended and my focus into art became a main factor in my life. Born in the desert in Phoenix, Arizona, I thought I wanted to live on the water, so I attended the University of Hawaii to study Oceanography. Chemistry class was so boring though, at least how the professors I had teach it. It was the art building that really grasped my attention. Taking drawing and painting classes was my introduction but wasn’t obtaining my attention as well. It was the glass blowing studio that took my heart the second I walked in. Ive always been an adrenaline junkie and glass has so many different aspects of that blood rush! At this time as well I was doing graffiti around the island. Glass blowing and graffiti held my attention all through my time at UH until I graduated with my BFA in glass. This then took me to travel to New Jersey, Oregon, Virginia, Japan, and even Europe before I came back to Arizona with this new eye I obtained in the arts.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Shoot. The first semester of glass was one of the ultimate challenges. I took the class with some friends, and some of them couldnt even finish the semester! You’d be working on a piece, say for like an hour, and your just about to finish… then it drops on the ground and shatters into millions of pieces! This was hard on the soul because you put everything you had into the piece and then you had nothing to show of it after. That was my introduction into glass, learning the valuable lesson of letting go. Being an optimist and problem solver, which I feel I get from my dad, has really allowed me to push past a lot of negative situations. There’ve been plenty of other challenges along the way! Most recently its been committing my life, 100%, as a full time practicing artist. Life doesn’t make it a simple thing and tests me various times throughout these years. There will be some low times and with that opportunities outside of the arts to follow. But my heart and lifestyle stays with art and not working for “the man.” But in a way, I do still work for “the man” but in my own way.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Snood City story. Tell us more about the business.
Today, I help run an art collective called Snood City. We do various projects throughout the community of downtown Phoenix like mural/graffiti events, art decor for festivals, to even art consulting for corporate companies. But of course, getting this involved into an art scene isn’t just pretty colors and pictures. The politics of it has really been a downer to my expectation of the worlds operation. Some people see you coming up, having fun, doing great things, so they want to bring you down because they themselves are down. I wish I could say my glass blowing career is booming, but working in other peoples studios with this attitude hasn’t allowed me to pursue it in the way I’d like. But it has led me to own our very own Neon shop along Grand ave though! And Neon is quite the spectacle to sculpt! As a visual artist, we’re essentially playing with light. So, why not go straight to the source and bend the light itself? Bringing the Neon element back to the hands of artists is a new goal, with Grand ave. being a historic and now up and coming arts district. Like many cities, arts districts has been getting the attention of big-time developers which push out the true arts, but Grand ave. has a unique quality to it that won’t allow for that to happen. The community we are surrounded by to the homies we bring in or help foster has been an amazing touch of color to the Phoenix art scene!

Do you feel like there are certain traits that increase the likelihood of success?
Persistence, optimism, living on the edge, not afraid to challenge social norms… If I was weak, I’d let people push me around. By not letting that happen, I’ve been able to escape peoples expectations and push for that next thing. But, almost like everything, this all works as a double-edged sword. My trust in the universe has really allowed for me to jump without knowing what it is I’m to land on… and I’m still here!