In the fifth episode of FolkArtwork and Friends, self-taught artist Esteban Whiteside joins on a beautiful sunny morning to talk about how growing up, he was turned off from artwork because he could never draw realistically. After his dreams of playing professional basketball were dashed (I can relate), it was the free time he had while bartending and working as a security guard in one of his favorite museum collections that convinced him he could make art. After years of hustling and finding his calling, years later, he's still making some of the most poignant and powerful artwork in the contemporary art world.

Plus, a look into the life and work of self-taught artist Steve Ashby, an artist who was brought to my attention thanks to Esteban, who didn't start carving wood and making art well into his 60's.

Follow Esteban on Instagram at @esteban.whiteside and shop his artwork at estebanwhiteside.com or on FolkArtwork at www.folkartwork.art/shop/esteban-whiteside

Follow @folkartwork on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube for more

Subscribe to the "This Week in Outsider Art" Newsletter on Substack

Visit folkartwork.art to shop self-taught art by emerging contemporary artists

AND if you are in the Des Moines area, come to the Mainframe Studios "First Friday" event on January 2nd from 5pm-8pm to see me hanging out with Ashley Mary in her beautiful studio and selling artwork for my friends self-taught artist Reneesha Mccoy and Canadian folk artist Jackie Bradshaw.

• (00:00:07) - Folk Artwork & Friends
• (00:01:24) - Folk Art
• (00:02:40) - Interviewing Black Artist Esteban Whiteside
• (00:04:44) - A Little Compliment For Your Work
• (00:05:19) - Adam Levine on His Art When He Was Growing Up
• (00:08:50) - Did You Start Drawing Before College?
• (00:12:45) - The Des Moines Art Center Guard's Job
• (00:14:16) - Drawing While Drinking Alcohol
• (00:17:15) - Louis Mangion on Becoming an
• (00:24:24) - Steve Ashby and Elijah Pierce on Drawing
• (00:27:04) - How Having Kids Affects Your Work
• (00:30:31) - "2026": Plans to travel to North Carolina
• (00:32:22) - Esteban Whiteside at the Art Fair
• (00:35:38) - Steve Ashby