Today we’d like to introduce you to Michael Arguello.
Hi Michael, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
For as long as I can remember, I’ve been a creative. I used to take my sketchbook and pencils EVERYWHERE… school, church, out to dinner, wherever. I remember one time I was drawing in church and my mom took my stuff away and told me to pay attention. So naturally, I whipped out an extra pen I had in my pocket, grabbed one of those church envelopes and started something new. Eventually she gave up lol. Instead, she started nurturing my passion for creating.
Through school, nothing really changed. I did all the normal stuff one does in school… electives, athletics, you know, the normal stuff. But I always kept drawing. I was one of those kids everybody wanted in their group for projects. They would handle the essays, reports and all that, and I would make it look dope! ^_^ Kind of a win-win, I would say.
I actually auditioned for the Northeast School of the Arts while I was in high school. I remember showing up with my little plastic binder and notebook paper while all the other applicants had these super nice, professional-looking portfolios. I was a little intimidated, I can’t lie. To top it off, I COMPLETELY left mine at home! So there I was waiting while my mom ran all the way back to the house to get it. Gotta love mommas.
High school was also a pretty rough time for me emotionally. My father wasn’t around much, and it was around this time I was diagnosed with bipolar depression. I eventually dropped out of high school and got my GED.
From there I worked your pretty standard teenage and early-twenties jobs. I was a server at a bunch of different restaurants, a busser, even did some construction work. Around that same time, I started experimenting with heavier substances and drinking more. I was kind of just aimlessly wandering around trying to figure out what I was supposed to be doing with my life.
Eventually, I applied to a school for graphic design and picked up some pretty hefty student loans to get through it. I was still dealing with a lot and self-medicating, but I was also really pushing myself to show up and do my best. Then the school was shut down and labeled a predatory “for-profit” school. Basically… fraud. Lol. So that was another pretty good punch in the face from life.
BUT… I learned enough while I was there to eventually get hired as a graphic designer for a screen-printing company, vectoring designs for T-shirts. All the while, I was still painting canvases and drawing at home. I was eventually accepted to the Southwest School of Art with a scholarship.
Then my daughter was born.
At that point in my life, I was terrified. I remember thinking, “I can’t even take care of ME. How am I supposed to take care of this tiny human?”
I watched her being delivered, and I knew something had to change. The day after we got home, I left for treatment.
Managing bipolar depression growing up was hard, and honestly, sometimes it still is today. I knew the moment I laid eyes on my daughter that I had to wake up.
So I did.
It wasn’t a perfect journey, because there rarely ever is one. I got better and was eventually able to come home when she was four months old and be there for her the best way I knew how.
And through ALL of this… I kept making art.
I was working a regular nine-to-five while also painting live at different venues whenever I got the opportunity. Painting live can be intense! You’ve got people drinking and suddenly becoming the ultimate art critics lol, meanwhile you’ve got maybe four hours to knock out an entire painting. But honestly, I welcomed the challenge.
I wasn’t selling many paintings in the beginning either, but that never stopped me from practicing. I used to wait for bulk pickup in my neighborhood and go searching for scraps of wood, backsplashes, whatever I could find that I could paint on. I even painted a few doors. 😂
Eventually, somebody offered me my first free wall.
Then somebody else gave me another wall.
Then people actually started PAYING me to paint the walls.
Slowly but surely, it started to snowball.
By the time I was in my 30s, I was the art director for a promotional-products company. Sometimes I would even have to bring my daughter to work with me, but they were always super cool about it. After hours and on weekends I would work on canvases, paint live or knock out mural work.
One day my boss came into my office and said, “I know you don’t wanna be here every day.”
I said, “What do you mean?! I know I clocked in on time today.” 😂
He laughed and then we had a much deeper conversation. He told me he knew my REAL passion was doing murals. Outdoors, indoors, big, small… it didn’t matter. That’s where I belonged. He suggested I take some time to really think about it, and when I was ready, he would gladly accept my letter of resignation with no hard feelings.
So… I did just that.
In fact, he was so awesome that he even gave me a few extra weeks of pay to help me out while I made the transition. We still communicate to this day!
And from there, I just went for it.
Fast-forward to today and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with countless businesses, family-owned and corporate alike. I’ve worked with the City of San Antonio’s Department of Arts & Culture on multiple major public-art projects, worked with the City’s Office of Historic Preservation, and somehow this kid who used to draw on church envelopes even has murals overseas now.
Sometimes I think about all those different versions of me. The little kid who couldn’t stop drawing. The teenager showing up with his plastic binder. The twenty-something digging through bulk pickup because he couldn’t afford canvases. The thirty-something working a nine-to-five and painting murals after work.
I don’t think any of those versions of me really knew where all of this was going.
But probably the part I’m most proud of is that my daughter is currently featured in four of my murals, with number five on the way.
I feel like it’s important for me to pay my respects and homage to that little girl through my work.
Because she genuinely and quite literally saved my life.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Smooth?! Absolutely not. 😂
But honestly, I don’t know if I would’ve wanted it to be.
I’ve definitely had my fair share of struggles along the way. I’ve dealt with mental health, addiction, financial struggles, failed relationships, being a father while trying to build a career, and just the general uncertainty that comes with deciding, “You know what? I’m gonna make ART for a living!” Because apparently at some point I thought that sounded like a financially responsible decision. Lol.
One of the biggest struggles has probably been learning how to separate my success as an artist from my worth as a person. This career is WEIRD. One month you can be completely booked, working on some huge project and thinking, “Okay… I think I finally figured this out.” Then the next month you’re sitting at home refreshing your email like, “Soooo… anybody need a wall painted?” 😂
I’ve painted murals I’m incredibly proud of and then immediately gone through periods where I questioned whether I was even good enough to be doing this. I’ve gotten opportunities I never imagined I’d have, while at the exact same time dealing with things in my personal life that made it difficult to even appreciate them.
I think that’s something people don’t always see when they look at someone’s accomplishments. They see the finished mural, the pictures, the ribbon cutting, the article or whatever… they don’t necessarily see what was happening behind the scenes while that person was creating it.
Sometimes that mural they’re taking a picture in front of was painted by somebody who was having an absolutely TERRIBLE week. 😂
Being a full-time artist has also meant learning A LOT of things that have absolutely nothing to do with art. Contracts, insurance, invoices, taxes, proposals, budgets, scheduling, marketing… apparently “professional artist” also means small-business owner, accountant, salesperson, project manager, social media manager and occasionally therapist to yourself.
Nobody mentioned that part when I was drawing on church envelopes.
And then there’s being a dad.
Trying to build something while also being present for my daughter has probably been one of the hardest balancing acts, but it’s also the thing that keeps everything in perspective for me. There have absolutely been times when work was slow, money was tight, or I was struggling personally and thought, “Maybe I should just go get a normal job.”
Then eventually another wall shows up and I’m like… “Never mind.” 😂
So I keep going.
I think I’ve learned that life doesn’t wait until you’re doing well to give you an opportunity, and it definitely doesn’t wait until you’re finished with that opportunity to knock you back down either. Sometimes both things happen at the exact same time.
Which is super convenient.
So no, it definitely hasn’t been a smooth road.
But every weird turn, mistake, setback, ugly season and “what the hell am I doing?” moment has played some part in getting me here.
And I’m still figuring it out.
I think that’s important to say too. I don’t want somebody reading this and thinking this is the part of the movie where everything worked out, the inspirational music starts playing and the credits roll. Lol.
I’m still growing. I’m still struggling sometimes. I’m still learning how to be a better artist, father and person.
I just trust myself a little more now to figure it out along the way.
…and apparently somebody keeps giving me walls to paint, so I must be doing something right. ^_^
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I’m a full-time artist and muralist based here in San Antonio. Murals are definitely what I’m most known for, but I still paint canvases, live paint, do design work and pretty much anything else that gives me an excuse to make something. 😂
I’ve painted everything from small interior walls for local businesses to really large-scale public art projects. I’ve worked with small family-owned businesses, schools, nonprofits, major corporations and the City of San Antonio. Every project is different, which is honestly one of my favorite things about what I do.
People ask me sometimes what my “style” is, and that’s always been a weird question for me because I don’t know that I have ONE.
My background in graphic design definitely shows up in my work. I love bold compositions, strong colors, portraiture, graphic elements and finding ways to make something read from far away while still having those little details you discover when you get closer. I work primarily with spray paint and exterior acrylics, and over the years I’ve gotten pretty comfortable bouncing between realistic portraiture, graphic/vector-inspired work and more loose, expressive stuff.
But I think what I specialize in more than anything is storytelling.
I don’t really want to show up to a wall and just put a “Mike Comp painting” on it. I want to know where the wall is, who walks past it, who owns it, what happened there, what the neighborhood means and WHY we’re painting it in the first place.
Sometimes that means researching San Antonio history. Sometimes I’m sitting with a family going through old photographs. Sometimes I’m learning about a business or an organization I knew absolutely nothing about two weeks earlier. And sometimes the client just says, “We want something cool here.”
Those are fun too. 😂
I think that ability to adapt is probably one of the things that sets me apart. If you put five of my murals next to each other, they might look completely different stylistically, but I hope there’s still something about the composition, storytelling or emotion that connects them.
I’m also really proud that so much of my work lives in the same city that raised me.
One project that means a lot to me is “Echoes of Market Square,” a public art project with the City of San Antonio. My portion of the project tells stories about traditions and people connected to Market Square and San Antonio culture. My grandparents were able to attend the dedication before they passed away, which made that project mean something to me that really has nothing to do with the size of the walls or whose name was on the contract.
That’s probably been one of the biggest changes for me as I’ve gotten older.
I used to think being successful meant getting the BIG wall, the BIG client, the BIG check… and don’t get me wrong, I still likes those things. 😂
But now I’m much more interested in what I’m leaving behind.
My daughter is currently painted into four of my murals around San Antonio, with number five on the way. She’s been everything from a little girl experiencing our city’s culture to simply being herself, and I love knowing that these different versions of her are scattered around the city.
Long after she’s grown up, she’ll be able to drive past these places and say, “That’s me.”
That’s pretty damn cool to me.
So when you ask what I’m most proud of, I don’t think it’s one particular mural anymore. It’s realizing that somehow I’ve been given an opportunity to add little pieces to the visual history of the city I grew up in.
I take that responsibility seriously.
…even if I’m usually doing it covered in spray paint, sweating on a lift somewhere in 100-degree San Antonio weather. 😂
Do you have any memories from childhood that you can share with us?
I would have to say when I was about 11 or 12 and met, in my eyes anyway, the love of my life. Her name is Robyn (she asked that I keep her last name anonymous lol).
For about three solid years we were inseparable. We went everywhere together, attended the same private school, and she was always there to comfort me after getting my almost daily swats from the principal for misbehaving. 😂 I was a good kid… I swear.
But seriously, it was probably my first amazing experience with love. We were just kids, so obviously it was that innocent kind of love, but at that age it felt like the most important thing in the world.
Unfortunately, my parents eventually had to move for work, and when they told me, Robyn and I were CRUSHED.
I’m actually on the phone with her right now while I’m writing this, and we were just talking about it. I told her, “We were like Jack and Rose at the end of Titanic… and I eventually froze and sank to the bottom of the sea.” ^_^
Dramatic? Maybe. Accurate at 12 years old? Absolutely. 😂
But here’s the cool part… we’re still in each other’s lives today.
A few years back we even recreated a picture of us from when we were kids at South Padre Island, which was pretty awesome.
So I guess it’s kind of a bittersweet favorite memory, because obviously we didn’t get the ending we wanted as kids. But who knows? Maybe we still have a future together. We actually talk and joke about it all the time. Or maybe we just remain really close friends.
Either way, I’m pretty sure we’re going to be a part of each other’s lives for the rest of our lives.
And honestly, I’m okay with either one.
…although 12-year-old Mike probably still has some pretty strong opinions about it. 😂
Pricing:
- Mural pricing is customized for each project based on size, design complexity, location, surface conditions and project requirements.
- Commercial, residential and public-art commissions are available.
- For project inquiries and estimates, please contact me directly.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @mikecomp
- Other: mikecomparguello@gmail.com
