My story
The Artist
"There's always more beneath the surface."
Who is MoneyBear?
I'm an entrprenuer who paints. Not the other way around. Everything I believe, every mentor who has shaped me, every truth I've learned from building businesses since I was 15... it all goes onto a canvas.
My art is not decorative. It's not made to match a sofa. It's made for people who think differently - who have felt alone because the people around them cannot see what they see.
Chapter 1.
Where it started
“Being dyslexic - I found drawing easier than writing. So in school I just drew everything.”
My mum got me into drawing when I was 5. She taught me to doodle when I was bored. I wasn’t good at first - but everyone said I had patience.
I hated painting. I couldn’t control a brush like I could a pencil. So I stuck to pencil. I started with cartoons, found graffiti, and started practising with Sharpies on paper. I could copy other people’s work but I couldn’t create my own yet.
School was hard for me; I’m dyslxic - drawing was easier than writing so I drew all my answers instead of writing them. In year 7 I started charging other kids £1 to draw their name in graffiti. I remember making £70 in one week! (I was doing those drawings instead of my homework.)
Aged 12, my parents went out for the day and I got bored drawing on paper... so, without their permission, I decided to draw on my bedroom wall. I did the whole thing in Sharpies. I wrote my name in graffiti along with a few of my favourite cartoon characters. I went through a lot of pens and I had a mad headache all night.
My parents came home and I expected them to be angry... but they loved it! My mum put a photo of it on facebook, which got me my first commissioned mural at years old.
Chapter 2.
Learning to build
“My teachers told me to never paint portraits again - I kept going anyway.”
At 15 I did a couple more commissioned murals, and that’s when I realised I could make money from art. That was the moment I started learning about business. I started learning from speakers on youtube, and I eventually found my own mentor in real life - a millionaire with multiple businesses.
I would skip a day at school to spend the day with him seeing how he ran his businesses. As an entreprenuer, I found his teachings more valuable than the ones I was getting in school (which are designed to keep you as employees). At age 15, he started taking me to my first business networking events. 60 millionares in one room. He told me to go to talk as many as I could.
I was still very shy. Going up to strangers - let alone high power people - was a real struggle. But I did it. That experience helped shape me into the person I am today.
From what I was learning from mentor, I sat in the school library and built my website for my mural business. I advertised of local facebook pages and I started getting paid to paint in people’s homes, offices, businesses, sports clubs, and even charities - I was fortunate enough to be able to paint a children’s cancer ward in hospital to help kids through their treatment - this was one of the most rewarding things I've done in my life. It meant a lot to me knowing that my art could be put to use to help others.
My love for portraits started in school. Every portrait was a disaster and my teachers told me to never paint portraits again. But I kept practising. I taught myself by watching artists on YouTube and copying their process.
I knew I didn’t want to go to university. College for A levels was the compromise. I did fine art, business, and photography. Art was my worst grade out of the 3 - because I refused to follow what they told me to do. I only wanted to paint a realistic portrait. They said I’d never get above a C if i did.
Chapter 3.
The dark place
“Art helped me out of a dark place. Now I hope my art can do the same for someone else”
Age 17 I had my mural business running - I would paint in the evenings after college and on weekends. I had also started an ecommerce business selling products online, to make money on the side whilst I was sat in college. The products where doing well - I had them stocked in shops across the coast and even one in the o2 arena.
But then COVID hit and I lost my way. I was no longer able to paint murals, and all the shops my products where in had to shut - I never saw a return on those investments. That meant I ran out of money for online advertising, so I had to stop the business altogether.
I was just painting alone in my room every day with no direction and no sales - my love for art was lost. I was putting my work out online and all I was getting was hate from people I didn’t even know. I was very low mentally. I started getting daily intrusive thoughts - the overthinking was so overwhelming I couldn’t really do anything.
I went and got help and I found out I have OCD. My escape became music. Whenever I found myself overthinking, I would put my headphones on and it took me somewhere else - a creative space. Ideas would flow and innovation would happen.
is still something I do to this day. The music inspired me so much that I wanted to paint it. I started painting the artists I listened to most, adding the lyrics that had helped me to the backgrounds. At this point I was getting better at portraits and more comfortable with a brush.
I would send photos of the paintings to the artists on Instagram. To my surprise most of them responded, and we agreed to meet so I could give the paintings to them - This was the start of a new chapter...
Chapter 4.
Finding the style
“I wanted a style so recognisable, they wouldn’t need to see a signature”
One of my mentors looked at my work and told me I was still developing as an artist. I needed to find my own unique style - something not just different but recognisable. Something people would know was mine without even seeing a signature.
I went home that day and sat in my room just staring at my wall. Trying to think. And then I noticed it - I had post-it notes stuck everywhere with my 10 year business plan on them. They covered the wall and they came together to tell a story. I saw them as a reflection of my mind and all my thoughts, vision and obsessions.
I realised this reflected how music artists would write down their lyrics - likie a note on a post-it note - and it was then I saw how the post-it notes could come together to form the portrait, reflecting the way lyrics form who an artist is. The peeling corners would add contarst and carrying meaning: “there is always more beneath the surface”. Peel back a layer and find depth underneath.
“There is more beneath the surface” quickly became my slogon. Behind every painting I create there is a deeper meaning and a message I’m trying to spread. With the new style, I started painting artists again. I quickly got seen by someone who understood the vision - ‘Mr I am Next’. For the next 2 years we worked together to turn artists lyrical pictures into a physical one, helping them tell their story.
I went from painting locally in Portsmouth to having paintings across the world.
Chapter 5.
Create your own
“I’m not a TikTok artist. I’m an entrepreneur who paints on the side”
Deep down I’m still that shy kid with a dream. But I realised something - for 2 years I had been telling other people’s stories. No one knew mine.
That’s where ‘Create Your Own’ started. It’s about “living the life you want regardless of what people tell you is possible. As a visual story teller this project is my story as an entrepreneur - and every painting is a chapter within that story.
I don’t show my face. Not for mystery - but because I don’t do this for fame or clout. I do it because I know there are people out there in the same situation I was in. Art started as an escape for me. Now I want it to be an escape for others.
I don’t sell through Instagram. My feed is just a public archive - a place for people to look through for inspiration. I don’t scroll because I’m hardly on my phone. I am too busy running my businesses and living the life I design for myself. A million views or followers won’t make me happy. Being present and surrounded by real people who love me makes me happy. Knowing that my story and my art helps someone else makes me happy. I paint for my own expression, not for someone else’s approval.
I’m in my early 20's now and I finally feel like I’ve found my voice as an artist. It hasn’t been easy...
"... But I'm proud of my story."
I hope my story inspires you to start writing yours. 'A life well lived is one you're proud to look back on.' Mine isn't finished yet, and neither is yours...