Newspapers / University of North Carolina … / March 7, 2017, edition 1 / Page 10
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Asheville artist makes name for himself through social media LIAM6AYTER Sports Staff Writer lgayter@unca.edu A young Josh Coates stands along side his mother as she paints murals in the homes of her clients. She would often paint fantasy scenes in children’s rooms, inspiring Coates to become the artist he is today. “I think that is what originally sparked my interest in the arts, just watching Mom doing something she loved,” said Josh Coates, a former UNC Asheville student from Wake Forest. Coates said he started doodling in kindergarten, where he liked to draw penguins. However, it was not until high school that he really started to de velop his skills. “I took art through high school, so art 1,2,3 and 4,” Coates said. ”I realize now how much they helped me devel op the fundamentals.” Coates said his main medium is fine- point ink drawing. He likes the con trast the fine-point pen provides for his work. In 2013, Coates created an Instagrairi account to post his artwork. He said he originally made the page just to share with friends and anyone else interested. Coates said he gained popularity on Instagram when one of his drawings was posted by a popular account with over 100,000 followers. The follow ing day he had over 1,000 followers. Since then, Coates’ page continues to increase in popularity. “From that day forward, my account just kinda blew up. I remember I woke up that next morning and someone was like, ‘Yo, 1 see your work on this ac count right now,”’ Coates said. “I was so psyched ‘cause I followed that page and always thought how cool it would be to have one of my drawings posted.” Today, with nearly 26,000 follow ers, Coates has become “Instagram fa mous.” “I was so stoked for Josh once his ac count gained so much popularity,” said John Hollifield, a UNC A sophomore from Marion and roommate of Coates. ”1 mean, what else does an artist want than to share their work with as many people as possible?” Zach Weston-Farber, a junior new media student from Baltimore, said he started following Coates’s Insta gram shortly after he transferred / to UNCA. I “I actually met Josh before I even knew he was an artist, it wasn’t until one of my friends showed me his page,” Weston-Far ber said. “I was blown away by how talented he was. He has a super unique style.” Since Coates’ account took off in 2014, he has been able to sell his work with the help of Instagram. About 98 percent of his customers come from the website, Coates said. Coates said he sends interested buy ers from Instagram to his website to buy prints. He said he created the web site shortly after his page gained fame in order to sell his pieces. “I’ll ship a print out to Australia, then ship one out to England, it’s al ways random,” Coates said noncha lantly. “It’s not strictly the United States, which is the cool thing about Instagram — it branches out to the entire globe.” According to Statista, a market re search statistics aggregator, there are 400 million active Instagram users, all potential customers for Coates. He often trades work with other art ists through Instagram. ART BY JOSH COATES
University of North Carolina at Asheville Student Newspaper
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March 7, 2017, edition 1
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