Today we’d like to introduce you to Andy Howl.
Hi Andy, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have been a lifelong artist, from a young age I was always interested in visual art and was always encouraged to pursue art by my mother and my art teachers. My very first piece of art exhibited at a gallery was in Russia when I was in 1st grade. I took private art classes in middle school and basically created my own classes in high school and started taking college art classes during high school. I also started publishing comic books and selling t-shirts when I was in high school. Being an entrepreneur has always been in my blood.
I attended Savannah College of Art & Design from 94-97 and studied Sequential Art, a combination of comics, animation, children’s books, and script writing. From there I started my own t-shirt company featuring my black and white artwork and then started illustrating for a software company in Michigan. Eventually, I ended up animating, designing magazine ads, illustrations, branding, and running Marijuana.com before it sold for 4.2 million in the early 2000s.
In 2009 I opened HOWL Gallery/Tattoo in downtown Ft Myers with the intent of eventually only working for myself. I was still doing full-time work for my other art jobs and also took on the creation and management of downtown Ft Myers monthly events Art Walk and Music Walk. The shop functioned as a tattoo studio and art gallery. We featured mostly rock n roll-oriented artists and graffiti artists. Poster artist Derek Hess, Death album cover artist Rene Miville, Norm Korpi from The Real World, and many others. It was a lot of work, but running the monthly downtown events and featuring well-known artists and tattoo work established us in Ft Myers very quickly.
After about 4 years the hugely successful monthly events ended up attracting investors to the historic area, which increased our rent and eventually forced us to relocate to a larger space on US41. That was the last time I organized community events, After we moved we had enough room for a beer & wine license and began hosting more music shows and transitioning away from monthly art shows, I built a stage and learned how to run sound and program stage lighting. It was around this time that I was also able to quit all my side work and focus entirely on HOWL.
In 2015 I began publishing an art book series and annual art exhibit, entitled The Devils Reign, with Peter H. Gilmore. The book primarily features illustrators, tattoo artists, and photographers that lean towards darker imagery. The themes have included devils from world religions, drugs and blasphemy, witches, and giant monsters. I’m working on my fifth one now and plan on doing several more as a sort of time-life series of art books.
in 2019 I started a black metal/doom band, Burned at the Stake. Working on a music project and fronting a metal band has always been on my bucket list and it helped me channel a lot of bad emotions, from going through a divorce to childhood trauma. The band finally has a solid lineup and we are planning on releasing an album worth of material by May of 2023. We play shows and practice at HOWL, and have also played up in Tampa and Melbourne a bit.
Today I split my time between tattooing, doing conventions, running music shows, the band, and publishing.
In my free time, I work on restoring and customizing a vintage G30 cargo van, riding my 60’s style bobber motorcycle, and fixing up my house.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It’s been mostly smooth I would say overall, in 13 years of being a business owner.
The biggest challenges have been dealing with landlords, the up and down economy, covid, and having my art book censored by book printers. But I think for every seemingly bad situation we’ve always been able to spin it somehow into a positive. I think that’s the secret to a lot of success, turning a negative situation into a positive one. And usually, that has to do with networking, hard work, and communicating.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I primarily work in black and white, as a painter, illustrator, and tattoo artist. I’m mostly known for my traditional and illustrative black work tattoos. I’ve been doing high-contrast black-and-white paintings, comic books, and t-shirts since the early 90s.
I’ve been fortunate enough that the style and aesthetics I’ve always gravitated to are now fairly popular. Including darker imagery that deals with gothic, metal, and horror themes.
What do you think about luck?
I feel like I’ve generally always been a lucky person, and there are certainly random positive things that have happened to the business, as far as publicity goes. But I think essentially luck in business has more to do with hard work and putting yourself out into the world, creating a situation where good things come your way.
Pricing:
- I charge from 150-200 hourly for tattoos
- Painting, logos, and illustration work starts at around $600
Contact Info:
- Website: www.howlgallery.com, www.andyhowl.com, www.howlbooks.net
- Instagram: @andy.howl, @howlftmyers, @howlbooks, @burnedatthestake.metal
- Facebook: @andyhowl, @howlftmyers, @howlbooks
- Twitter: @andyhowl
