ASI 72 Reimagining Waste: Steve Ross's Innovation in Art and Recycling with Encore Artistic Solutions

Jeff: 0:08

Welcome back to Art Supply Insider. My name is Jeff Morrow. Today we've got a really special edition. We're talking with Steve Ross, who is the founder of Encore Artistic Solutions. Steve, how are you doing today?

Steve: 0:25

I'm doing great, jeff, nice talking with you.

Jeff: 0:28

Well, thanks for coming on. Dave and I first became aware of Encore Artistic Solutions when we were back in NAMTA last year. My goodness, what a fascinating story and product you have. Steve, tell us a little bit about who Encore Artistic Solutions is and how did you get started?

Steve: 0:56

Well, first I want to say thanks for the opportunity to share, because our intentions five and a half years ago were really to build a community of artists that, while they were creating and using their gifts to do what they do, they were able to make a difference outside of just a creative gift. My background was product design and about three years prior to that I had stumbled into a waste stream that I thought would be a viable base for our product design project here back in the day. It was architectural paint In many markets and I think your followers would understand this we all have paint in our garages, left over, paint from projects we've done in the past. Back in another project I was involved with, I was figuring out a way to use that waste stream believe it or not in concrete. I was taking that acrylic material and modifying it for an aggregate ad mix. It was to really solve the challenge we all have in that there's about 70 million gallons of discarded residential paint every year in this country. Every year there's 70 million gallons discarded. It's just an staggering amount of material.

Steve: 2:23

During that process we had had some success with some aggregate production and some different concepts with concrete, but I live in a wonderful town that some of your followers may be familiar with, and it's Laguna Beach, California. I'm surrounded by talented artists. A lot of them are my friends. I was kind of strolling through town with my wife one day and I'm looking at a gallery friend of ours, Hugo Rivera. actually, I was looking at his work and I'm thinking, gosh, I've seen some material that looks like, if it's modified, would be appropriate for an abstract artist or a fine artist, or it really would be up to us to sort of let them help us design the product. I presented this opportunity to the people that manage that supply stream you know, the waste material at the state level and I said I have an idea and I want to try it. And that is kind of how this whole ball got rolling.

Steve: 3:22

I took some product, looked at the comparable material that was available within the distribution and I tried to match some color and viscosity and some qualities that I could pick up through looking at their chemistry and I started to hand it to artists with no expectation of anything other than getting criticized. you know, I wanted them to tell me what they liked and what they didn't like, and primarily what they didn't like. So the cool thing here is that this product line and this concept has really been designed by the artist. You know they've given us the direction and we've responded, and that process went on for three years. So, you know, in Ernst, we kind of really pushed our team based on feedback.

Steve: 4:11

we got from about 15 artists in different categories, from, you know, fine artists to crafters, to students and you know some artists that had been selling their work for 30 or 40 years. So we kind of spread it out and we just started to respond to the community and develop this product, knowing that our primary goal and our mission and it is today the same mission we started with is to utilize as much of this waste treatment as we can to make a viable, high quality product that an artist can be proud to use and help solve a monumental problem along the way.

Jeff: 4:50

Wow, so you're currently making and selling product. It's basically acrylic paint. Is that correct, correct, correct. And so, before we get too far into this, if our audience wanted to see more about this and go out and purchase the product, i'm sure you have a website that they could go to to learn more.

Steve: 5:20

We do. We do. We actually have a couple of initiatives going on, but the brand of material that's available online is called Tomorrow's Artist and the URL is tomorrow-artistcom. And.

Jeff: 5:42

So let me, i want to spell that out. so that's T-O-M-O-R-R-O-W dash artist, a-r-t-i-s-t. dot com, correct, and they can go and actually purchase this acrylic there.

Steve: 5:59

Correct, Now that was a plural tomorrows. Did you have an S in there? I did not.

Jeff: 6:05

So it's not tomorrow, it's tomorrow's, with an S, correct. You said you had another site, possibly.

Steve: 6:12

Well, that, and then the created with on core, which is just created with on core dot com, will give you a backstory to the actual business side of what we do. What we realized early on in the journey is that we were going to build a brand and validate the quality of the product with our own community, which is on our Instagram site. It's about almost 8,000 strong of people that follow the story and the journey and they post their work and so forth and they acquire the product through the website. Now the good news is next year and the reason we were at NAMTA is to secure distribution, which we've successfully done for next year. So you know you'll be able to find the product in different channels and so forth, but the idea here is to build that community out and have them access a product with our own tomorrow's artist brand, which is really focused on, you know, that artist from like sixth grade on up And it's been tested by that category.

Steve: 7:14

We are and I think I can share this openly is we're in the latter stages of a process to get our AP certification. So we've been working really hard with the compliance teams to so that they understood our processes, so that we could become compliant and grow within your industry with really worth bringing product into it. That's unique And so we've learned and worked with people in your industry to come up with all of the regulatory compliance things that we needed to do to make it compatible for crafters and kids and you know students and fine artists So I think we're successful in that today, so we're excited about that.

Jeff: 7:57

Wow, it's so fascinating. And without getting into any proprietary stuff, in essence, your company goes out and finds the sources for the paint that's been sitting in our garage and you take and turn that into acrylic paint. So that's basically as simple as it is.

Steve: 8:23

Well, it's interesting. It's a little different in that the sorting and the collecting process has been established. It's unique depending on what state you live in. Certain states have a very aggressive collection process and it's funded by a group called Paint Care and the manufacturer. So the funding group would be like the Sherwin-Williams PPG, bear Dunedwards all of the brands And they help support Paint Care as a non-profit and they support the events that you in many states will hear about.

Steve: 8:59

You know you can go to your waste management on a certain weekend and drop off that residential paint at no charge. In other states there's a fee associated to dropping off the paint, so then the consumer pays to wait to deliver that material to waste management. But they're learning out there that you can't just throw it away, because what our fear has always been is that the paint ends up in landfill, and that's what you don't want to have happen. You do not want this material to end up in landfill. So depending on the state they're set up a little differently. There's 13 states, i think now that have the aggressive programming you know, so that people know where to go drop it off and the marketing of it, and then the other ones are kind of a little looser. But my job early on was to set up contracts with those sources. So we don't actually we go in as a customer of that aggregator and we collect and sort through that material to sort of take the base product that we need to make our model work, but it's at a large scale. So we have contracts that, for example, i have 100% of the access to the material in the state of California. We have Texas, we've got other markets that I'll mention. Like I said, i got to be cautious about some of these things but we've got multiple states now lined up. So we go in and then set up our processes around that supply chain.

Steve: 10:27

Because currently what they do oftentimes is they do make an architectural product that's good, you know, and if you'll find it generally at like habitat for humanity, things like that, but that's just kind of reef packaging, just sorting it, cleaning it a little bit of color, and then they drop that back into architectural paint. We do a little different. We take the. We kind of cherry pick the acrylics that we want, materials that we want, and then we actually start there and then we start to reformulate So we start adding things to it to make it function. Like you know, a heavier body art material, we have just a little different processing than you would an architectural. It has a different need, but we're starting in a very high quality base right out of the gate. So our you know our characteristics have been appealing to artists as they're testing it And some of our partners now are setting it out for testing with their customers outside of our network and Blind testing it against the competition and we're, but we're just doing exceptionally well.

Jeff: 11:34

It's exciting for us to hear. I'm actually looking on the tomorrows-artistcom website and And, frankly, i like your, i like your, your packages and so forth. So how many colors do you offer in the Neapolitan line?

Steve: 11:54

We offer 15, 15 colors.

Jeff: 11:59

Okay, and it looks like you offer it in a jar and a tube, right?

Steve: 12:06

We do right now and I'll share something with you and your audience. That's really exciting and you were part of this because when we went to NAMTA, for us it was a learning experience. We were fortunate enough to be invited And share some space with Jack Richardson and Deco art. They were just super, just so kind and and Just count the caliber of the people that we had to spend time with. It was just the best experience. And I come out of a different industry and Your whole category, the whole everyone that was there was just so happy to be there, was. For me, it was a very different experience. And going to a product design show with a bunch of engineers, you know. So this was just a really great experience for us.

Steve: 12:48

But we learned an awful lot and what we were told is that you're trying to learn how to serve your community, and So we modeled our packaging after what the norm it. You know what the normal packaging sort of Process would be, which is something. That's the one thing that we really couldn't re-engineer. You know there and we looked it It's really difficult to find appropriate tubes and you know everything we do here is to the benefit of The supply chain, managing that supply chain. In fact, we're moving our equipment into the source, where it's aggregated, so that there's not that extra leg of distribution. So we're putting all of our you know we have an eye on Sustainability and and things that are positive for the environment when we make decisions.

Steve: 13:39

The packaging for us has been the hardest thing to solve. It to us was the most difficult thing, and across the board. And Look at the great brands in your category and in your market where you know they're all using the similar Parts to kind of distribute their paint. So we got back from the Nantish show and That seemed to be the, for us, what we really Learned the most about, and it was a statement that was made by someone that's Been in your category for 50 years and it was look, what you're doing inside of that tube is so special, yep, and the challenge you have is that You're having to physically tell me the story because it's You know, it's so unique and it's such a great benefit, but you're having to put it in the same tube that we all use, right?

Steve: 14:33

so we got back and our team went to work and I'm excited that Next year, when you see our product in the marketplace, you're gonna see a whole new Process as far as distribution goes. It's gonna be a new container and the container is gonna be something that an artist is gonna be able to use over and over again if they choose, and if they don't, then they can simply put it in there, recycling, and You know, they can just kind of use the paint right out of it. They don't rinse it, they don't have to worry about getting that acrylic material in the water system and throwing down the drain. They just use it right out of the out of the tub or the jar and they can recycle it. And we're super proud of that. We think that was kind of for us. That's what we needed to hear. We needed someone to tell us all hey, you've, you're almost there, you guys, you're almost there, but you just, you got to work harder on the packaging and we took that to heart and we've reset our whole packaging plan.

Jeff: 15:30

You know, in our industry we have been struggling for a very long time to become more and more sustainable, and Most of the biggest artists out there, that's a very big passion for them and it's been difficult for them to find the products that meet their passion and It sounds like you have just filled that gap.

Steve: 16:00

You know, i Appreciate that and I'm hoping as we grow we continue to learn because, you're absolutely right, the artist Are way ahead of everyone on this. Yeah, they really do care, because the subjects they're studying and that they're painting, it They're trying to share with us, are often times this beautiful nature that we all sometimes say granted, and You know, living in Laguna Beach, you know we're in the water all the time and we've the whole team here is a keen eye on The impact of everything that we do, and I kind of use that example earlier We've made a huge investment in relocating To the supply source, where that material is aggregated at a state level, so that then we can take that Transportation leg out. That's a big savings when it comes to that Movement of product and then it moves from there into dreaded, into distribution. Same with packaging. Now You know the big shift for us.

Jeff: 17:03

And you know you mentioned Laguna Beach and for our audience out there, Laguna Beach has always been a very high end artist community And every summer in Laguna Beach they have a thing called the Festival of the Arts and that's where very, very, very fine painters and sculptors go And one of the things is called Patent of the Masters And that's where on stage, they completely reenact famous paintings throughout history. I'm sure you've seen this a number of times, steve.

Steve: 17:42

I have. It's something that I remember. My first memories of that are, I dare to say, probably in the late 70s, Because a little kid a little kid you know and it's something that I'll never forget And my wife and I now attend every year.

Steve: 17:58

It's magical.

Steve: 17:59

It's a magical experience. In fact. It sells out pretty much every night And people come from all over the world, all over the world, to see it. One of our artists that helped me really define and build this product, you know one of our test artists. She shows there And she sells her work there and she uses our product there. So that's at the pageant grounds, a very high end venue, and a selective collector will go there and buy And she's on that kind of level of artists that we aspire to have our quality and our product match and satisfy, because we had to satisfy her needs. It's very critical, in fact.

Steve: 18:38

She told a story about six months ago, after our first meeting, after she evaluated the product, she told her husband that she didn't think I'd ever talked to her again Because she was so critical. She was very kind but she was so critical. And then we adjusted in 10 weeks later she got the new batch and she's like you're listening to me. I said absolutely. I said I'm here to serve you, i need you to tell me the truth, you know, and then that's. That was through us four years ago. So yeah, it's, can you share? can you share her name? Her name is Lynn Heiner L-Y-N-H-I-N-E-R.

Jeff: 19:13

And if people wanted to see more about Lynn Heiner, they could go to tomorrows-artistcom and look under the artist tab right, she does.

Steve: 19:25

Yeah, she's featured there, and then you can learn a little more about Lynn. She's fantastic.

Jeff: 19:31

I'm just looking here and I see that you've got eight very, very accomplished artists. So you're working with all eight of these artists with your acrylic And how you grow your brand.

Steve: 19:46

That's right, You know it really is in community with them. We're not just a product, we're a movement. So to satisfy that community of artists, we need to listen to them.

Jeff: 20:01

My goodness. So this is a paint that is acceptable for kids, beginners and even fine artists, right.

Steve: 20:13

It is. It is. You'll see some strata in the marketing of that. You know a little bit of layering with age groups.

Steve: 20:23

We have, you know, the craft side of our business and the segment of paint is an overall category in art and craft. The craft segment is so large And so we knew that, going into that, we needed to partner. So we were fortunate enough to get the attention of a major brand that you're all familiar with that will release product next year. So I'll be cautious about saying who they are yet, but we're, we're currently providing them with material that will be marketed under their brand. But what it's really exciting for us is and this is, you know, my background in product design I knew that I needed to put a plan together that would influence the people that were already established with great reputations to make a change, and it's really hard sometimes for a major brand to change. It's a big ship.

Steve: 21:17

But fortunately we were lucky And I think you know they listened and fortunate enough to have really accommodating people on the other side of the conversation And they've invested in their line And you'll notice, on a brand that they'll introduce next year, a created with on-course sub brand, kind of like an Intel inside. So we've been providing the base material to that team and then they formulate on top of us to make it work for them. So you'll start to see brands that are willing to invest because no doubt it's an investment to sort of change some of those processes to build a product line that's utilizing 60 or 70 percent of their chemistry from a product that was discarded. And that really is the story. The story is taking an established brand and letting them bring in another product line under their existing channel and say we're going to help you utilize this waste stream, steve. And that, for me, i knew we were really onto something when we got the attention of established brands like that, because we just couldn't do it on our own.

Jeff: 22:28

You did, because here's the issue It's been in the art industry is for years. Artists and crafters are looking for what's new And, in essence, in the art industry, if you're producing color, you just make another color or you know, or line extensions, and it's been difficult to come up with something new. You have come into the industry and are kind of turning it on its ear and making everybody take a look at how they've been doing it and how they need to do it going forward.

Steve: 23:08

I appreciate that. You know it's funny. I kind of get goosebumps, you know, when I hear that. you know when we're in these conversations, because our intention, we're just laser focused on building high quality product out of that great material that's been discarded. And you know the process. You know it's part of it sorting, part of it's identifying. You know what colors are going to go into what batching and all that stuff and then developing. The process is to create the end result. But the mission is the same. The mission is we've got 70 million gallons of paint that people are just willy-nilly discarding and we need to corral that material in and figure out ways to use it. So it truly is a consumption issue. You know this. You're buying more material than you need on the architectural side and then there's no outlet for it. So I will, yeah, we have, we are the first ones to sort of identify it and it was fortunate that we were in the right place at the right time. And then the artists. You know you had mentioned Laguna earlier and I will.

Steve: 24:09

I want to give a lot of credit to a festival that is featured every year in Laguna Beach called the Sawdust Festival, and you know if you're familiar with Southern California the Sawdust Festival is. It's a world-renowned craft festival And it's there's fine art in that sawdust grounds. Some great artists And in fact some of the artists that make the that will jury into the pageant, will opt into the sawdust because they get more foot traffic and they can. They can make more money. It's a high caliber show But over the last five years they've consumed 650 gallons of post-consumer waste paint essentially Paint that was discarded.

Steve: 24:52

Then we took it in, reformulated it very early on in the journey when we were still developing product. They were using it not only in some of the art, but they were using it on the boost. So we started to supply material for the artists to use to paint the boost. So they've made a significant impact in a good way just by choosing to use our material. And so there are two things that I hear internally around our operational audience You know we have paint with a purpose and I get really clearly and simply defines our product. And then as a company, because there's a lot of activities and a lot of things we're doing to educate people on the opportunity to use these types of materials. But it's creativity with a conscience.

Jeff: 25:43

You know and, speaking of conscience, I also know that you guys do a lot of charitable contributions. Can you talk just a little bit about that?

Steve: 25:57

Yeah, i can, and we do it because it's the right thing to do. So you know we've got programs that we're familiar with around us, that that you know, from like restorative justice perspective. For example, we've got a mural program at a state prison in San Diego where about four years ago we embarked on supplying paint for a mural program. That has now snowballed into a process where the it's a male prison and they're part of a group of inmates that are in some self-reflecting group. You know where there's some, you know, an opportunity to kind of get into some accountability, counseling and all these things that are sort of difficult in that environment, to kind of come to terms of why they're there. And if they do that they get a few extra yard. You know hours in the yard and they get to paint and they teach these folks how to paint. They're great artists. Some of them, as it come in there, can really paint. But they've embarked on. Their goal there now is to paint the largest mural in the system, a continual mural, So they're.

Steve: 27:10

Imagine these walls are inside yard walls are 18 feet tall and there's 3100 linear feet. So that's a lot of footage. So we've provided material to that program And for us it's just something one, they're close to us, they're in our market And we thought this is a program that helps, sort of a this. Folks are going through a process, accountability process So we thought, hey, this is cool to be part of that. So we've seen some and received some good feedback from that program, and then classes at the sawdust and different types of channels like that that we get engaged with. So we're always open and have an open ear to things that are community based, where we can serve you know when we can.

Jeff: 27:53

Well, you said a word and we're coming to the end of our time And it seems like it's gone by in about two and a half minutes. But you said paint with a purpose, and I probably would expand that to a company with a purpose, and it's very clear as to the why you are doing this. You're doing it for the planet, you're doing it for the artists, you're doing it for charity, for people that need it, and giving back, steve, this is so fascinating. Congratulations on what you've been doing, and, man, are we excited to see what's coming soon.

Steve: 28:34

Appreciate the opportunity to share with you and to be part of the journey, And we're all in it together, right? We?

Jeff: 28:40

are all in it together And we are going to reach out to you And hopefully you will come back on as your journey continues And we can keep our audience up to date on how they can help contribute to the planet by utilizing more sustainable materials.

Steve: 29:01

Look forward to it. Thanks, Jeff.

Jeff: 29:03

Thanks, steve. You can listen to the art supply insiders. Check back with us often as we talk about the world of art and craft supplies. If you'd like to hear more of these podcasts, please hit the Subscribe button on your preferred podcast platform And we'd really appreciate it if you'd tell a friend. If you'd like to show your support, consider going to our website and hitting the Support button at artsupplyinsiderscom. Now go out and create something When we're ready. It's one we have, and tonight we'll take a look at Robbie Boyd on our live show. We're going to do the workforce.