While he may have grown up on a farm near Etna Green, Justin Vining's paintings can be found across the world from Sweden and Norway to Germany and Australia.
"It's as if Dr. Seuss and Tim Burton collaborated to do a scene of rural America," Justin described his art during an interview Saturday at the Village at Winona Art Fair.
His artwork also will help him and his brother, Nathan, open up their own law firm in the Warsaw area.
It all kind of started on the family farm.
"Growing up on a farm was a ton of fun," Justin said.
During his senior year at Triton Junior-Senior High School, his family decided to sell the family farm. They weren't in a position where they had to sell, but with larger corporate farms coming in, the family decided to stop farming.
This would later be reflected in his artwork. He said much of his art work is responding to the disappearance or inactivity of the family farm.
"My work generally is a response to that bygone era. I think I get my inspiration from that," he said.
Justin, now 29, started painting in 10th grade. Influenced by his art teacher, Kim Hassett, Justin envisioned the two careers he would pursue would be farming or teaching art. Going to work every day to teach children art seemed like the coolest job to him. Subconsciously, Justin also questioned his artistic abilities and didn't know if he could make a living by painting.
At Purdue University, he took lots of art classes and majored in art education - specifically drawing. After graduation, he landed a job teaching at Maple Ridge Elementary in Pendleton, where he stayed for three years.
"It was seriously the best job in the world," Justin said. "It seriously was. Any time you can go to work and say, 'I can't believe they pay me to do this' ... Beyond that, there's the imaginative creativity the kids bring themselves."
Still, painting was just a hobby at that time. He might produce about five paintings a year, just for fun.
It was during Justin's third year of teaching at Maple Ridge that he found himself open to his options. Nathan graduated that spring with a degree in meteorology from Valparaiso University. Instead of becoming a weather man, however, Nathan decided to take the LSAT and go to law school. The more Justin thought about it, the more he also wanted to go to law school.
"It made the thing more certain," said Nathan. "It was kind of out of left field for both of us."
Choosing law school, Nathan said, was about career options. Career options in meteorology weren't what he was looking for, and he wanted to work more with people.
Justin and Nathan applied to 10 different schools across the country. Their only criteria was that they wanted to do it together. Both were accepted to Valparaiso. As the university was smaller and closer to home, it was a perfect fit.
Right before finals, during the first semester of law school, Justin spent up to 12 to 13 hours a day in the library. As finals approached, Justin needed a break and didn't want to go back to the library.
He picked up his paintbrushes and painted seven to eight paintings that week. "They were much stronger than anything I had done in the past," Justin said.
The paintings were busy, colorful, vibrant watercolors - full of life.
"I really kind of felt like I was onto something. I sold them pretty quick, which was something I hadn't done before," Justin said.
That was in fall 2007. By February 2008, Justin started selling his work on Etsy.com On there alone, he sold more than 100 paintings all across the world. That lead to local sales, so Justin ended up selling more than 200 in 2008. He never had entered any formal art shows or even explored that idea.
"In 2009, I decided to change the way I looked at everything," said Justin. "I slowed down the production of my work. I wanted to boost the quality, and I was seeking art shows and gallery representation. I really wanted to put my self out there and see what happened. It actually went really well."
In July 2009, Justin had his first solo exhibit in Lafayette. He sold out almost all of his work and received tons of press.
"It really gave me quite a bit more confidence," he said.
He took 60 to 65 pieces to the show. A couple of weeks ago, he sold the centerpiece of that show for $1,400. It had hung in the Lafayette City Hall and the West Lafayette Public Library.
"As a sidebar to all this, law school put me in a position to be surrounded by people who were well educated and supported me," said Justin.
Their support helped him with the different aspects of art like marketing and branding.
As his artistic notoriety blossomed and his studies at law school continued, Justin's following through social networking expanded. Through sites like Facebook and Twitter, Justin has more than 12,000 fans from across the world. A painting he posts on Facebook first and then Etsy.com can be sold within a matter of minutes.
"It's humbling. It's really cool," he said.
Justin's big show of the year will be Sept. 13 at the LaLa Gallery in Lafayette. The one-man show is titled "Regionalism Reborn".Justin's art has put him and Nathan in a position where they have a sustainable and predictable income. While they still have to take the bar in July, they plan to open a law firm somewhere in Warsaw.
Knowing that they won't have a large client base right out of law school, Justin will continue with his art and speaking engagements. Justin previously worked with the Fort Wayne Museum of Art, and has spoken at local high schools and elementary schools to get students excited about art.
"I'm kind of in a position where I can be passionate about art and still pursue a professional career, and it doesn't have to be one or the other. It's possible to do both," Justin said.
Nathan, 26, will handle the legal aspects of the law firm at the onset.
"It's great right now because Justin's work has been taking off," said Nathan.
They expect the law firm to be slow in the beginning, Nathan said, so that will give Justin time to work on his art. As time goes on, they can build the firm and establish themselves in the area.
"We're both going into this with a pretty open mind and we're both looking forward to it," said Justin.
