Consistency built the icon Featuring Atomik | Open Palette Podcast | Episode 17

What does it take to create work that becomes instantly recognizable? For internationally renowned graffiti artist, muralist, graphic designer, and fine artist Atomik, it starts with consistency.

In Episode 17 of the Open Palette Podcast, host Brian Camacho sits down with the Miami legend behind the iconic orange character that has become synonymous with the city’s culture and identity. Together, they explore how developing a signature style, staying true to your vision, and creating with purpose can transform a simple idea into a lasting legacy.

From graffiti and murals to fine art and global recognition, Atomik shares the lessons he’s learned throughout his career, the importance of representing your community, and why consistency not trends is what builds an icon.

Whether you’re an artist, creative entrepreneur, or someone pursuing a long-term vision, this conversation offers valuable insight into building meaningful work that stands the test of time.

🎨 Episode 17 – “Consistency Built the Icon” featuring Atomik
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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Life is the canvas we paint. Yeah. Opening the dialogue, removing the barriers and restraint. Uh-huh. It's the open palette, insight, access, and the human story. Come on. The palette is open. Open now.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Welcome back to the open palette podcast where art, culture, and community come together through real conversations. I'm your host, Brian Camacho, and this episode is brought to you in partnership with the Museum of Graffiti's Artist Studios. Big shout outs to our sponsors and big shout outs to each and every one of you who've been tuning in week to week. We do appreciate the love and support, and we do ask that you like, comment, share, and subscribe. Now let's get into today's episode. As every city has a story to tell. Sometimes that story is written through its people, neighborhood, and the places that define it. And sometimes it's told through the artists who leave their mark along the way. Today's guest has spent decades helping shape the visual identity of his hometown as a graphic designer, graffiti artist, muralist, and fine artist. He's built a body of work that has become recognized around the world. Through his iconic orange character, he's carried the spirit of Miami far beyond the city where it was born. Providing that when an artist stays true to where they come from, their work can leave an impact that reaches across cultures and continents. Join me today in welcoming to the show Atomic.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

Yo, what's up, my brother? Chilling, how are you? Thanks for having me.

SPEAKER_01 1:28

It's a pleasure, man. Thank you for joining us here today on the Open Palace Podcast. But let's get right to it, man. Let's talk to the people. Tell them a little bit about yourself. Who is the artist behind the character, behind the work?

SPEAKER_02 1:38

My name is Adam. Adam Paul. And Adam Paul Vargas is my full name. And I go by Atomic. That's my artist's name. And um, we're right here in Miami, Florida, in Wynwood at the Museum of Graffiti in the Arts District, and I'm glad to be here today. It's uh an honor and a blessing to still be, you know, kicking and getting this going.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

That's what's up, man. That's great. And whenever uh people think of Miami as synonymous with your artwork, with your character, your work that has been prevalent throughout the city, I want to speak to that idea and that concept. What is the origins behind the character, the artwork, and the artist that you've become today?

SPEAKER_02 2:17

Yeah, the origins of the character I paint come from the orange bowl. The Miami Orange Bowl was a stadium they built here in the 70s, I think.

SPEAKER_01 2:26

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 2:26

And uh it might have even been before that. That stadium was up for like 70 years. So if they knocked it down in 2008, it was probably more like the 30s or the 40s that they built this thing. But um, yeah, the mascot of the stadium is an orange, a king orange. It's a smiling orange with a crown. And I got it, I got it right there. See what I'm saying? That's the first one right there. It was standing in the orange bowl. OB holding a football, and it said OB instead of 28. I just put a spray can in 28 because that's my lucky number. But um, yeah, it comes from Obi.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

That's what's up. That's what's up. So that's that's where the the origins for it is, and it's just you keeping that that mascot alive for the city and the representation of Miami. Now, you are uh a graffiti artist that came up um in the graffiti scene here in Miami at a time when it was frowned upon, it wasn't as glorified and as welcoming as it is today. From that transition and and during those times, you as an artist, how did you be able to remain consistent and continue to build your style, build your representation in a city that really wasn't as welcoming as it is today?

SPEAKER_02 3:32

Yeah, I mean I started off writing graffiti and painting graffiti and tagging graffiti, so all I would do is graffiti. I would write my tag over and over and over again. And I started out and I had you know some tags, my initials, APV, some, you know, I my first tag was Ape. I was just scribbling on paper in my room in the classroom. You get what ape. And I put a little Kango hat on it with like notes coming out, and it was like you know, my signature, my first attempt at having a name and uh logo and whatever. But um, you know, I just I got inspired from seeing graffiti in my neighborhood, and the whole thing about graffiti is repetition and just you know, painting your name over and over again, finding different styles, different colors, different placements, different things to reinvent that name. So I did uh my name from let's say 1995 to when they knocked down the orange bowl in 2008. Okay, so we're talking, you know, however many years, 18 years or 15 years, I don't know what, um, painting my name, and then I started painting the character. And I said, if I could paint my name for 15 years or 18 years over and over again, hundreds of times, and reinvent it, and I could do it with a character, it's easier because the character, you don't have all these limitations and restrictions like the alphabet. The alphabet to paint letters, it's not easy, and then you have to go and conform with a certain style that looks fresh, and you know, you gotta it's a mission to do all these perfect letters and make art out of it. So, doing this, I said, Okay, the response is there. I went, I did a rooftop, and then I started doing stickers of it, and I started you know painting it more, and the response was there, people were on it, so I just had a transition period from graffiti to cartoon painting. Okay, the letters of 1995, 2008 to now 2008, 2009, 2010, going from only doing my tag and my crew and typical characters and productions and murals and things of that nature, to now just doing the orange.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

That's fair, that's dope. Yeah, and and learning that skill set from graffiti, as you said, which is the consistency, the the consistency of putting your name up, putting your character up out there for the for the visibility has taken uh taking it, you have taken it to a whole nother level at this point with this character, bringing your artwork across the world. There's multiple different countries and places that you can go to and just boom, there goes another orange biatomic. And it may seem like it's just an orange, but what is the deeper message for you? What is the ultimate takeaway that you want people to go home with after you know seeing your artwork and finding it in these discrete places as you have placed them?

SPEAKER_02 6:20

I want people to know that I'm having fun doing this shit for real, traveling around the world and spray painting and putting up stickers and tagging and writing and just posting and having a studio and operating a business is fun. I'm having fun doing this, and I love it. So with that being said, I just um I rock with it, you know. I just I I just paint and do my thing. Okay, so I started traveling internationally out of the United States of America in 2007, 2008. I went to Spain with my friend Cab from Los Angeles, California, and my friend DE1 from Phoenix, Arizona. And we went to Europe, bounced around Spain and Italy, and then I went over to the Netherlands and I got the bug to travel. So I wasn't even doing the orange at this time, I was doing my name and my tags and stuff, but I got bit by this bug to travel the world and seeing those three European countries. I have been to Puerto Rico before and you know up the east coast and in car with my family, but uh we didn't travel. We didn't travel at all. That's not something that we did. If we traveled as a family growing up, we would take a ride in the station wagon.

SPEAKER_01 7:41

That's what's up.

SPEAKER_02 7:42

So I'm throwing it back. Everybody jumping a bag. So um I got the travel bug to go to Europe, to Asia, to Africa, to Australia, to South America, to Canada, Mexico, like the Caribbean, and just spread my work. And I've been to almost 50 countries, dog, and it's the best feeling to go into a city that you do not know a country, you don't know their language, what they do, and just experience it. Just take it all in and and walk around that city and meet the people and intertwine with what's really going on out there. So it's just, I mean, you learn so much, you take away so much, you give so I give a lot when I go and I travel. I bring so much stuff when I bring stickers and spray paint and gear and canvases for people and gifts, and it's just like I do it all on my own time. I'm having fun. I'm not trying to get someone to sponsor me and pay for all my shit. I pay for it myself. I work hard and I paint hard and I have fun. I have I love my family, my beautiful wife and children. It's like uh it's a blessing to be able to do this, and I'm having fun with it for real. That's about it. People want to um, you know, hate, but I don't focus on that. I focus on the love. There's way more love out there than hate. And if you just focus on the good things and have fun in life and enjoy yourself, then you're on the right path.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

That's right. That's right. This is not work, this is love, and that's this is a passion, and that's that's great to hear. That's great to hear that you are finding balance as an artist to remain in that space. Your personal happiness, your personal peace should always be number one, no matter what. The minute you find yourself in a space where it feels like work, you should be rethinking your situation. And that's it's it's amazing to hear that you you are seeing the direction and and you're in the space that you want to be. And um, being able to take it from the walls and take it into other mediums, such as your sculpture work and things in that manner, aside from the murals that you have, I want to speak to that because this expands that that brand, this expands that message, this expands who you are as an artist, yeah. And and and it may seem like as although it's fun, it is work at times, right? There is a form of work that has to be placed into this. How are you finding that space for yourself to be recognized, be represented, be respected, but not oversold? We want to sell out, let's get it right. We want to sell out, let's not misconstrue the words here. Yeah, but being oversold by the idea of you sell too fast and you may kill your name or kill your value, how do you stay within that space?

SPEAKER_02 10:16

Well, growing up, I was taught to work. You know, my family, my pops comes from the South Bronx, and his old boy owned a bodega in East New York. Okay, and my old boy used to work for his old boy. But my old boy ended up going to college and getting a degree as a businessman or something. He was a banker for, you know, I don't know, he worked 40 years, you know, every single day. Like a hardworking, intelligent individual. Now, he instilled that in me. He saw my art, my talent, and what I had, and he and nourished it, encouraged me, and found ways for me to, you know, get extra art classes out of out of public school, go to the teacher's house, give her a little bit of bread, teach her more, you know, and then apply to a magnet school and and nurture it more, and you learn, you know, different things. Watering that seed. So then after that, I was I wasn't the what the best behaved kid, so I get kicked out of the magnet school my last year, the last week, you get what I'm saying? And uh they let me finish there, whatever, but he now tells me, hey, there's an art institute of Fort Lardey, go study graphic design, watch this DVD that I just brought home from work, and it shows me graphic design. I want to do graphic design. I go on and study graphic design from 1999 to 2002. I'm kind of fast-forwarding in the business aspect because before that, they um encouraged me to apply for the magnet program in the schools. They also bought me an airbrush, and my old boy said airbrush shirts, airbrush hats, airbrush backpacks, paint your friends' rooms. Always working as a business. You work, you have chores, you have to make money, you have to save your money. Very banker has to, you know, and is all very entrepreneur. So you get what I'm saying. Um it was just um always instilled in me to have a business side of my passion, of my art, of my understand that that balance always had a business right there. So I got my creative side from my grandmother, who used to have a wedding dress boutique in the Bronx, New York, and she used to handmade wedding dresses. I get my my talent from my mom's side, you feel me? But my old boys' side, I'm getting the the business side and the the money side and the hustle side. So I've always been driven to get loot and make money off of my stuff, even while I'm enjoying it. I I love it so much, but to like I it does okay. So with that being said, I never went to school for business. It's difficult to put a price on your passion to sell your stuff for what it's worth. Me, I never told someone, yo, this painting right here is gonna be $10,000. Never in my life, never have I sold a piece of it. So, how do you value your work? I I sell it just little by little how I do it. I remember you see a gallerist in Winwood 15 years ago sold one of my pieces that I painted right on the sidewalk before our art show for $4,500 right there, for 45 minutes after I made it. And um, I should have kept like my business right there and not gone down because right now, if I kept that and had that business set up, like stepping up, stepping up, stepping up, then I would have been in a different position than I am right now. But I want people to collect my work, I want everyone to be able to buy a sticker pack, uh a drawing or a painting or something small or whatever it is. So I study graphic design. I mentioned Art Institute of Four Lauderdale. After I graduated from high school in 1999, by the skin of my teeth, I got kicked out of my high school at the end from whatever problems I got into and finished up at an alternative school. The last couple weeks, they sent me the key for the test. I had all the answers right there. Easy, passive, nice, got my diploma, and then I went to Art Institute of Four Lauderdale. Three years studying graphic design from 1999 to 2002. I'm learning logos, business cards, brochures, flyers, websites, identity, advertising, uh corporate uh you get what I'm saying? All this other like stuff that goes along now with the business I already know and trying to do the graphic design thing. I always painted graffiti throughout this whole time that I'm telling you, I was like just getting started with the graffiti, but also just getting started with the work and uh my my career, graduating in 2002 as a uh commercial artist, a graphic designer. I got a bachelor's of science.

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Nice, that's what's up. And since and you were able to take those that skill set and now implement that into not only your artistic lifestyle, your personal lifestyle, and expand your business. That's what's up, and that's what it's all about. It's taking these real world examples and being able to understand how to implement it to invest into yourself. I tell a lot of different artists that that I work with or that I may you know mentoring things in that manner is is that understanding of finding balance and understanding the the business of art, the business of reality, the business of life, right? Because those all play a specific part in its own space. And that's what you're speaking to, is how, and that's great. I want to big give a big shout out to your family and your parents for for being that badborn. You know, obviously, we we would expect that all parents to be present and prevalent in those spaces, and at times it's looked down upon, specifically in our culture when it comes to graffiti, it comes to, you know, for some who who see it as street art, whatever the case may be, they don't see the end goal because they don't understand the values that need to be put into the work for it to be received from those individuals that are are you know accepting the you know, purchasing your work and having it hang in their spaces. So that's great to hear like that. Uh ultimately, what is your your mission? What is your end goal and your purpose out of all of this that you're doing, all this work that you're putting out? If you couldn't paint tomorrow, are you satisfied with the work that you've put out?

SPEAKER_02 16:03

No, yeah, it's never enough. Um there's there's levels to life here, and there's always room for improvement. So I feel like I'm about to tenfold with my career. You know, I feel like the future is right, the you know, like real bright, real, real bright. And um I feel like my shit's gonna tenfold. That's it. I'm stoked about it, and I'm trying to gear it up. Like right now, I got my uh my studio, but I'm paying the landlord. I almost spent 50 racks on a studio the last three years. You know what I could have done with that? I could have built a studio in my backyard at my crib, and that's exactly what I'm gonna do. I'm not trying to fill up a landlord's pockets.

SPEAKER_01 16:46

I want to build something on the property that we own. Assets over liabilities is always the key to success. Understanding what an asset and what a liability is. And in this case, having that space may have been an asset for that time being where you're able to produce and work, but in the long game, it becomes a liability if you have to keep funding somebody else's vacations, funding somebody else's trips and and good times. So, yeah, it is very important to take those opportunities, utilize them to your best of your advantage, but then always focus on the reinvestment. Because once you place that $50,000 investment into your own property, into your own space, yeah, like you said, that tenfold comes because it's you're there. Yeah, there's no need to have to leave. You're right where you're at.

SPEAKER_02 17:29

I'm gonna tighten up. It's hard for me to check emails and be a professional. To do like a studio, to operate a studio professionally, that I don't know. I never got taught how to do that. Yo, that's a whole people take four years and and get BFAs, bachelor's fine arts, and then MFAs, even more longer to study how to. You get what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_01 17:50

I appreciate that transparency that you're speaking of there.

SPEAKER_02 17:53

It's it's a learning process.

SPEAKER_01 17:54

Right.

SPEAKER_02 17:55

All the time I'm learning, and I think that we always have to keep our learning sensors open and our our it's always fun to do new things and try new things and just like experiment. And I feel like I want to tighten up my my craft, my my career, and start really uh like taking it serious because up to now I've just been having fun, you know. Okay, maybe maybe I'll have fun for a few more years and and keep painting or whatever, but I want to eventually have a successful art career and do exhibitions and participate in mural festivals across the world and do art shows in every different country that I've visited. Do 50 art shows, you know.

SPEAKER_01 18:39

No, that's a fact. That's what's up.

SPEAKER_02 18:40

Go and visit every place that I've been to and then some and show my art and meet the people and paint in the streets and keep doing what I'm doing. But it's just, you know, it's a blessing, though. I'm really blessed to be able to uh to be here and to and to to do what I do. You know, I enjoy it. I'm having a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

That's what's up. Consistency is key. You've definitely been consistent consistent through the work that you've been putting out and expanding, you know, the accessibility to you as an artist, whether it be through your toys, whether it be through your sculptures, whether it be through your scavenger hunts. I want to speak to a story that I personally have for the scavenger hunts that you do. Uh it was back in 2024 I was out here for Heart Basle. Okay, and um I had just finished having breakfast down in Biscayne. I look at my phone and you dropped uh a piece over by the Welcome to Miami sign. Right. And um, I'm like, I jump in my car, I'm running and racing all over there. I happen to be on the wrong side of the highway. So I get off, and by the time I get to the light, I look at my phone again, and somebody got it already. And and that's the fun in in this whole thing that that you've been building. Not only are you having fun with for yourself, but you're building a fun environment for those that are participating and a part of your community. Where's that come from? Where's that idea come from? And then do should is this something that we should always look forward to?

SPEAKER_02 19:53

Free R Fridays is a vibe. I love doing it. Um, Sergio put me on, registered artist. They would drop a piece of art somewhere, take a picture of it and post it to a Facebook group called Free R Friday Miami, and then whoever goes and gets it gets it. I did it on my IG because I wasn't big on Facebook. So Free R Fridays is fun. It's good to give back. We can work and and and get the bag and receive all the loot in the world, but it's important to give back. It's not just get, get, get, get, get, yeah, nah, we gotta give back. So free R Friday. I go, I drop a piece in the street, I take a picture of it, and the first person goes to get it. Now I do it where I just say comment your area code and an emoji, and I'll pick a winner. And nice, you know, this is the piece that I painted yesterday. It's not for sale, but I'm gonna send you a painting, whatever, you know, bam. People like the free R Fridays, it's good to get back, but I I do this like for my my soul, my heart. Like, I really like to go and paint and give people art and have that. I don't know, it's just I like I like the streets. I like being on the streets and participating in what's going on in the real world in my city and every city that I visit. It's um it's a blessing. It's a blessing to be out here for real.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

I want to zero back in on the on the points that you brought up with regards to structuring your business and having a tighter, tighter, you know, business plan where some from the outside looking in may feel like you have it together, right? Where they see you in these galleries, they see you participating in these mural projects, as well as you know, dropping toys, but they don't understand what it takes in the back end. Although you are having fun, you do understand where you stand today and where you want to be tomorrow. How are you mentally remaining stable, right? Because that can be draining at times where I myself find myself in that space where, yeah, everything is going great, but you know you want more, you know you're You gotta get to the end, you know, to the end zone, and those roadblocks in a way may take a toll. For me, my model is to stay positive and keep focused. And whenever I find myself off track, I try to remember that model and try to re you know recite that to myself and ultimately live by that. Because any negative energy and any negative energy will throw you off your cipher. So, what are you doing to remain in this happy space? You know, it's always easier said than done, but what is exactly is it for you?

SPEAKER_02 22:27

I think that um just enjoying every moment and living life to the fullest is uh is a blessing. I think that if you stay positive and you keep focused, you're gonna achieve something. If you're exercising mentally and physically every day, and you're just trying to keep going, you'll see results. So um, I don't know, dog. I just I just feel like just have fun, just do what you appreciate what you do and and enjoy it, and everything after that will be natural. So that's the only way I look at it. I'm just trying to have fun out here and do my thing as far as going back into the whole business thing and and talking about that. I mean, I wanna I wanna say work hard and go out there and enjoy your life also, you know. These toys, they're cool, you know. UVD made them, and um, this is the first one with a spray can, this is the second one with a roller, and they made thousands of them, you know. We're selling them, and uh I painted them thousands of times, and I made a bunch of stuff, thousands of paintings and stuff, and I'm just I hope to make thousands more, make paint in the streets more hundred thousand more times, you know. I'm 45 right now. I hope to live to you know 85, 90, 95. You know, I want to double it. I want to look at this is okay. This is right now. I'm at the peak. I'm I'm here, I'm I'm at the top of my shit. Now the smooth slide down should be you see what I'm saying, chill and just relaxing and enjoying. So that's really what I'm trying to do is just have fun and and do my thing and and have good vibes, you know, and just give off a positive energy.

SPEAKER_01 24:18

That's what's up. That's what's up, man. We do appreciate that. We do appreciate the work that you've been putting out there. Uh we do ask that you keep on going, man. Remain consistent, keep doing what you're doing. It is definitely recognized and appreciated. So thank you for that. Um, before we get up out of here, do you have any parting words you'd like to leave the people with?

SPEAKER_02 24:34

Yeah, yeah. Um, I got a couple shows coming up in uh New York City, Lower East Side of Manhattan. I'm gonna do a show right there in uh Lower East Side. That's August 6th, uh 6th, and then come and uh check me out August 8th in Miami at the main library. I got an exhibition set up over there called Less is More, and it's pretty big deal for me to be able to show in the library in the center of my city and government center the the like where it all comes from, where my you know my people are sure where my life has been at. Like it's real um important for me to to do that, you know. But yeah, yo, just um check me out. That's for sure. Yeah, follow me, I g, you know, holler at me. I'm I'm on there, atomic with a K A T O M I K. And um, I appreciate you, dog, for real. Thank you for having me on the open palette podcast. It was a blessing to um to chat with you and just keep it moving, dog.

SPEAKER_01 25:31

Let's do it. That's a fact with it. That's a fact. This is what's all about, man. Thank you once again for your time, and thank you to each and every one of you who've been tuning in week to week. Make sure to like, comment, share, and subscribe, y'all. We got out of here. Peace.