The Anvil: What is BLCKSMTH?

Obviously, painfully staged photo of Michael James Schneider photo by Summer Olsson

Obviously, painfully staged photo of Michael James Schneider
photo by Summer Olsson

I’m Mike Schneider. After 20 years working in retail management, I put my career on pause for a year to start a life doing only things that fulfill me creatively and artistically. I paint, direct, write, am an amateur interior designer, and have done theatrical set and production design. I’m not a blacksmith, but I’m okay at everything else. Well, people have told me that, but these people usually turn out to be liars.

This blog started as kinda a dry chronicle of my process in the summer of 2012. Then the shit hit the fan: I got my heart broken, and I started looking inward. I made a lot of interesting discoveries, and these seemed to resonate with a lot of people. I don’t claim to have the answers for anyone, least of all myself, but I’m having fun on the journey. Or at lest pretending to on social media.

What do I ultimately want? I wanna make a living doing creative stuff! I’m starting from scratch here, and I have a lot of work to do. I self published a book. I’m surviving being single, and then not being single, and then getting my heart broken wide open. I interview people on the same journey. And I listen to awesome music while doing it.

4 thoughts on “The Anvil: What is BLCKSMTH?

  1. Hey there. I first knew you when the winebox boyfriend went viral few years ago. I started following you on twitter and then went to this blog and read everything including the story about your brother. I realized that seeing you on twitter and reading your posts here just show me that human can have so much layers although in the end it’s only one person. I probably don’t make any sense to you.

  2. Your wonderful work helped to pull me out of a dark place after a shocking and unexpected collapse of a relationship (that turned out to be a bullet dodged), thank you so much! Do you sell copies of your photos? I’d absolutely love to buy a photograph (or a few!) and frame it for my wall, it would mean a lot to me, is it possible, pretty please :)?!!

  3. Thank you for being the straw that broke the camels back in my failed relationship. Crying and laughing at the same time while scrolling through a saved file of your work that I’m sure will get me through this.

  4. I love your work. Please please oh please release the next part of Th Tropic of Never! I am super eager the see how it continues.

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