How a Phoenix artist balances anonymity with public murals

Maybe you've seen his colorful portrait of Arizona's first governor, George W.P. Hunt, painted at a terrifying six stories up on The Governor apartment building. Or maybe you've seen the massive pop art-feeling murals over at Go AZ Motorcycles or more recently, a giant 3-story-tall red gummy bear dressed like a samurai with incredible detailing for something that came from a can of spray paint.

While many artists are considered the black sheep of the family, Goodman had a different experience growing up with a father who was also an artist and encouraged his son to pursue the arts if he wished. And that's exactly what he did.

Growing up in his father's footsteps

Goodman was born and raised in the north Phoenix Valley and grew up in the shadow of his world-renowned motorsport artist father.

"I got to grow up being a part of the business and getting to see him paint these large-scale paintings and have sponsors and licensing deals and all that," Goodman said. "I was really blessed, kind of had an unfair advantage in the art world."

It's true, the stereotype of a starving artist is common and those who choose art as a career are typically looked at with a concerning side-eye. However, for Goodman, it was a world he was raised in and was comfortable with. Goodman's parents put him in art classes from the time he was in preschool. He was also able to learn a lot from his father; he now implements similar business tactics and has incorporated those lessons to the point that it's second nature to him.

The biggest difference between Goodman and his dad is that his father focused on large-scale acrylic paintings. Meanwhile, Goodman prefers to experiment with different mediums, constantly challenging himself.

"This season I'm in murals; it's been a 10-year season where I'm just focused on murals right now," Goodman said. "The 10 years prior to that, it was acrylic paintings, airbrush, sculpting, anything I could get my hands on."

For Goodman, it's all about perfecting the craft, no matter which medium his using, so he can better execute the vision he's trying to create.

'If something's hard, I want to learn to master it'

Goodman may be in a 10-year season in perfecting his work as a muralist, but he said he doesn't want to restrict himself to one artistic medium or specialty. In fact, for him, learning various artistic skills is "part of the adventure, the journey. If something's hard, I want to learn to master it. I want to be the best at it."

For Goodman, it's all in the name of the craft itself.

"Everyone talks about 'the craft' but no one really explains what that means to them a lot of time," Goodman lamented.

Constantly learning and pushing himself is what the craft means to Goodman, especially the learning part. Many artists will say that they were OK in school, but where they excelled is in the arts. That wasn't the case for Goodman, who not only loved learning but was rather gifted when it came to academics.

Goodman recalls getting pulled out of class when he was in elementary school to take a special test to see if he could be put into an advanced placement class.

"I knew what was going on right away, so I purposefully failed the test because I wanted to be with all my friends and I did not want to be in advanced placement classes," Goodman said. "I was an OK student depending on who the teacher was. If I didn't vibe with their style of teaching, then I just didn't do the work."

To put it simply, Goodman said he felt that what he learned in English, math and all the rest of his classes didn't really equate to becoming an artist.

"The public school system in my eyes at a young age was a waste of time as far as becoming an artist."

Goodman said he didn't care about the public education system so much that he had a 0.9 GPA his senior year and he was kicked out of school. He then had to attend an alternative school where he "learned to cheat" and brought his GPA to a 3.9, he said. Following high school, Goodman felt pressure from his father to attend college, something his dad did previously, studying art at Arizona State University.

All Goodman could think was, "Why would I go to college and be in debt as an artist?" He relented and took a few elective art classes at Scottsdale Community College, but he slowly stopped showing up and instead put his efforts toward putting out ads for commissions on Craigslist.

Making his own way into the art world

When Goodman's father found out that he wasn't attending classes and was getting paid by strangers on the internet to paint portraits, he never said another word about it.

Epicenter Recording Studio in Tempe reached out to Goodman via one of his Craigslist ads and asked him to create a mural of the Headless Horseman holding the heads of several famous rappers. Goodman took it one step further, putting glue on the wall and carefully placing real foils of gold and silver strategically onto the mural.

"From there, that opened up a whole bunch of doors," Goodman said. "I met the music studio's investor, I met all his friends, and I started doing commission-based work for people and businesses that value my art."

Soon, Goodman began looking for the people that wanted art similar to what he wanted make. He would pop into businesses and introduce himself, offering to paint them something and showing his portfolio — being an extrovert has definitely aided him in his search for work and connections.

"I think that a lot of artists feel that they need to play a certain role without really embracing who they are," Goodman said. "Art can be very deeply personal to people and it can be really scary to share that with other people or to share the process or to share your thoughts on it even, because people might think you're a psycho."

Goodman said his 15 years serving tables and bartending taught him "to communicate and how to stand up for myself and my art and not be self-conscious about it."

He worked in the restaurant industry to pay the bills but would sacrifice shifts to paint for people. Goodman credits maintaining those quality businesses relationships with clients as a big part of his success.

"It's a really small world and people talk; reputations are really important in whatever it is that you do. And the art world is even smaller, so I always made it a point to do the best that I could to make my clients happy with the work and want to share my work with other people and talk about it and be proud of me as an artist. I think that was the most important thing that I learned."

Becoming Price Goodman, the artist

For a guy who wants to stay anonymous, Goodman has an impressive 30,800 followers on his Instagram where he posts photos and videos of his works in progress along with the finished products. This came after a fellow artist suggested Goodman "step his game up" on social media, despite not wanting to do it.

"I learned that there's rules and there's things that you can do and within a couple of months I grew my social media account by like 20,000 followers."

Goodman has learned to embrace the age of social media and used it to his advantage, propelling his arts career further and connecting with other artists. However, he doesn't have any intentions of giving up the carefully constructed anonymity he's crafted for himself, instead leaning into it as his brand as an artist.

"The internet can be a really weird place, there's a lot of weird people on there, so I keep my business and art life separate from my outside life," he said. "I don't give my real name, I don't show my face, I don't give too much information."

On the topic of Goodman's name, he said he developed the new identity so he could promote his art and keep his stalker ex-girlfriend from finding out it was him. He looked outside to see the name Good Man on the air conditioning unit and combined them, and Price just popped into his head.

"Like if that price is right, it's all good man," he said.

The anonymity is a tactic that works for him, Goodman said. The internet loves a mystery and the online detectives are constantly at work trying to figure out who he is.

"There will be a day when I take my mask off, but I don't know when that's going to be."

In the meantime, the only people who will know his face are those in his personal life and his clients. And if there's one thing Goodman prides himself on, it's having a close, collaborative relationship with his clients — using elements they want to incorporate and adding in his own personal touches to make a unique that makes them happy.

"That has become my heart, I guess, of solving the problem or the challenge of how do I make this person's vision come to light versus how do I still enjoy creating what I'm creating."

What's next for muralist and artist Price Goodman

When asked what it was like to be an artist full-time now after so many years of hustling on the side to commission work, Goodman had a difficult time explaining it. While he enjoys his freedoms, the job does come with some cons, the biggest one being lonely, especially for someone who enjoys being around people.

"And then all of a sudden, I have to paint for hours, days, months. And painting is very solitary unless you have an assistant with you. And even when you do have an assistant, there's always a moment of silence where you're just in your head painting. Being a full-time artist is very rewarding but very risky."

Goodman went on to explain that some months are better than others and learning how to plan and be good with your finances is key to success — things his business-minded father instilled in him early.

As for what his next medium could be, Goodman said he is less focused on what he'll be creating with and is more concerned with helping the next generation of artists.

"My dad always told me it's art versus the world and that artists should always be on the same side," Goodman said. "We're working for the same cause, and the cause is to bring beautiful art to people. So, the next goal is to help encourage, mentor, teach and bring artists to the next level. I was lucky enough to have my dad teach me a lot of things along the way and I want to carry that one and be able to teach as many artists as I can."

"I want to create an army of artists. I want the whole city to be littered in art."

And he has a plan. Over the past several months, Goodman has been taking notes on all the lessons he's learned throughout his career and has plans to release a free e-book to help with the business and technical sides of being an artist. After that, Goodman said he intends to inspire and create more artists — something he's still trying to figure out the logistics of.