Interview with Malcolm Bellew from Misled.Media
Interview Conducted by: Malcolm Bellew and Chat GPT — (because no one found me interesting enough to interview in real life, so I hired a robot to do it instead).
Who is Malcolm Bellew?
I'm Malcolm Bellew. I'm addicted to art and anything creative. Confidently uncertain. A fringe dweller. Disassociated, but curious. A handsome mess in progress.
What’s the meaning behind Misled.media?
Most of my life, I've felt misled, a blasphemer, or just weird because I don't see things correctly and my art doesn’t fit neatly into a box. Being bi-racial, I never fully fit into “white America” or “Black culture”. Misled.
So I'm mixed, and I mix mediums (or media)—music, design, and screen printing—I'm all over the place with my brain being like it is. The artistic realm encourages one to narrow their focus, to specialize. Despite my attempts, it never quite resonated with me. Even when I adhere to this, my creations perpetually drip with that rugged aesthetic that captivates and reflects that my disassociation is real.
I am eternally Misled.media—endlessly adrift, yet always seeking. The past serves as my compass, the present as my enigma, and the future a chaotic tapestry waiting to unravel.
What first got you into art and design?
The power to manipulate and form ideas into reality—whether it’s a song, a painting, a digital piece, a skateboard trick, or a carved-out piece of wood. Creation is magic.
I was alone a lot as a kid, and creating gave me an escape. It was how I built worlds, told stories, and made the impossible feel real. When I’m creating, I’m never truly alone. The mind is a powerful tool—and art gave mine somewhere to go.
I love building little worlds to escape to, whether physical, visual, or audible. The ability to take “nothing” and make it “something” that makes people feel—that’s everything to me. There’s structure in art, but there’s also reckless abandon, and that balance keeps me obsessed.
You struggled in school but ended up excelling in design. What flipped the switch?
Pain is a great motivator. And I was sick of dead-end jobs. I wanted to do something creative and get paid for it—to enjoy the quality of my life, not just stack a paycheck.
I got clean off drugs and found myself wasting away in a factory making airplane parts on a manual lathe. I had this moment of clarity: I didn’t get clean just to die in a factory. If that was my life, I might as well go back to using or end it all.
But recovery taught me discipline—stay in the solution. I checked out a college orientation, did the paperwork, asked questions, and ran full speed away from that factory life. Tri-C was Harvard as far as I was concerned, and I soaked up everything I could.
How did screen printing become such a big part of your creative work?
My lifelong homie Joe Forbes introduced me to screen printing through the punk scene—people making shirts DIY in their living rooms and kitchens. When I saw it for the first time, my mind was blown.
As a kid, I always wondered how people made shirts. I thought maybe they airbrushed them, like at Geauga Lake. Or hand painted them. Then I saw screen printing and realized you could duplicate something over and over, reclaim the hardware, and use it again for a whole new design.
How is everyone not losing sleep about this?!
What’s the most challenging part of running a creative business?
Being accountable for everything. Right now, it’s mostly just me. My girl helps with emails, but that’s about it. It's just us.
The not-knowing is brutal—the future, the next job, is the invoice right, will I deliver on time? Running a business means dealing with broken equipment, miscalculations, losing money, taxes, paperwork—it never ends.
Plus, we just had a kid last March, 2024. Time is finite. Everything matters more now. I have to execute with intention, because every move I make impacts my family.
Still, I know I can’t stop creating. I make a shitty employee. I work hard, but clocking in for someone else always leads to that same feeling: unfulfilled. If I fail at this, I’ll have to start over—but fuck it, we keep moving.
What’s your dream project?
Writing sketch comedy or animation.
I want to use my voice impressions, art, music and opinions in a ridiculous but honest way. I grew up loving stand-up, South Park, and sketch shows because they poke at things we all see but don’t say out loud.
Been dabbling with Adobe Animate, but time is limited. One day, though.
You mix music and design—how do those two worlds influence each other?
Music, design, woodcraft, skateboarding—it’s all the same, in a way. No one asks you to do these things, you just feel compelled to.
Skateboarding teaches you that failure makes success more gratifying. Same with drawing—you create, but there’s also satisfaction in the act of creation.
Music has structure—measures, beats, tension, release. So does visual art—composition, contrast, balance. Both rely on contrast. You make a chorus hit harder by quieting the music before the drop. You make a character pop by darkening the background.
It’s all the same language. Everything has life to it.
What’s the most punk rock thing you’ve ever done?
Stopped calling myself a punk.
Breaking labels and self-identity is more rebellious than trying to earn a label. Nothing’s more un-punk than molding yourself to fit a scene—drink the right beer, wear the right band tee, think the right way.
I love my punks, but I’m just me. That’s the most punk thing I can do.
(And yeah, there’s some wtf stories—jail time, car crashes, scary drug shit. But that’s for another conversation…)
What’s a misconception about screen printing?
That the ink is paint.
Technically, you could print with paint. Or grape jelly. (Wouldn’t recommend it.)
People underestimate how much shit can go wrong—bad files, bad films, bad screens, bad exposure, bad emulsion. Every step has variables that can screw up everything downstream. One mistake and you’re redoing the whole process.
Screen printing is way more technical than people think.
What’s the wildest or most unexpected moment in your creative career?
The whole damn thing.
I started this journey by calling off work to check out a college while running a manual lathe in a factory. That led to winning the Tri-C showcase, turning my basement into a print shop, designing for the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, and now collaborating on a mural for the CAVS and Sprite with Glen Infante at MGK's 27 Club Coffee.
It’s not much to some, but to me? Unreal. And I'm still here as of right now, and going~!!!
How do you handle creative burnout?
Change of scenery. Disconnect. Go outside.
The digital world is designed to keep you entangled and distracted from your true essence. Gotta break the hypnotic spell—go into the woods, touch some grass, remember I’m just an animal on Earth. Be present.
You’re big on DIY. What’s something you’ve figured out on your own?
Built my print shop from scratch.
Hung drywall, built an alignment box out of hand-cut wood and plexiglass, modified a baker’s rack for screen storage, made my own office desk out of a live-edge oak slab. My wife and I upcycle furniture, refinished our floors, built our own garden setup.
Pops took off when I was a kid. Self-reliance is everything.
If someone wanted to understand your creative style, what should they check out?
That’s the vibe.
What’s next for you and Misled.media?
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Glen Infante Cavs + Sprite mural at 27 Club Coffee (spring/summer 2025)
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Heavy creation on new apparel + merch
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More squiggly lines and skuzzy noise
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Showing my face more, "getting public"
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Keep making a beautiful mess
And trying to stop and appreciate the trees every once in a while. Nature, or otherwise.