Going Viral During Virus Lockdown
Noah Ennis, Union, a 2019 graduate of St. Francis Borgia Regional High School, holds up one of his acrylic pour paintings, which are getting millions of views and likes on social media.
Union Artist Becomes TikTok Sensation With Videos of Acrylic Pour Paintings
By Karen Cernich Dickhut
Noan Ennis, Union, doesn’t feel any differently about his life now than he did at the start of the year, before he became a viral TikTok star.
The 2019 St. Francis Borgia Regional High School graduate is still enrolled at Truman State University in Kirksville where he’s studying to become a veterinarian, despite the fact that videos of him creating abstract acrylic pour paintings have received millions of views and likes on social media and led to deals with Michaels, Calvin Klein and Sony Masterworks.
What Ennis thought was going to be just 15 minutes of fame this spring when BuzzFeed, the popular internet news and entertainment site, reached out to him about featuring his videos on its social media, has continually been extended with another viral video or another major sponsorship.
On TikTok, Ennis currently as 111,000 followers and 1.9M likes. His most viewed video has 9.2M views, and he has three other videos with more than 1M views each.
All of this has led to increased sales of his paintings to a wider circle of customers. Over the summer Ennis sold more than 100 paintings to people living in 20 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Canada.
But he hasn’t let any of that success go to his head or alter his career plans.
“It’s crazy! All my friends tell me, ‘Oh, you’re viral on TikTok, you’re famous!’ But I don’t think of it that way,” Ennis said. “It’s fun to see where it’s going to go. I’m just doing it for fun.”
Takes Off With TikTok
Ennis, son of Lynn and Curt in Union, began creating abstract acrylic pour paintings more than two years ago when he was a senior at SFBRHS. He had never taken a painting class before, but he was inspired by photos of pour paintings on social media.
Ennis’ technique is simple: He layers his paint in a plastic cup and then pours it onto a canvas. He doesn’t use a brush, but rather lifts and shifts the canvas to move the paint around. He also sometimes uses his mom’s old hair dryer.
The trick, Ennis said, is getting the paint ratios right and pouring it on the canvas in the right way to create the pattern he wants.
Ennis suspects one of the reasons people
have responded so positively to his videos is that they are relaxing and strangely satisfying to watch. “I watch them all the time myself, if I’ve had a stressful day,” he said.
He realized there was potential to make money from his paintings after he sold quite a few at the 2018 Union Middle School Craft Fair and was one of 10 winners in the 2018 MetroScapes contest, a program of Metro Arts in Transit that showcases local artwork in bus shelters around the St. Louis metro area.
Ennis created an Instagram account to post photos of his artwork as a way to connect with potential customers, and earlier this year he joined TikTok, where he posted time-lapsed videos of himself creating paintings.
Five or six videos went viral and have more than 1 million views.
Ennis suspects one of the reasons people have responded so positively to his videos is that they are relaxing and strangely satisfying to watch. “I watch them all the time myself, if I’ve had a stressful day,” he said.
Ennis finds painting them to be relaxing too.
“I need to stop myself from painting a lot of the time. Often I’ll paint at night, and it will be midnight before I realize how late it is,” he said.
The popularity of his paintings could have been the result of timing — just as people were looking for something to help calm them from anxiety over the novel coronavirus this spring, Ennis was beginning to post his pour painting videos to TikTok.
But Ennis said he also thinks people are responding to the uniqueness of his paintings, the fact that no two will ever be exactly alike. That’s also part of why he loves creating them.
“I’m never going to be able to replicate any of these,” he said. “I can use the same paint colors and try, but it’s never going to look exactly the same as one I did before.”
Began With a Buzz
Folks at BuzzFeed noticed the attention Ennis’ painting videos were getting on TikTok, and in May an editor reached out to ask if they could feature his video clips on their channel.
“I was blown away,” Ennis remarked. “This huge platform with millions of followers across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, they reached out to a little bitty account like me. I was very honored.”
Ennis agreed, only asking that BuzzFeed give him proper credit. When he never heard anything back from them, he assumed their plans had changed. But several weeks later he received a message that they were working on getting his videos posted that week.
“And that Friday, as I was leaving work, I was scrolling through Facebook and saw it. I just stopped and thought, ‘This looks familiar. Oh, that’s me! Those are my paintings!’ ”
Already the video had 1.5M views after just being posted the day before.
“I was so shocked and super honored,” Ennis said.
Within days he was inundated with messages on social media from people wanting to buy his paintings.
Creates Videos for Michaels
Then about six weeks ago, Michaels, the nationwide arts and crafts store which has a location in Washington, reached out to Ennis to ask about having him create a couple of videos using their products. Once they agreed on the terms and he signed a contract, Michaels sent him all of the supplies he needed.
Ennis admits that previously he hadn’t been using Michaels’ paint (although he always used their canvases) because it was more expensive and he would have had to charge more for his paintings, but now he prefers it.
“It is very good paint, and I do find myself using it because I know how durable it is and how bright the colors are,” Ennis said.
Ennis’ contract with Michaels required him to make two videos, one which they would keep and promote and another that he could post. Michaels hasn’t released its video of his painting yet, but Ennis’ video for Michaels already has more than 60,000 views.
In the video he talks about how the colors look on the canvas and about the Michaels’ brand, how he likes their paint, the canvases, the pouring medium and the overall result of using Michaels’ product.
Ennis created these paintings for his TikTok videos for Michaels.
Calvin Klein, Sony Reach Out
Ennis recently received two more sponsorships for his art, one with Calvin Klein and another with Sony Masterworks classical division. He created two videos with Sony music.
The deal with Calvin Klein involved him wearing clothes from the brand in his videos, and Ennis extended the offer to his sister, Maddie. She took part in the videos, and so Calvin Klein was able to have both men’s and women’s clothing featured.
They filmed those videos a couple of weeks ago before Ennis returned to college, but nothing has been posted yet. Ennis is still waiting on approval from Calvin Klein.
What’s Next?
As his paintings have grown in popularity, Ennis has maintained the same painting technique he began with more than two years ago, although he has experimented with style and played around with new color combinations.
“I want to branch out from my comfort zone and see what I can push myself to do,” Ennis said. “The paintings I’ve done this summer I think have been some of my best work so far, because I’ve pushed myself with different styles and different sizes and colors.”
With school back in session, Ennis has put his paint away for the time being. He wants to focus solely on his studies. He’ll work on his artwork when he’s home in Union.
Ennis’ parents have been supportive of everything he’s doing with his artwork and laugh that they don’t know what to expect anymore.
“Anytime I bring anything up with painting, they are like, ‘Oh, my gosh! What’s it going to be this time?’ ” he said. “First it was the MetroScapes contest, and we were so amazed that happened, getting my art shown all over St. Louis for a year and winning $1,000. And then it was the BuzzFeed video and getting millions of views, all of the orders and how much I was shipping and selling my paintings, and then Michaels and Calvin Klein and these bigger brands were reaching out to me, this small, super young painter who does this for fun as a side gig while he’s in college.”
And while he doesn’t know what the future holds for his artwork, Ennis said at this point he’s certain he still wants a career as a veterinarian. Even if his paintings continue to surge in popularity and he continues to get sponsorships from major companies, painting will remain his side hustle.
“I love the idea of having a hobby that keeps me busy,” he said. “I don’t like sitting at home on the couch.”
To watch videos of Ennis’ paintings, search for him on TikTok. If you’d like to connect with Ennis to purchase some of his artwork, you can find him on Facebook at Noah Ennis Art or on Instagram at Art.You.Glad.I.Didnt.Say.Paint.