A DISCUSSION OF ART.
WHERE WE ARE. WHAT WE ARE.
In thinking on a passion for Art, I’m thinking on a passion—the passion—for expression. Expression is heavily dependent on identity just as much as creativity. What we identify ourselves as is just as important as what we identify ourselves with. There is not and cannot be any other distinction.
In this moment where things have winded down a bit, I’ve come to understand that identity is just as fluid as time itself. It can change with the wind where one moment is not and will never be like the ones before. With this knowledge—this very quiet knowledge—is then the wisdom to adapt and change ourselves. This is the true capacity of our power; to remove ourselves from our relative situations as to not become a product of them but to master them by mastering ourselves. Discipline and patience and temperance are akin to the kind of Fortitude one must need…but that fortitude is not standing as a rock or a pillar against the wind, it is to become unburdened and as light as a feather to move with the wind.
Water stays water whether its Frozen, liquid, or even hot up to the point where it might evaporate into the air only to become a part of everything else or condense enough to reappear as water again.
We stay motivated to created because of that surrounds us. We are products of the past leading up to the present full of hopes and dreams of what should come tomorrow. Coming out of and a lasting aspect of the 80’s, 90’s and 2000’s, we’re forever appreciative and acknowledge the importance of what informed and influenced us. Civil Rights, Hip Hop, Neo-Soul and R&B, Positive Black and Brown Images within media that reinforced principles and values to making things better for us all, we believe we got the best out of humanity. Because of that, we have the potential to being the best of humanity.
It’s not just about positive media of and about Black and Brown people, it also includes those of many races and classes and cultures around the world that stood to fight for Equality and Equity—Justice and Fairness. The Art that would inform the potential for a greater and innovative future came from many directions. Artists like Jean-Michael Basquiat, Nikki Giovanni, Cornel West, Erykah Badu, Dave Chappelle and James Baldwin have helped to shape a view and paradigm of the world encouraging all people to find purpose and meaning within their humanities. Families and friends. Inclusive work environments and those social scenes that welcomed and valued different perspectives on style, music, history and life. We live our lives within a richness that could never be denied. Diminished and distorted perhaps but never denied.
While commercialization has leveraged the use of ideas and concepts that do not always add to the progressive and innovative development of communities, we understand the importance of a place and space for people to grow and excel freely. We want to be or at least encourage places and spaces like that.
*I personally experienced the hood. I was, am still and will forever be a product of the dysfunction. I was born within the hood; the urban or urban-suburban economically and socially disadvantaged and challenged areas of Washington, DC. Southeast DC. I grew up programmed with thoughts of misogyny and a perverse priority on materials justifying my worth and therefore identity. I grew up with anger and sadness often left under appreciated and valued. I grew up abandoned and abused and left to fend for myself after being dismissed as just another Black Man—Black Boy—that would never matter or develop into anything or anyone of true significance or value. Fatherless, having moved around almost twelve times before turning 21. I gained the perspective that I didn’t matter. My ideas didn’t matter. The Blessing is that I eventually learned and experienced different. My life matters. My ideas matter. My efforts and intentions. I matter. I matter therefore others matter. You matter.
While never attending such high-end institutions such as Duke Ellington School of the Arts, I managed to attend The Art Institute of Washington. I made efforts to do something with the talent of art and design while working and even hustling my own side “business”. Cultivating the skill and craft for drawing, painting and graphic design resulted in experiencing Photography. Mixed with modest entrepreneurship, I gained a respect for all that I had been afforded even those difficulties and obstacles experienced within my childhood. Drawing my focus on Art and its impact upon my life and development, I came to prioritize the perspective of purpose and meaning within our actions and how what we do and create within this world adds to the potential and possibilities for tomorrow.
As my Spirituality is and has been a core of all that I strive do and accomplish, I strive to maintain a spiritual significance to all that’s created personally and professionally. Whether alone or in conjunction and collaboration with others, the significance of the Black, African and African American Spirit, Identity and Experience remains the strongest foundation of my creative ambitions and intentions. Bold and rich yet subtle and sophisticated, all that I and we create within Art, Design, Photography, Videography and Business must resonate with the mantra that has been defined and refined by my ongoing spiritual significance; “Intelligence. Ethnicity. Innovation.”
I am and strive to always be encouraged by my flaws, failures, errors and mistakes, dysfunctions and disadvantages as much and as well as my talents, gifts, skills, opportunities, successes, and advantages. Thru everything we operate within, we aspire, encourage and inspire for positive Change.
CONNECTED: A DISCUSSION OF ART
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