SEEDS: Maria Brophy

You Were Created To Create

The Best of the Best

From the very start I’ve always wanted my artwork to be masterful. I wanted to have the highest quality artwork on the highest quality canvas, with the highest quality paint created with the highest quality brushes and tools. This idea made me cringe at the work that I created early on. I felt like the work was inferior because I didn’t have the best of the best. It even slowed me down when I was in the process of planning a new series I wanted to paint. I would wait so long trying to save up money to buy all of the top of the line materials. Eventually, I caved and I’d end up creating with materials that were in my budget. This wasn’t ideal at all. I was spending so much time trying to save money and find ways to afford the highest quality materials. It wasn’t until I started to study artists that I admired who would change my perspective on this. 

The Art of Freestyle

I grew up in a Hip-Hop household. Ever since I can remember I’ve been listening to old school Hip Hop with my Dad. He introduced me to groups like The Sugar Hill Gang and Afrika Bambaataa. He’s an old head so that’s the best that he could do at the time. My oldest brother, who is six years older than me, was a DJ. I can remember getting off of the school bus in front of our house to the sound of him spinning 2000’s Hip–Hop records. He introduced me to B.I.G, Nas, Ludacris, Nelly and a whole lot of other artists. I remember reading XXL and The Source Magazines and seeing all of the images that each of these artists were portraying. Most of them having an urban look and the environments that they were either being photographed in involved graffiti the majority of the time. At some point I’d come to learn that graffiti and Hip-Hop went hand in hand. They both originated as art forms fueled by self expression and community connection. They were largely created by an underrepresented and disenfranchised people to bring awareness to the rest of the world about their plight. 

In Graffiti all someone would really need is a can of spray paint or something to write with. Yes, most of us recognize Graffiti as specific ‘Tags’ or names combining multiple colors and layers to create a ‘piece’, but the earliest creators of Graffiti were able to express themselves with just one color in the most basic styles. 

In Hip-Hop all you really need is your voice. Yes, Hip-Hop is made up of Beats, Rhymes, Dance and general style overall. However, If you look at the earliest creators in Hip Hop it came down to beat boxing and rhyming off the top of their heads with raw vocals. 

The thing that I find most fascinating about Hip-Hop and Graffiti is the speed in which the artists create. They both involve the art of freestyle, designing ‘songs’ and ‘pieces’ off the top of their heads using words and rhythm. The freestyle is a combination between subconscious and conscious creation. What comes out says a lot about the artist. Who they are, what they’ve been through and their current perspective on the world. Looking at these mediums through a fine art lens both stand out to me as forms of expressionism. Freestyle is exactly what it sounds like. There are no rules or boundaries, just freedom.

Be Like Basquiat

There is a long list of artists that inspire me. I’ve taken time to study them all. I’ve looked closely at their work wherever it was available. Online and in books, I’ve even traveled to see some of them in person. I’ve read biographies and adopted perspectives and philosophies that I felt I could benefit from in my own art practice. Jean-Michel Basquiat is somewhere at the top of that list. Maybe top 5. What I admire most about Basquiat is his ability to create with such freedom. He lived his life as a creator and it seemed to radiate as his sole purpose. Looking at his work over the years I had many questions. Why was it so chaotic and random? What materials did he use? Why was he painting on so many different objects? I learned that he created as much artwork as fast as possible because he believed that he would die young. He wasn’t concerned about how the work looked. He just created because he felt he needed to at all costs. He painted on old doors and refrigerators, walls and Football helmets. Anything he could get his hands on. His materials were “whatever wherever”. This guy is truly inspiring to me. Understanding the way he created changed my practice and my outlook on creating as a whole. 

Vessel

For all practicing artists,

Through my “thinking and trying” I have been pushed to “doing and being”. We all are born with a talent to create. We don’t know why, we just are. Our creator gave us this skillset and talent to carry out a greater plan. With that we must create because we are the vessel for our particular creation. How the world sees it, understands it, and uses it is out of our hands. So, in my opinion, we should stop thinking about what we can do or should do. Stop trying to do something we think will be received well and instead do what we feel and be who we are. This takes the sting out of the feeling of needing more to accomplish what we think we cannot accomplish without the extra tools or products. Use what you have, like Basquiat. As corny as this is about to sound it is absolutely true. We all have a super power as creatives, because we have the ability to create something from nothing. When we use all of ourselves without limiting our work to a specific societal standard or quality of tools & products. That super power becomes unstoppable, there is no kryptonite for the uniqueness of your human experience coming through your work. You have everything you need to create what you are on earth to create. So use what you have, be a vessel for your creation and let it be and do what it is supposed to be and do for others.

-Von  

Burn the ships, Then sink or swim.

“If I can save up enough money, I can have the show that I want. If I can have the show that I want, I can show the world my perspective. If I can show the world my perspective, everything will change for me.” This is how I used to think until I realized these “IFs” were limiting my expectations and affecting my actions. 

This is an exercise in language. 

Get The Paint On The Canvas

When I decided I wanted to be a painter, I just said “I am a Painter”. At that point I hadn’t even put any paint on canvas. I vividly remember the day I saw an art related post on social media that inspired me. I got up, ordered an uber and headed to the art supply store. With less than $100 to my name and I spent it all on 2 small canvases, a few paint brushes and a variety of paints. I think I picked five colors. It may seem like a lot for less than $100 but at the time it was Aaron Brothers and they were going out of business, so I cleaned up. When I got home I started researching how to paint. Looking for a step by step video or some kind of instructional on how to paint. I spent about three hours looking for something to guide me. I’m sure the thought was something like “If I can find a good how-to video, then I’ll be off to a good start. I never found a video. It wasn't an option for me, I needed to be the painter that I decided to become so I just started. That day my motto to myself became “Get the paint on the canvas”. I remember painting until 3AM that next morning. Taking my time and thinking through the work that I was creating while listening to Anderson Paak. This was the start of my journey as a painter.

Three years later, I’m in the same apartment. I gained some pretty cool accolades, a few thousand dollars of art sales under my belt, and an understanding of what I want out of my art practice. My dream was to have a stand alone studio. I would meet new people and refer to my apartment as my studio. It technically was because it was a studio apartment, but I knew the truth. I wanted a painting studio so badly because I felt like it would make me a real professional painter. Thinking “if I could get a studio, my practice will go to the next level”. I would be able to work way bigger and experiment with a variety of tools and materials in the space. This stayed on my mind and hoped that I could grow my practice enough and make enough art to help me obtain my dream of having a “real working studio”. So, I set out to do just that. I created a brand and a company, found ways to connect people with artwork and constantly shared my story hoping that these actions would catapult me to the highest of heights. When I was young a mentor told me to write my goals down. I learned that writing down my goals helped me to gain clarity and specificity, while serving as a reminder of what I wanted whenever the process became difficult. So, I had a checklist going:

• Get 2,000 instagram followers ✅
• Sell a painting for $500 ✅
• Get my art into a Gallery ✅
• Show my art 20 times in public ✅
• Get a studio space
• Sell a painting for $1,000 ✅
• Show at 3 Major Art Fairs
• Art Basel
• Get my Artwork on TV ✅
• Generate $100,000 worth of business

… And so on.

I was doing it. I started, it was working and I kept on going. Three more years pass and Boom, a moment of clarity.

Burn The Ships

I became what I said I would be. I was a painter. Expressing myself through my work, sharing it with other people and I was lucky enough to earn some decent money in the process. I checked off a handful of goals, but there were still a lot of goals that were unchecked. “Get a studio space” was staring right at me. At this point I knew that I'd become a more refined artist. I had proven to myself that I could do this over and over. I needed a studio space if I was to grow and scale what I had created. I was living my dream and I had no doubt in my mind that I would obtain everything I’ve ever wanted and more.

With so much confidence in myself and my ideas, I had a clear vision of what my life and practice would look like. As always doubts crept in. Maybe I wouldn't get a studio. Maybe I would just work out of wherever I was living forever. Maybe that was the best choice. I put so much effort attempting to get a studio but I didn’t know how I’d do it. The vision of how things could be wasn’t enough, I needed to stop hoping I’d hit my goal of getting that studio that I’d wanted for so long and  make it happen. Thinking back to the day that I decided I was a painter. I remember firmly making the choice and "burning the ships". I left myself painting as the only option. Remember, I spent my last dollar on art supplies. I depended on the sale of those small canvases to pay my rent and feed me! I was so inexperienced, when I think back on it now I realize just how insane and risky making a decision like that is. 

Looking back over my checklist and thinking back to the day that this all started empowered me to take control, make a firm decision and yet again, burn the ships. At this time I was living in an apartment in Glendale that I hated. Again, I was running my business and creating large amounts of artwork from that apartment. It was the end of my lease and I decided, the next place that I pay rent will be a working art studio. I started my search for the perfect studio immediately. I found a few that I liked. Then, one in particular that stuck out to me. I’d seen this space before on Facebook Marketplace and reached out to them two years prior, but got no response. So I took another shot and I got a response the next day. I went to see the space and right then and there I knew it would be the new home of Flower Boyy Studio. The price was right and the location was right. The studio itself was clean and spacious with all of the natural light that I’d need. I paid the deposit and rent and within a week I was completely moved into my first studio. 

Check

Sometime during my first month of working in the studio I found the time to revisit my checklist.

• Get a studio space ✅

Staring at me again was the line that read “Get a studio space”. I checked it off the list and added a few more items. My studio and it is everything I expected and more. I wanted it so badly, I was patient and I learned that it wasn’t so hard to obtain after all. Half of me believes that things that we desire most have a divine timing and happen when they are supposed to instead of when we want them to. The other half of me believes that we have the power to obtain whatever it is we want as long as we are open to receiving it. We tend to get in our own way and limit our capacity to turn our ideas, wants, visions and dreams into a tangible reality.

This is an exercise in language and thought.

“I think therefore I am” is a quote I live by daily, but I like to take it a step further and say “I speak therefore I am”. Whatever we think about is what we talk about and whatever we talk about manifests itself in our reality. When I began painting it’s all I could think about and talk about. I was always looking for opportunities to paint something, practice and become a better painter. I would have visions of myself drafting invoices, speaking at gallery events, delivering artwork to collectors homes and the general public recognizing my brand. About five years into painting I remembered how I spoke what I wanted to be and began being it. 99% of the time it is just that simple. While my thoughts run wild with possibility, these days I find myself very aware of my language. “IF’s” become “When” when I begin to believe it. I speak my reality and what I want my reality to become. Sometimes the things that I say can sound delusional to some, but I speak what I believe. Sometimes I speak what I wish I would believe and secretly I think that I eventually will if I say it enough. 

-Von     

When I first began this art thing or whatever you want to call it. I guess it would be selling art or making art professionally. Basically, treating my art like a business. When I first started this, all I had was ideas and a little bit of skill. As I started to create more and think about what I wanted to do with my art, I realized I didn’t have much of a direction. I spent time thinking of a way to make a clear path for my career but I was unsuccessful because I had no reference for a standard. I immediately began to scour the internet for resources. I wanted a black and white “How To”. As I searched the web I also spent time reaching out to other artists, shooting my shot at galleries and potential clients. I came to find that there’s no right way to do it. The art world as a whole is made up of many little individual art worlds, the individual artist’s wold. I found out that it works differently for everyone. Every individual artist needs to do the work for themselves and figure out how their art works in the industry as a whole. It’s based off of your artistic voice. Your voice is determines what your art looks like and what your art is saying. When I realized this I came to understand that there’s no “How To”, no outline, no roadmap. I have to create my own plan and roadmap that works for me. In the building of my roadmap I found these three resources combined, amongst others, to be the staple of my ever evolving roadmap. In combination with other resources, videos and conversations I’ve had. I use these books to create a simple plan that I follow daily.

 This first book that I stumbled into is called “Find Your Artistic Voice” by Lisa Congdon.

As a start I wanted to get a general understanding of what an artistic voice is. I was interested in standing out and understanding my style. Once I got into the reading I gained a lot of insight into how that all works, how you find your voice. I was lead to this book because I felt I needed clarity. We can all agree that the art world can for the most part can be very vague and general. There’s not a lot of clarity for new artists trying to navigate the art world. I think a lot of new artists spend a lot of time making things and trying to figure out what they’re doing. Sometimes, arguably the majority of the time, we procrastinate. We don’t actually make the work because we don’t know what we’re doing, where we’re going, or if it will work. It can easily feel like a waste of time if we create something that doesn’t fit in with all of the other things that we’re creating. Anyway, that was a least my experience and I know a lot of others that can relate to this type of process. I really enjoy this book because of the light it sheds on the process of pinpointing and defining your artistic voice. Really what makes up an artistic voice. Here’s a spoiler. Generally, it’s really a handful of things. It comes down to skill, style, medium and subject matter. Those things can be as simple or complex as you want them to be. It could be as simple as the color red is an amazing vibrant color. Or as complex as American society was created to serve white men. This was a major piece of information that helped me to understand what my artistic voice is. It also helped me to shape my voice and my style. Once I became aware of what I was naturally saying then I could lean in. So I came to find my voice and style but only after the brutal, painstaking process of making what seemed like an endless amount of paintings. This was prompted from a list that Lisa shares in the book. It is 10 steps to building artistic skill. Here it is:

1. Begin
2. Practice 
3. Keep showing up 
4. Practice more
5. Stretch yourself 
6. Practice 
7. Practice 
8. Note your improvement 
9. Practice more
10. Repeat

5 of these 10 steps are practice. This is the real key to finding your artistic voice and building artistic skill.

The next book is “Art, Money, Success” by Maria Brophy

Now it was kind of a natural occurrence or a natural flow of thinking because once I had a good understanding of my voice I need to figure out how and where to sell my work. I went on a quest for resources that would tell me: How to market my work and How to sell my work. By default I think most artists have an idea that you should sell your work in a gallery. Or give your work to someone you can “Take care of that for you”. Well, this book helped give me perspective on how and where I could and should sell my work. It sheds light on different ways to sell your art and ways to make multiple streams of income from selling one painting or art piece. Maria Brophy does a good job of giving the reader a broader perspective on how to sell artwork. It gave me confidence in the fact that I could sell my own art and I didn’t have to depend on some entity, gallery or some kind of backing to successfully sell the art. For me this book has become a really valuable resource because it gives real life examples and suggestions on how an artist can get themselves out of their studios and into the public eye. Most of the principles in this book are rooted in basic sales techniques. I also find this book really helpful because it takes into consideration the idea that not everyone is great at selling and not everyone has the personality to get out there and go talk to hundreds of people. I think there is an art to picking up the phone and calling 500 people. It is not easy. This is understood so, Maria is sensitive to that fact and offers alternative ways to make this option feasible for all artists. She gives examples of thinking outside of the box and creating some kind of system where you could have someone else do it for you. You need to know how to do everything or be able to do everything. You just need to know how to do your job, which is making art. Now, because your art is a business you don’t have to do it alone. You just need to create a plan and start to work the plan and if need be recruit others who can help you to successfully execute the plan. Again, your art is a business! If you don’t treat it like a business, the chance of you growing financially is slim. If that isn’t your goal then sure, you can be successful sharing your work, having your work displayed, you can even win awards. It’s all up to you. I refer to this book every month. Constantly it feels like. I can’t even tell you how many times I refer back to this book, but I’m always reading it and I’m always looking for new ways to adapt what Maria is saying to my art business and my life. “Art, Money, Success” is a really great resource in combination with “Find Your Artistic Voice”.

Lastly, “Aesthetic Intelligence” by Pauline Brown.

Now, I actually found this book by mistake. It was definitely a ‘What you’re looking for will find you’ situation. I was hanging out at a friends house and I need to go to the bathroom. So I’m walking through the house trying to find the bathroom and I ended up walking into a roommates bedroom. Normally if I walked into the wrong room I would just turn around. this time was different. I saw this really cool Mid-Century modern bookshelf and all of these fashion books. Weirdly enough I started to look at these books and I saw this book called “Aesthetic Intelligence”. I thought ‘wow this book sounds really interesting’. I just want all of the information, I want to be smart so anything dealing with intelligence, I’m in. I read the first page and from there I was hooked. I got the book for myself and boom. The icing on the cake. “Aesthetic Intelligence” is the completion of the Holy Art Trinity. For me the combination of these books work so well as a crash course to creating, selling and presenting art in a polished professional way. This a great read because it talks about the art of aesthetics; how the biggest global brands have mastered the aesthetics of what they do and their origin stories. This book helped me to gain a better understanding of what I want my brand to be, what I want my brand to say and how I want the brand to look. It also gave me some insight onto some things that I could do to make my brand stand out and expand the customer experience from initial purchase to opening the package. Pauline Brown drives points on principles rooted in brand image, brand identity and most importantly the little nuances of your customer experience that personally communicates to customers. I highly recommend this book. It continues to be a really helpful resource for me as I start to now build out a bigger, broader and more cohesive roadmap. 

Now, if you know me you know I rant and rave about these books. They seriously changed my life and the direction of my art career. Before I read them, I was making a lot of artwork, but I had no idea what I was doing. I was walking around like a chicken with my head cut off. I had no direction. Therefore, I had nothing to focus on. Just a lot of ambition and a lot of creativity. With that, I will continue to encourage artist who are trying to grow their brand, show and sell their artwork. pick up these books and read them because these resources can really help you to sharpen brand of your artwork to a clear direct point. 

All in all, The Holy Art Trinity of these books have become my have become the base of my roadmap and they have helped me to successfully grow my business, sharpen my skills and tell the origin story of my brand in a clear and direct way. I’ve noticed that as long as I continue to refer back to these materials I can see improvements in my business as a whole every year. 

-Von