SEEDS: Portraiture

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  

Taking the time to reflect and refine.

I took some time off. I guess I can’t really call it time off because I didn’t exactly stop working. I made a series of paintings, spent some time traveling and selling some older paintings that I had in my inventory. It was a slow time, intentionally. I needed to refocus, stop creating so much just to create and consider how I was shaping my future with what I was creating. I was feeling a little burn out, plus the work I was making was no longer interesting to me. Usually I would try harder to psych myself out or “get” myself back into the work, but I let it go and took it slow.

The Slow Burn

My work became uninteresting seemingly out of the blue. In 2023 we have unlimited access to information at our fingertips. I’m not one to purposely watch Netflix or scroll instagram for inspiration. The majority of my inspo comes from within.

Although I’ve always had the motivated and inspired spirit to create, I was missing the understanding of how to connect with others through my work.

Time and time again I would create a piece or a series and it seemed as if it would go right over everyone’s head. It left me feeling crazy and ultimately led me to seeking approval. I studied and learned what “everyone” liked to see an artist create. I lost my way and fell into the trap. I found what would get me the likes, comments and the reaction I was looking for. I became comfortable in that and started to feel like I was connecting with my audience. I wasn’t aware that this would completely kill my creativity and desire to create work that would help me connect with the world around me. I hated that. 

The Geographical 

I knew the best thing that I could do was to get out of my head and out of my space immediately. I booked a one way flight to Michigan, Moms house. There is something about relocating that always helps me recalibrate, especially at home. An environment where I first discovered that I needed to create. My Moms house is tastefully outfitted with some of my best and worst paintings. She knows she can always order a custom painting for free, so she leaves her basement open and available as my workspace whenever I decide to come to town. I spent three weeks in Michigan taking in the slow suburban pace, looking through old photos, watching movies, eating comfort food and cranking out one of 3 polyptychs, a 9 piece painting, that I sold to a new collector I met at the end of my stay. This was the first part of my “geographical”. It gave me some time to be at peace, collect my thoughts, and create with a similar energy I had when I was 15 years old. It’s interesting how much my environment affects what and how I create. When I was creating at home I was confident in my creative choices, I had no interest in outside input and I was sure I would find a buyer at my price by the time I was complete with my work. 

When my mission was complete in the Midwest I booked a one way flight to see my Brother Mose and now Sister in Law Jasmine in Manhattan. This was the catalyst. First off, the energy in Manhattan is insane to me. The way the city looks and moves is incredibly inspiring. I dropped my bags off at my brother's apartment on the East side and took off walking through the city. I walked aimlessly taking the city in through my camera lens. There were a few moments where I felt like I was in a stereotypical movie about New York City. I saw two guys pushing a massive painting across heavy traffic, the sunlight hitting them through the middle of two skyscrapers. I saw a girl in a brown sherpa coat walking 6 fluffy brown dogs, they were practically matching. I was sure I would see someone hoisting a piano up to the 9th floor of an apartment building next. I made my way to the Whitney Museum and took my time combing through the contemporary art wing. I had been in NYC for almost 8 hours and I was already juiced up and ready to create with a new approach.  

I had meaningful conversations with Jasmine and Mose about art, got to look at so many works by master painters and sculptors and learned the stories of many of the contemporary artists I admire. All of this helped me to focus my energy on a fresh and more refined take on my story. 

The Intensifying

When I arrived back in LA I was ready to create with more discipline, focus and energy. I was aware that I needed to use social media to my advantage but I made a choice to not be distracted by it. I now understand it as a tool to progress the visibility of my work. Before I left for Michigan I found a lot of joy in creating abstract paintings and patterns. I enjoy the feeling of painting unplanned. I had the idea to take that abstract style of painting and combine it with a basic figurative style. I had a clear vision of how this work would look and I knew that it would help me to articulate my narrative. At the moment the focus of my work is life painting. I am sharing my life, the people I surround myself with, my experiences and thoughts. I’ve found value in the specificity of a personal story and I no longer make artwork for anyone but me. My inspiration still comes from within, However now the goal of each work is rooted in how I can connect with each person's experience rather than their need to buy.   

-Von

I love color.

If you’ve seen my work it’s obvious. I’ve loved color ever since I was a kid. I always had the most vibrant sneakers, especially during the throwback era. I loved to match my throwback jerseys with my sneakers. My older brother would tease me because I never had a “normal” pair of sneakers that could go with anything. by that he meant I never had a pair of all white or black sneakers. No neutral color sneakers to wear with any outfit. I was drawn to the crazy patterned vibrant non-matching sneakers. I guess that’s how my love for color initially started to show up. It was always just there. Naturally, I’m drawn to colorful things. I didn’t begin to understand color until I went to Columbia College Chicago to study photography. During that time I learned all about the different elements of photography that could help to create a dynamic beautiful image. One of my favorite elements is color. 

Controlling the intensity of colors in an image is the most fun for me. To take that even further, controlling how those colors complement each other makes it even more satisfying. In my process, complementary colors are the key to creating something beautiful and aesthetically pleasing. Once I was able to understand how colors worked together then I was able to run with the color rules along with the ideas that I wanted to work out. At that point, I knew I would be able to create artwork that would be aesthetically pleasing. 

A color is only as prominent as the colors relative to it.

All colors are relative to the colors they’re presently next to. It’s all about the overpowering or under powering of the current color combination. When I’m making a painting I always consider this rule. When beginning the painting process I prefer to default to contrasting colors that usually compliment each other. When I’m choosing those complementary colors I’m often drawn to choosing colors that are opposite each other on the color value scale. I normally choose two vastly different color values while keeping them generally complementary. I want the stark contrast. I enjoy the science of color and love to experiment with unlikely color combinations. My overall goal is to create something aesthetically pleasing as well as thoughtful and engaging.

Once I was able to understand color palettes and the manipulation of color, then I was able to use my own system to create customized color palettes. Now, here’s the fun part. I’ve created a process where I design each original painting digitally. I form the perfect digital composition and select all of the colors 

that I will use digitally. I then take those cover values and then plug them into my Behr color app. The color match function gives me an exact color ID and from there I can go to any store that offers Behr paint and have that color produced exactly as seen on my computer screen. Now I have an exact layout of what colors I’ll be using and a road map for exactly how I will execute the painting. This makes the actual painting process 100 times easier because now I don’t have to think about the infinite creative choices I could potentially make when painting. They’ve already been thought out and planned. Now all I need to do is execute the painting.

Choosing the right colors in a painting make the difference in how aesthetically pleasing the artwork will be. In my opinion it doesn’t really matter what you’re painting. Now take this statement with a grain of salt, because what I really mean is if you start with colors that compliment each other you are destined to create something that is aesthetically pleasing. Most times when someone looks at painting for the first time. The first thing that they notice is usually the color of the art. They will usually mention something about how the colors go together. It could be a painting that is boring to look at or could it could be a painting with a negative subject matter. All in all the color will be the first thought and the subject matter will be the second. 

-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

This painting always reminds me of the saying “one thing leads to another”. That holds true pretty much for the majority of my projects. I get hundreds of ideas a day, most of those ideas I’ll write down. Others, I won’t and only a small percentage of those ideas actually get completed (I did notice that the ideas that I do write down almost always end up becoming a completed project). This painting is called “Face to Face” and actually has a really cool story. It was an idea that I had back in 2019 and it’s kind of how I made my way to the new experimental portraits that I am creating currently. The portrait came about when I got the idea to move into portrait painting. Before that I had been painting anything and everything but had not yet chosen a focus. I have a BFA in photography and spent my time studying  photojournalism while I was in college. I looked at a lot of street photography and photo essays (a lot of true, raw, in the moment, unedited photography). This was my course load and after a while I got a little bit bored. I wanted something different and I was drawn to portraiture and studio photography. Working in the studio you get to make a photo the way you see it in your head or how you want to see it. You have 100% control over your images and subject matter. It was a nice change of pace for me and a big contrast from street photography or “Documentary Photography” because when you are taking photos in a documentary way, what you see is what you get. Also, you want to try to keep that image as true as possible. Now, it’s only going to be as true as what’s inside of the frame. That is the only context you have without an explanation. Whatever is happening in that little rectangle is what is true in that moment. All of that led me to my want to take portraits and eventually paint portraits.

I started by looking at work from photographers that I admired. The goal was to find images that I thought were lit amazing and had amazing composition. I was always looking for something unusual. I had gone to school with lots of amazing photographers so I decided to check out some friends that I studied with and see what they were working on. I stumbled on new work from one of my good friends Bianca Garcia. She is a fashion and music photographer and has a large portfolio of beautiful portraits. I looked through her portfolio and I saw this image of these two women with their faces transposed together. I thought “oh wow this would be really cool for me to paint”. Now, at this point in 2022 I would just grab that image from the internet and paint it without asking. However, I was just starting and Bianca is my friend and I thought “maybe I should ask her if I could paint this picture”. I thought “I don’t know if there are the terms or if she had a contract or something like that”. So, I asked her she said yeah. Great. So I went to paint this picture and just kind of went for it. I remember it was the first time I would be doing a portrait like this. I was really obsessed and gripped by it. I stayed up all night painting and I remember having no idea what I would call it. As I was posting it on Instagram at 6 AM, a song by Daft Punk popped up called “Face to Face”. This immediately resonated with me. I always like to explain how my artwork is a reflection of who I am and what I’m going through at the time. When I was making this painting I was at a crossroads of sorts. I was facing myself as as an artist and coming face to face with decisions of really defining what I want to do with my art. The original “Face to Face” painting was initially on dictionary paper and it was a diptych. It was two canvases put together it stood vertically but the horizon line connected both canvases. The dictionary paper was a kind of driving the point of defining oneself and so that was the inspiration behind the painting. I had a lot of fun making this painting and I got a lot of really good feedback. I got so much good feedback I thought “Wow!, Yeah!, Great!, Cool!, this art is about the sell immediately!” But no, it didn’t sell immediately. It actually took about three years to sell it. That was so interesting to me.

I can get impatient sometimes. At the time I thought “OK I got a lot of interest but it didn’t sell so it must not work”. So I moved away from these types of paintings and started to do other things. It wasn’t until my cousin hit me up and said “Hey, I really like this painting and would like you to do something like this for me and my boys”. I said “OK cool! this sounds like a cool project, let’s do it”. I got everything I needed from my cousin and created “The Three Canvas”. That ended up being another really good painting for me that really shined a light on my creativity and gave this style of portraiture some momentum. It was so interesting to see that it all started with the “Face to Face” canvas that moved into a custom commission and then that turned into more of a commercial sales channel for these types of portraits. I now I can take images given to me by each family, digitally assemble them together and create these really cool colorful portraits. 

So yes, one thing does lead to another and another and another. The thing that I find so inspirational about his phrase is that it’s so simple. If you have the courage and confidence to begin it will then lead you to where you ultimately want to be… eventually. 

-Von

Building a brand is extremely difficult. When I first started the Flower Boy I had a specific goal in mind. It was to introduce the universal concept of spiritual mental and physical growth. If you were there with me when this all started, you were able to see where I’ve been with the brand and art that I created. I imagine some of you have continued to follow where I’m going with the brand and the new artwork that I am creating. If you are new to my journey, Welcome. I want you to know you have joined me at the perfect time and things are starting to get really good. 

The initial goal of The Flower Boy is still intact. Although my focus has changed in the content and subject matter of my art. I still feel that I’m on track just as I was when I first began. At that time, I was in a place of exploring my sobriety and growing out of a place of shame. I was beginning to become more comfortable with who I am as a sober person and artist. At that same time I was  building a brand that I wanted people to connect with on a personal level. I wanted others to gain awareness around their connection with spirituality and specifically growth in all situations. My aim was to share my story in hopes that I could connect through vulnerability. It was effective, but in the process I learned that it’s not all about hitting pain points and airing out dirty laundry to connect. It’s more about being human and understanding that there are challenges that we all face as we grow. That there may be mistakes along the way that we have to overcome. The challenging piece of this revelation is that we may need to go back over and over until we win the situations that feel “unwinable”

(yes I made that word up). 

I create art to speak to and connect with a broad audience. However, This work is personal and really about me. So, the flower faces that I created over the past 2 years were a direct reflection of what I felt and what I was going through at the time. I knew that I was facing major life changes and I felt that I didn’t know my identity as an artist. I was also still finding my identity as a sober person. The flower face is a direct representation of that feeling. It is a metaphor for the specific growth of my identity. Because the subject has no facial features, you can’t identify them. You can only identify the growth by how big and overgrown the flowers are. That’s really how I felt at the time. I felt that I couldn’t really see myself, I could only see how I was growing in these different ways. Now, as I’ve gone through that season I’m in a place of understanding who I am and I can see myself clearly. I can understand what I do and am meant to do as an artist. I can also understand what The Flower Boy brand is about. Now I’m focusing more on what the faces of each subject looks like and what my face looks like. It’s the season of clarity. The understanding of identity and how those identities are faced with troubles. How they deal with the duality that comes with life. I am now exploring the idea that our minds are always split. We want to do the good thing that most times is more difficult and is not as fun. We also desire what is more fun and pleasurable, but could be bad or harmful to us. We want to do what we know will be selfless and beneficial for others, but also help ourselves selfishly as much as we possibly can. This is the idea that I am drawn to now. Even though these ideas differ from each other. They are all encompassed in the universal idea of growth. I am happy about the direction I’m heading now because I can see how the brand is growing, how the business is growing and how my faith is growing as I continue to push forward.

-Von