The Flower Boy Then V.S. The Flower Boy Now

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