Building an Arts Impact Community

Artist. Political Scientist. Activist. 

Art is in the story. Like…what led you to make this.

I’m low key obsessed with hunter gatherer cultures. 

Our Ancestors. 

They too were making Art. 

There were no funders, private galleries, or elite auctions. 

They were leaving their print. 

Saying I too was here. I felt too. I expressed too.

Telling their story. 

Controlling their narrative. 

So that King Kxndi 80,000 years later would understand them a likkle bit more. 

Art is a time stamp. 

Of who, what, where, when, why. 

It’s like a scream,or tears. a punch. a laughing fit. a scar. a fart. 

Feelings that had to come out. 

Art is an emotion, a feeling, an experience, an expression externalized. 

It’s internal, externalized. 

So how do we measure that? 

What are we measuring? 

Most of all…why are we measuring?

Art is like beauty. Well, it is beauty. 

Actually, it’s more than beauty. A lot more than beauty. 

And that’s the issue. 

Humans started measuring beauty and now we have a standard. 

The same happened to Art. 

A standard of Art that mostly revolves around beauty instead of emotional power exists now. 

And all this has me, an Artist pressed. 

Westernization, colonization made Art basic. 

Let’s make Art deep again. 

We know that the standard of beauty is impossible to achieve because beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 

Meaning, we’re a lot more than looks. We’re whole humans behind the looks. 

Like beauty, what we know as the standard for Art is impossible to achieve bc Art/beauty/ emotional power is in the eye of the beholder. 

Again, meaning the Art is a lot more than the look/image in front of you. 

There’s a whole person behind the Art. 

If it is our experiences, our identities, who we are…our whole selves that shapes how we perceive the world,

then it is those same things that shape how we see Art. 

To place a value on this is kinda fucked up. 

Low key impossible.

However, in a capitalist society. 

This makes sense. Nonsense makes sense. 

Harm, especially self harm makes sense in the supremacist world we live in. 

Things are measured in good/bad & makes money/does not make money.

The end. 

Humans love to classify things … especially as good or bad. 

Even to their own detriment.

Example… Emotions.

We now have good emotions and bad emotions. 

When truly there are no bad emotions. 

Emotions just are. 

…Like Art. 

There is no bad Art. 

Art just is. 

And we have forgotten/are forgetting how to let Art Be. 

Because we don’t know how to Be. 

Western values don’t let anyone/anything Be. 

So how could Art Be?

Now, present day… because Art has a standard of measurement, it has become classist/elitist. 

Only certain Artists/Art make it to being seen. 

And only certain people get to see/buy what is considered good Art. 

What if we created a world where everyone/ anyone is an Artist. 

A world that recognizes Art is as innate as breathing. 

Then made sure that those that wanted their Art to be seen would be supported to go as far as the Creator wanted it to. 

Not everyone wants their Art to be seen. 

Not everyone wants to be a gallery Artist. 

Not everyone wants to be Basquiat.

But we should make sure that everyone is an Artist.

That everyone learns and uses this tool of expression. 

That everyone has access to this tool of expression. 

That everyone is Free to express. 

By taking away the standards and elitism. 

Art can Be for everyone. 

Art can Be anywhere. 

Art can Be everywhere. 

It could be normalizing graffiti on kitchen walls, murals on government buildings, street Art in school hallways. 

Reimagined colonial structures, more home made fashion, variety of style, funky store fronts, less corporate dundas/times square and more local Art, vibrant streets,kindergarten spoken word to edgy sounds in parks/public spaces. 

These are 0.0000000008% of the possibilities of where Art could go when it goes to the people. 

When it is not “measured”

When it is Free. 

I’d Love to see Art set Free.

freed from colonial/western chains.

I’d Love to see Art decolonized. 

By taking away the standard of Art, the classism/elitism imposed on Art is lifted. 

And..

Art becomes for/by everyone. 

Art becomes for/by Anyone. 

As it should be. 

Free Art means Anyone can express themselves as they choose and have it seen by as many or as few people as they wish. 

That their Art can be seen by the whole world if they so want. 

Art is creation and no man can/should stop and or hinder it. 

On God, only the Creator determines the path/destiny of the Created. 

I had to google the definition of Freedom. 

Wild. 

Freedom: the power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint.

Art has the power to act, speak or make us think as it wants. 

The hindrance comes from gatekeepers that decide what Art gets to act, speak or make us think. They determine the venue, the audience and the accessibility. 

Lol. So weird eh. 

Gatekeeping art is like gatekeeping imagination. 

Low key like gatekeeping breathing.  

Art is inherently Free. It’s everywhere. It’s in everything. It’s ON everything. 

Society is actually over-saturated with Art. 

But that’s sort of like saying Earth is over-saturated with oxygen. 

Art is human expression. And we express…a lot. 

Because we experience..a lot. 

At some point in human history classism/categorizing showed up to decide which art qualified as *chefs kiss* Art and good ole’ just being a human doodling art. Separated the masters of fine arts from the kindergartener masterpieces. 

To create niche. Upper echelon art. 

Capitalism. White supremacy. Patriarchy. You know, the 3 usual contenders showed up. 

Each one taking a bite out of Lady Arts Freedom. 

Eventually it is all but gone. 

Once “rules” are applied to Art. Once boundaries are created for Art. 

The environment becomes oversaturated with basic.

The same old same old being seen. No more effort. No diversity. No muses. No DreamZZzz.

No Magik. No  inspiration. No  room for exponential growth. For innovation. For BIG change.  

Art and then Culture becomes oversaturated with mediocrity. 

And yeah sure, people breathing in smog are still grateful they are breathing. 

But I bet they are dying for a breath of fresh air. 

In a world full of mediocre art, free radical art is the breath of fresh air. 

When Art is free it’s allowed to be seen wherever it deserves to be seen. It’s allowed to carry its message to the audience it chooses. It’s free to transform the Souls of those destined to be transformed. 

The Gatekeepers are afraid. 

That allowing new, innovative, radical Free Art, there won’t be room for their old ways of Art’ing that they have done for so long. 

And they’re right. 

In Creation there is destruction. Old ideas must lie to make room for new ideas. 

Those old Art’ing ways paved the way for this radical Art to thrive. 

MFA’s might not have a seat here. Indigenous Art must have a seat here. 

Fighting the inevitable tide only makes it harder. 

The change is already here. 

Like humans, putting gates, boundaries, rules only makes Art  hungrier for Freedom.

Like humans, Art /Human expression  won’t be  chained/hidden forever. 

Like humans, if some Art is not Free then all Art is not Free. 

And the Free Art will eventually find one another. 

Piece by Piece. 

They will pop up in the right spaces. 

For the right amount of time. Hours, minutes, days.  And eventually the gatekeepers will have no control because the Art will pop up in areas outside the gatekeepers control. 

And eventually either the gatekeepers will give in. 

Or the gatekeepers will self-destruct making all these rules.

Or Art will start a revolution. 

A rebellion. 

&

Art will win… taking society by storm. 

&

Free art will Free more Art. 

Inspo: AITO and a convo with Mark Sandiford.