This post appears courtesy of New Market Wilm, who features a new blog about Downtown Wilmington each and every Wednesday! View the original post here.
The artist, muralist and 25-year-old phenom behind the “Inner Visions” show, currently making waves while on display at the baby grand, 818 N. Market St., talks about his art and his city.
“The concept of ‘Inner Visions’ was trying to find something from within, trying to go deeper within to connect to that essence that is beyond our physical awareness. All these things that have been happening to me the last two years, I’ve been searching for explanation for, because it’s too many coincidences, it’s too many things that came out of the woodwork at just the right time. Going deeper to look into that made me a more spiritual person.”
“I wanted to connect that with my art. How do I portray that feeling into ideas that people can understand? Once the concept clicked, they just manifested themselves in a way.”
“The last show that I did, a solo show, was at Eunice LaFate’s gallery, and that’s when my art first started to reach beyond Delaware a little bit. But I put this series online and I wish I could show you some of the cities that people are ordering this from. And it’s killing me because, on my website, I only put a small shipping amount – because I didn’t anticipate Pasadena, Vallejo, Chicago, East Lansing, Michigan, Atlanta, some other places in Georgia that I’ve never heard of, places I’ve literally never heard of. How are they finding me? It’s just on the Internet, it gets shared.”
[Lost In Translation]: “This was the first of the series, just about being inside, trying to figure out what’s going on in this world out here, you know what I mean? It’s like a puzzle because we live in a complex world, a very complex world. It seems very simple sometimes, like it should be very simple, but it’s so complex. I’m just trying to figure it out within my own essence.”
[The Journey] “This one, man, this one is called “The Journey.” What’s happening is we’re climbing up a ladder of ourselves as we get older, you know, to understand ourselves, to become better people essentially. Our main goal, or what I believe it should be, whether we know it or not, is to reach our highest potential. It takes a process of climbing yourself, getting through your own obstacles and climbing into the beyond, and that’s where our potential comes from, I believe. It comes from a place that’s deep within ourselves.”
“I was seeing all different kinds of people at the show – older white people, young black people, foreign people, I was seeing all different types of people in the bar drinking and looking at the art together. And I was like, wow, this is bigger than just me having the art show. It’s about the people connecting.”
“Wilmington, I think, is one of the most interesting places on the planet. I think it’s definitely affected who I am. On the surface, it seems very smalltownish, in a lot of ways, but some of the conditions here are so unique to not only places in the country, but to places in the world. People are forced to innovate in a lot of ways here that are very interesting, because for as small as it is, we all kind of know everybody. There’s super-rich people here, there’s super-poor people here, and they kinda know each other. It all melts together. There’s just something about that that I think is very powerful in a way. It has to become more cohesive. We haven’t found where to settle in yet, I don’t think. It’s getting there. It’s definitely getting there. All those different factions are still trying to figure out the identity of the overall thing, and that gives people some hope too, to make their name, to make their city and what they want Wilmington to be.”