Visionnaire- Artist

What is your creative mission?

To create art (audio and visual) at a high level.

What do you love about what you do?

First, the freedom to create whatever I want. Second, the self-healing therapy I receive from making art.

What have you learned from your successes/ failures?

The value of integrity. The peace in solitude. The simplicity of self-sufficiency. The power in anonymity.

How do you keep pushing ahead after a difficult challenge?

Identify, analyze, sleep. Wake up, process, act/execute objectively.

Have you ever encountered resistance from family, friends, or the world in general? How did you overcome those kinds of blocks?

There are always internal and external resistance and/or obstacles. I very recently had to step away from my old friends/collaborators. The sycophancy, misogyny, self-hate and (more importantly) my silent complicity were a breach of my integrity, and a contributing factor to my (thankfully temporary) retirement from music and my existential crisis.

The other obstacle I face is my depression (the most significant ‘block’) – originating from the bureaucracy of the arts and entertainment industry: the physical, racial, cultural and political checkers game within the game of chess we’re all playing. I believed I had no choice but to play, and each loss amounted to my perpetual self-doubt and existential pessimism. The former was a matter of honesty in a desperate situation.

I spent months in complete isolation – having no choice but to look myself in the mirror and identify my comfortability in my privilege as a man, deprogram myself, and make a difficult but necessary decision pertaining to who I wanted to be. My depression…I haven’t overcome it – don’t think I ever will. but there are small victories I experience through self-expression. Through music, I create backdrops of and for my angst, pain, anxiety, self-doubt, and whatever other negative (or positive) feelings I encounter. I cry a lot. I let my emotions ebb and flow as needed. And in the calm, I execute.

How has your art and creativity healed you?

Architecture, photography and visual art are the foundations of my psychological escape and creative process. Through these mediums I connect to an energy I can’t quite describe.I’ve hypothesized the sensation being a faint reconnection to past lives, or maybe aligning with the most spiritual part of my being through appreciating and drawing from these mediums.

In the creation of music, I meld the feelings I receive from the forms of art that inspire me and the emotions, memories or ideas I want to externalize or encapsulate, and I do my best to make something that embodies the moment in time I’m experiencing, be it past or present.

What are your NFA Bullet points? What steps would you recommend for anyone who wants to kick some ass and get their creative dreams off the ground?

Identify your definition of success.
Program yourself to be healthily selfish.
Recognize your pace and don’t move faster or slower than that.
Cherish the art you make, and those who are like-minded will cherish your work as well.

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