Suprise collab/ Detroit Artist Collective show

The summer season is kicking off, and it’s a great time to be an artist in the city. I was fortunate to be apart of an art show with my Detroit Artist Collective fam, and making some banger art with new friends!

The Detroit Artist Collective is a group started by the homies Evan & Kayla. Recognizing a need for artist to network and share resources, these two golden souls took it on themselves to create a network of artist from varying stages of their artistic journey. Each artist has a different skills and mediums, and we meet once a month to talk about projects, ask for advice, and just kick it in general. The group is still in its infancy, but after a few months we finally put together our first group show at Vamanos in Southwest Detroit. We might have had about 40 artist in the show, of a collective of about 100.

The show itself was more than impressive, considering they had next to no budget, and other various personal challenges. The venue was nice and accommodating, featuring art and music from members in the group. I see a lot of potential in this group, and I’m glad to be included. Unfortunately I didn’t stay at the show too long. I was exhausted from filming the mini-documentary I’ve got going (more on that at another time.) I took some pics of some of my favorite pieces.

Earlier that week I got the suprise collab with the artist BVIS. We’ve been following each other for a long while now on IG, and our mutual appreciation for each others work made this collab almost a certainty!

I don’t collab often, I wish I did, but for one reason or another, things never really materialize. I was blown away with how well we worked together. Just naturally letting the idea form itself. It helps that we both have signature pieces that make it easily identifiable among other artist and fans. My only regret is I ran outta yellow spray and had to make do with what I had left. But it came out fire, and hopefully we get to rock some more in the near future!

Free Comic Book Day/ Rockets Robots & Rayguns

I had myself a full weekend! With Saturday being FCBD and my Rockets, Robots, And Rayguns shows both happening. Believe it or not, I always find myself thinking I’m not busy enough, until I look up and realize that I have a full plate most weekends and opportunities always on the horizon. The spring/summer is no different from last year, as I found myself talking to fans of all those things I am most interested in, and making new friends and meeting new collectors of my work.

I hadn’t done FCBD in a year or so, and this year I was back at my favorite comic book store, Green Brain Comics, in Dearborn, MI. Dan and Katie, the owners of the Downtown Dearborn pillar of all things nerdy, put on an awesome event as usual. Filled with comic book and pop culture enthusiasts, and I was lucky to be apart of the event this year.

I was put in an unfortunate situation however. I haven’t done any comic book shows in awhile and was fresh out of Doris issue #1 and #2. I placed an order about a month ago to be ready for the event, but an issue with the printer left me without either on game day. I was at a comic event, with no comics! A little embarrassed, I made the best of the situation. I brought my original art, and some paintings I did, as well as some prints and stickers, explaining to customers about the mixup. No one gave me a hard time about it, and we’re excited to see my art and talk to me nonetheless. I am a little pissed about the sales I missed out on, but things like this happen. I’m quite used to having to make something out of nothing, and despite the hang ups, I still had a great day of sales and made some significant contacts in spite of the setback. It’s all about the attitude in those situations, and how you rise above adversity in order to turn cream into butter.

One of my patrons told me that my printer was moving locations, and that’s what held up my order. Not only was my order affected, but they had heard of a few other people’s orders that were held up as well. Weirdly, I felt better about my situation. Sometimes an explanation can make all the difference in mindset, and although I was still bummed, it made an easier pill to swallow to know I wasn’t the only one affected.

Like I said earlier, I still made do. I got to hang out with some old friends and catch up, while getting to talk about my art and other things I had going on. The event itself was intimate and personal, and I had a great time.

Next up the Rockets, Robots and Rayguns show at the Janice Charache Gallery in West Bloomfield. I’ve had work in this gallery before. This time I felt a little out of my element, in that I wasn’t showing with any of my friends, or anyone I knew. Since Noelle had something going on that day, I went solo. I was blown away by the immense talent on display, I met a few of the artist who also had works in the show. One of them, who didn’t get accepted into the show, told me that 200 people applied to be in. That blew me away, to know my work was chosen to be in it.

I mostly sat hung out on the bench, ear hustling the people who walked by paintings to hear the reactions. It was cool to hear people react favorably to my work. People genuinely responding positive without having the pressure of acting nice because they didn’t know who I was. One lady did know my art, because of the tires, and stopped me to tell me how much she liked all of my paintings.

The show will be up until the end of June. Definitely go check it out if you can. And the artist talk will be June 2nd, I may participate in that as well depending on what I’ve got going on, but all in all, great weekend for art!