Being in business is f*cking hard! But I love my boss....
Because I AM the boss....:)
Some self-story...I was an art EDUCATOR for 12 years in 3 different schools. I spent the first four years at a crazy middle school in the Lower East Side, Manhattan, then was recruited to a charter high school in Newark, New Jersey, where I would then stay for the next six years and finally for the last two years at another high school back in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.
I was on the State & City Board of Art Education and represented the NYC Art Teachers Association, Region 8 in Albany.
Basically, I was a bad ass bitch in the Art Education world... I learned lots of lessons about relating and understanding other people's perspective, but mostly and HARDEST TO ADMIT, learned that I needed to change my own journey to figure out how to gain the creative freedom I was yearning.
Needless to say, after moving away from education, questioning my sense of self after 12 years and the bitter sweet nature of it all, I dove into using my other talents to start my own artistic brand, Meraki NYC & an all female collective of artists/makers called Handmade in Brooklyn. I'm a boss bitch!!!
Two years of being a freelancer (WTF) in the most broad sense, I continue discovering and restructuring myself within the art world. Which actually happens all day long at my studio in the Gowanus Print Lab, at home and this in itself is an intense daily, weekly, monthly forever fucking journey. "You're your worst critic!" they say and for sure that has been the case for me, as is life....
All in all, creating awesome pieces of artwork whether on clothing, leather, and other awesome commissioned art pieces has been such a rewarding experience. People get to fall in love with the art I make all over again and that connection is bonding.
As for leading a group of strong, talented women in Brooklyn through the work I have done with Handmade in Brooklyn Collective, the journey there has been extremely inspiring and reinvigorating. I walk away from every meeting, emotional, positive and feeling like other people have my back...know what Im going through as an artist and help reassure me that life is a creative process in itself....what I make for dinner, what I choose to wear, how I brand myself. Those experiences are full of choice and that's the dopest part of being your own boss!
Fortunately, those people and new friends in the art world have supported me along the way and continue send encouraging vibes as I build a new me, an awesome brand.
Questions I ask myself...
What do I do with my time? How do I spend it? What do I do when I get to the studio? What new things will inspire me today? Who will I connect with?
Endless possibilities.
BEING IN BUSINESS IS FUCKING HARD, BUT I LOVE MY BOSS!