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Courtney Minor: A beautiful collage and graffiti dream!
245 Plays3 months ago
Enjoy this powerful conversation with Courtney Minor as she shares her fascinating story, unique and inspiring travels, and how she discovered her creative voice. Courtney explores alternate worlds with her art using collage elements photographs, paint, and found objects. Whether with abstract figures, graffiti-style motifs, or a combination of both, she turns her creative visions into original artworks, fine art prints, and home & personal goods. Her work is rooted in her emotions, psychology/mental health, memories, travels, and love of science fiction. Her style is primarily contemporary abstract with street art & surrealism elements. She opened the Courtney Minor Design Studio at Mana Contemporary and is open for private studio tours. Courtney Minor’s work can be viewed & purchased on her website https://thecmdstudio.com/collections or at her partner galleries: Singulart Gallery in Paris, Saatchi Art online, 33 Contemporary in Chicago, and Kente Royal Gallery in Harlem, NYC. This episode is filled with inspiration to travel, to create, and to share your voice!
Courtney’s Links
Website: https://thecmdstudio.com/collections
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heyitscourtneyminor
Our Podcast is proudly sponsored by Jet Creative and UrbanStems! Jet Creative is a women-owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment. If you are looking to build a website or start a podcast--visit JetCreative.com/Podcast to kickstart your journey. UrbanStems is your go-to source for fresh gorgeous bouquets flowers and gifts delivered coast-to-coast! USE: BLOOMBIG20 to save 20%!
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Transcript
Introduction and Theme
00:00:01
Speaker
Do you have a dream that is a small seed of an idea and it's ready to sprout? Or are you in the workplace, weeds, and you need to bloom in a new creative way? Perhaps you're ready to embrace and grow a more vibrant, joyful, and authentic life. If you answered yes to any of these, you are ready to re-bloom.
00:00:24
Speaker
Welcome to the podcast where we have enlightening chats with nature lovers, makers, and artisans as they share inspiring stories about pivoting to a heart-centered passion. Hello, I'm Lori Siebert, and I am very curious to hear from friends and artisans about the creativity that blooms when you follow your heart.
Meet the Hosts and Guest
00:00:44
Speaker
And I'm Jamie Jamison, and I want to dig deep into the why behind each courageous leap of faith and walk through new heart-centered gardens.
00:00:54
Speaker
Each episode of Rebloom will be an in-depth conversation with guests who through self-discovery shifted to share their passions with the world. Get ready to find your creative joy as we plant the seeds for you to Rebloom.
00:01:10
Speaker
Well, welcome, everyone, to another episode of Rebloom. What a treat we have for you today. Hi, Lori. I'm so excited about talking to Courtney because she's adorable. Well, Courtney is your friend who you met where, Lori?
Courtney's Journey to Creativity
00:01:30
Speaker
at a beautiful residency in France called at Chateau Orcoville. I was lucky enough to go there this year and met 26, well there were 26 total of us and Courtney was one of my favorites.
00:01:45
Speaker
She's amazing and we had some fun conversations and I cold plunged with her for the very first time. Okay, this is a G-rated show. We'll keep it going. I was clothed.
00:02:05
Speaker
well and you We're here to talk talk about re-blooming. yeah um We should introduce Courtney. Go ahead. Um, I want to introduce Courtney Miner and I can't wait to hear more about your story. I learned a little bit about you when we were in France, but, and then I dug a little deeper before this podcast, but I want to hear it right from you. I know you traveled a lot as a kid and just tell us a little bit about Courtney as a little girl. And welcome Courtney. Welcome, welcome.
00:02:41
Speaker
Hello, everybody. Hi. Let's see, me as a little girl, I mean, I'm just looking at the miniature version of myself. Truly, i I was very inquisitive. I was very curious, very imaginative. So I wonder how I am now. I was kind of split but between um being very creative and then being somewhat numbers driven.
00:03:06
Speaker
And I just kind of loaded all over the place. I had imaginary horses. I had plays I wrote. I created dream worlds in my closet. And I told no one, told my family they couldn't enter unless they turn into like clouds and butterflies. And I loved Falkor. And but I love it. I love the outsiders and Lisa Frank.
00:03:32
Speaker
Yeah, I was just, I was always in my own little world. Oh my gosh, that's what my family always said about me. I was like, Lori's in her own little world. It's a happy place in our worlds, right? It is. I mean, I think most artists are creative spirits in general.
00:03:51
Speaker
um we we're We're often in our heads and I just remember like I would look up at the clouds and of course see shapes and figures and then I would turn that into a story and then I remember one of the things I love to do. i My parents bought this home in what they call a master planning community in Houston and I was in Missouri City, that's where I grew up, in Missouri City, Texas.
00:04:16
Speaker
and I bought this binder off this depot. I should say my parents bought it because I was young. and I got all my dad's computer paper and I drew every every single house in the neighborhood. Wow. I say like the fence, the cars, the driveway, even little concrete curves that hold in the grass because everything was manicured and just so. and Oh, yeah you still have those drawings? I don't know where those drawings are, but I did probably at least a hundred, two hundred. Oh my God.
From Engineering to Art
00:04:51
Speaker
So what I did is I would walk around my little area and that would get my brother.
00:04:56
Speaker
I saw a brother's name, Frank, though. I said, Frank, can you just drive me over here? Because where we live, we live right across over Lake, all these man-made lakes. And it was Lake, that's my neighborhood, it was called Lake Gallipia. So right across Lake Gallipia, there was a couple of other finger lakes. So we would drive through and we would just start sketching. And then I have a pretty good memory. So I would just come back and I would literally draw every tree, every shrubbery, every Bagoia, Lilly, window shutter, like that was Will Courtney, the whole binder of drawings. And that made me want to become an architect when I was old. That didn't happen. Well, that's what I thought. and So so why art and architecture, but then where did it lead you? word the artist how What
00:05:43
Speaker
and You pivoted. What happened? So life got in the way. oh Yeah. i My issue was that it was an insecurity. That's what really started it. So one of my close friends, her name was Anya, she still is a phenomenal painter, like wonderful painter. And she can do photorealistic or at least close to it. And like her uses her Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera. And I was like, I can't do photorealistic. So in my little Courtney Brave in middle school and high school, I was like, well, I can't do photorealistic. I can't be an artist.
00:06:19
Speaker
You know, that is a common theme that I've heard a lot of artists say. I can't draw like a flower that looks just like the flower, then I'm not an artist. Yup. And that derailed me. So I remember, I remember when I changed it to conclude, it was I was like looking at my friend and looking at my other friends and like, I can't illustrate like them. So I was like, well, I need to figure out something else to do in my life. And cause I was always that way. I was a planner. I was probably like 11 or 12. And so then I went to my mom and I was like, well, mom, I always wanted, and I told her I wanted to be an artist. So I always wanted to be an artist or architect, but I don't think I'm good enough. So I need to figure something else out. This is 12 year old me. 12, I know.
00:07:09
Speaker
And so then I started looking at books, I got obsessed with Rice University and then I figured out, well, I'm creative, but maybe I'm better at inventing things or building things that I am a drawing thing. So that's when I was like, well, maybe I should just be an engineer. I'm always been good with numbers. Let me try it. Yeah. And so then I literally changed my path in like leaving middle school, going to high school. I purposely chose up chose a high school that was like the engineering specialty high school. My gosh, you were a planner.
00:07:36
Speaker
Yeah. When I get focused, I get three-way focused. And in my head, I was like, well, I'm not good enough to be an artist, so I'm not going to keep trying. I'm just going to go do something else. like always For me, I'm very much, I'll just figure it out. And when I make up my mind to do something, I'm pretty much like a freight train. I don't stop. Yeah. And my life took a completely different direction. I went to engineering high school. I graduated with a degree in industrial engineering.
00:08:05
Speaker
well like wow and I didn't go on to build things, my but I went on to design systems. But there was always just this feeling like I was not doing something I was meant to be doing.
00:08:20
Speaker
yeah And so I remember being getting my first job out of college. ah hat I was in a factory helping create laundry detergent and working through that stuff. And I kept looking at the bottles of laundry detergent saying, oh, who picked the flowers? Why did they pick this colored cap? Why did they do this? Why did they do that? And my boss was like,
00:08:42
Speaker
You seem like you're a little bit more creative. I say, yeah, I kind of want to lean more creative. So I spend most of my adult life in my day job trying to get closer and closer to creative. So I left engineering. I went to market research. I'm in market research. Now I'm like, oh, I think I want to be more creative. I want to go to marketing. In actuality, I probably should just say being an artist or architect.
00:09:04
Speaker
but yeah i twenty twenty you just yeah But maybe you picked up a lot of skills in those other areas that now come together with where you are now.
Discovering Collage
00:09:17
Speaker
which Yeah. ta ja yeah we had Do you remember we had a where we had a guest, Mary Jo Hoffman, who was an aerospace engineer and she now is doing nature photography and that engineering background, that mechanical, the way she looks at things is prevalent in all of her beautiful artwork now. So I bet even though you headed down that path, that engineering path, there's still a lot of
00:09:50
Speaker
you know a lot of the basic basics of that, I think, or in your, would you would you say? or Yeah, yeah. Absolutely. In your artwork. Yeah. Let's say in both mike my engineering background as well as what I do, what I've been doing after the last 15 years is market research and it's ethnography. It's human in interaction and human insights.
00:10:11
Speaker
and strongly influenced my work. I think that's why when I first started doing my artwork, I focused it on people. I'm now pulling away from people. Oh, you are? I'm starting to now. I'm doing a little bit more, even more abstract with not necessarily having all figures. but I focused in on microtics and human emotions because that's what I was trained to do in market research. That's what I was also trained to do in engineering and industrial engineering was understand human psychology and behavior. And I think that's why I was always drawn to making sure I had works that focus on people showing
00:10:48
Speaker
their real emotions versus what they try to hide, comes in through every single piece of work that I do. and I'm very emotional, but like that's why I'm focusing on the eyes. I was trained to read micro ticks in people's facial expressions and body. We do market research. That's what my job was.
00:11:06
Speaker
and it comes through in my art. right Why I have tears of gold, tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of pain, is because I was trained to be able to read the visible expressions of emotion so that at in my day job, it was used to figure out that people need to buy more clothes. In my art, it's to figure out how do people want to deal with what they're feeling, and how do I do want to deal with what I'm feeling? So yeah, it definitely comes through.
00:11:36
Speaker
So I know somewhere along the way, you you came across the idea of collage as a medium for an artist. So you didn't feel like you could draw photo realistically, which who cares? And you found collage, which is what you embrace today. Like, how did that whole thing come about? Ooh.
00:12:02
Speaker
It is one of those things sometimes I don't realize I'm having patterns and doing things until much later. So I'm also an art collector and almost every artist I collected was a collage artist. I liked the idea of assembly. And I think that goes back to my engineering background, putting things together that shouldn't be together and making it into a new whole. And in my mind, I was like, well, I can't, I didn't feel like I was capable of showing the nuances of a microscope or motion by drawing it. But I said, but I know I can photograph it.
00:12:37
Speaker
I know I can recreate it from found pieces. So then that's when I started photographing myself. I started photographing the people because I was in Vietnam when I decided to really make collages. And I started photographing everyone that would let me when I was walking around Ho Chi Minh City.
00:12:54
Speaker
and I would take pieces of all their faces and make new faces. Sometimes I would use my own, sometimes I would make a whole new one. It was rooted in that insecurity that i I couldn't show that micro particular emotion.
00:13:09
Speaker
by pencil or charcoal or brush. So I was like, well then let me piece things together to make it. And you took that Vietnam trip as a much needed break from stress, right? Oh
Career Breakthroughs
00:13:23
Speaker
my God. Yeah, my day job. I'm still working at the same company, but it was a different guard. I had a different leadership team, my boss and my boss's boss at the time.
00:13:34
Speaker
They didn't really care for me that much. i'm i And I have to admit, in the corporate world, I'm quite eccentric. Like, I'm not a full-blown type, a consulting firm, winning got my MBA person. I'm just not that person. But I am very good at what I do. I just don't fit. I'm not very corporate. And this guard wanted me to be yeah more corporate. And so they were work no kind of pushing me out. And so I had this epiphany. I was like, I think they're going to fire me.
00:14:05
Speaker
So I might as well just go on vacation. And so I remember telling my boss's boss at that time, actually in this building, too far and down, we were staying in the hallway and I was like, you know what? I know you don't care for me that much. So let's just call it what it is. Like, you don't like me, I don't like you. So I was letting you know right now, I'm going away for like four or five weeks. And I hope I have a job when I return, but if I don't,
00:14:31
Speaker
I already know where I stand with you. I won't mention his name. He's since left the company, but I think he was shocked that I said it, because again, I'm not very corporate. I'm not PC. I'm very straight up, very blunt. I'm not mean, but I'm straight up. um And so I remember I left the building that day and I was like, well, let me go to Ho Chi Minh. I always wanted to go to Vietnam.
00:14:53
Speaker
So I'm going to go. And so I booked my flight like two days later. And then I went away for like four or five weeks. And it was during ah the Christmas time, right? Because in my family, we don't really, they don't really do holidays that much. We don't celebrate or do anything. So most of the time we're gone. So it wasn't weird for me just to just pick up a lead during the holidays and all. Was this pre-COVID? Was this, Courtney, was this pre-COVID or post-COVID?
00:15:21
Speaker
This was pre-COVID, because I i rec decided to become an artist that must when I went to Pochiness. That was probably December 2018. Okay. but i I wasn't calling myself an artist yet, because I didn't believe I was an artist. I just knew I was going to probably get fired from my day job, and I needed to figure out my life. So I went to Vietnam to decompress, and my first goal was, okay, I need to find a way to take care of myself if I can't continue to work in a corporate setting, because I clearly just don't.
00:15:50
Speaker
Right. So then I got on this idea of what have I just monetized what I did in my d job, which is do market research freelance. I was sketching that out. where I'm sitting in my little bunk bed in Vietnam eating all the different noodles and street food. I love street food.
00:16:08
Speaker
And I got really overwhelmed and stressed out, plenty, my freelance gig. And I got so overwhelmed that I started fiddling with my phone and taking selfies on myself. And I kept looking at them and I kept altering them. And then I was like, well, if I'm going to procrastinate, I might as well fully procrastinate. And I convinced this guy, because they don't really have Uber there, so I convinced this guy to drive me.
00:16:33
Speaker
to what their version of Kiko is. Of course, I was an uphill battle because I don't see Vietnamese and they don't hit me. That's what I was trying to do to go print this out. How do I say this? But I found a couple of expats that they could hear me just kind of like, help. Yeah.
00:16:52
Speaker
And so it took about three hours to of lost in translation, but I finally got someone to understand that I needed to put the photos from my phone into a computer to print it on paper and that I needed to do it lots of different sizes. because They would pray to say, you done. And I'm like, no, I'm not done.
00:17:10
Speaker
Because i i in my head, I was envisioning exploding my face out of taking the eye and piece of the nose. And I had this one. And I was sitting there drawing with crayons. Because again, I was out procrastinating, not planning my real job. And then I put together what would be my very first.
00:17:28
Speaker
modern day collage. It was me, all different scale. And I got a knee and I brought it home and then I sewed into it. I took an embroidety class embroidery class and I got back to New York because I was like, I want to sew into this thing. you So I sewed into it and then I made like maybe 10 or 20 others. Again, I was really stressed out because again, I came back thinking I wasn't going to have a job. Yeah, you were going to be fired. I was going to be fired. I came back like, OK, well, I'm trying to start a consulting thing, but they don't know me. I need to do pro bono work to get credibility. Then it dawned on me. I was like, wow.
00:18:07
Speaker
I don't have enough savings. What? like bing yeah oh So because I was so stressed, I kept making work for Londis. And then fast forward, the situation with my job, that two up boss ended up being fired. And my one up boss ended up resigning, but she got basically let go. And I was thrilled because I kept my job and I actually got a new boss who like loved me and they're like, no, we don't want you to go anywhere. And I was like,
00:18:38
Speaker
And I'm like, oh my God, I probably shouldn't have maybe just like walked out the building like that bad day. Well, all right. Or maybe you should have. Or maybe I should. Maybe you should have. Maybe I should have. But you know, it's also, I think what we find too and what you, I know in various points in my life, we have these high stress moments and they can be family, they can be work, they can be any number of things.
00:19:03
Speaker
And you're just really outlining for every one of our listeners, which is so important. We've got to have creativity in your life and but you've got to have that balance. And sometimes people like to exercise and they take walks, they go with, they get into nature. I get all of that. That's important too.
00:19:21
Speaker
I don't know i I hit points in my life Courtney where I'm I was just different not that I was gonna get fired but I very stressful teenagers and yeah I I pulled in creativity I didn't know what I was doing I'm just like okay I just need to do something and I and it was it just made the it it made It gave me a balance for the other stuff and I didn't realize that I needed that inward balance and that that was missing from my life.
00:19:50
Speaker
and yeah but Your story kind of made me think of we interviewed an artist named Kathy Nichols and she was sitting on her couch um procrastinating on filling out applications to law school. Yes. Started staring at a big white wall and decided to paint a mural on her wall instead of filling to get the paperwork. So I don't know, maybe procrastination and doing those things that you really are called to do, maybe that's a good thing because it's kind of led you to something that's more authentic and meaningful and circles back to things that you loved as a little girl, but something derailed you, which is very sad. i hate I hate hearing that and it's not uncommon.
00:20:40
Speaker
you know It just takes that one little thought like you know you might be in choir and the teacher tells you to lip sync because you can't sing and then you might not sing again. Were you and my were you in my choir? you Did you hear that? In my art class. but you know and You're right. i mean it Sometimes we have that voice that outward voice, someone else that tells us, but I think it's the important ah the important thing that we need to do is listen to that inner voice.
00:21:09
Speaker
and your inner voice was a creative voice from the very beginning. yeah good and But you also had a practical voice. I mean, yes, you're not corporate, but you're also practical. We do need to pay the bills and you have a great career, but you reach those points where you're like, wait a minute, yes, I can do this, but I still need the creativity. So were it about 2018, you're all of a sudden 2019, I'm guessing, and you're thinking, all right, I'm going to start do doing more collage and and incorporating that into your life. That wasn't how it went out.
00:21:43
Speaker
yeah
00:21:45
Speaker
So 2019 hit, and like I said, I had made like 20 some odd works. They were just had them paying up in my apartment in Harlem. And a couple of my friends happened to just buy my apartment. ah Because again, I'm an art collector. They're like, oh, wow, you must find new artists you would love. Like, wow, the work is really good. And then I was like, oh, no, I made those. And then one of them was like, stop lying.
00:22:14
Speaker
No, I made those. Every single one of these, like, all right. And he was like, you need to show your work. And I was like, OK, yeah, whatever. Like, they're going to be this looks like a craft project. Like, I'm not going to. No one's going to want to see. So I i ignored him.
00:22:34
Speaker
And then a few months later, a friend of mine named Daya, she was like, hey, your stuff is really good. You should try making sure people see it. And she's like, she's like, well, if you don't want to like, you know, client for things, you should at least put it on social media. And I was like, who's going to want to pay attention? Nobody's going to want to pay attention to my social media, like whatever.
00:22:56
Speaker
And so I ignored her for this, she opened, she got me a website domain, which is my first one, which was brolemart.com. She went on hover and bought it with me. like for it Actually, it was in disability, because a lot of my friends were people I worked with, and now we're all just still friends even though we're gone. I was like right around the corner, sitting, because I was complaining about my job, like, yeah, I'm good at it, but I don't really like it. And she's like, well, do something about it. And so then she went on hover, bought my domain name,
00:23:24
Speaker
And then my other friend was like, you really need to open an Instagram. She said, just put two of her names, Jenny. wonderful designer and now she's branched it in the collage. And she's like, you need to show your work. um We were at a cafe and she pulled me to this ah shop next door called Nyloo. And I was actually pitching to them for my consulting business. Because again, I had just done a really crazy thing by basically disappearing for a month. So I was like, I need to cultivate clients because at any moment I could still get fired because I didn't disappear for like five weeks.
00:24:01
Speaker
So I would go in there to pitch doing the pro bono works. I'd get you know credibility to get more consulting
Artistic Recognition
00:24:07
Speaker
clients. And then Junie was like, she's also a wonderful artist. You should see her work. And she grabbed my phone and showed them my paintings. And they're like, your stuff's really good. Do you want to have a show? And I was like, a show of what?
00:24:21
Speaker
i And then what happened was, my It was my first ever art show was at this shop, like four months later. So then I had it there. And then a mutual friend who knew the curator from Marcus Samos' restaurants here in New York and around the world.
00:24:47
Speaker
They, my friends, show them my work. They're like, we want to put your painting up in our restaurant in Harlem. And it's like, it's a really famous restaurant in Harlem. And that's when it started to get, oh, maybe I might piece it.
00:24:59
Speaker
I still wasn't calling myself an artist yet at all. Yeah. Everyone will look at your website and know that you're more than decent. You're amazing. I mean, I know, but I didn't know it did. You didn't know it did. You were getting validation. You're getting validation. Well, we all have it. We all have it. Yeah. And then I was like, one of my friends who I was at my show, she was No, not that sheet. He was like, you need to do art fairs. You need to get yourself out there. And I was like, well, I'm a self-taught artist. And I heard that you're supposed to have some kind of Yale thing, or at least go to art school. I didn't go to art school. I went to engineering school. And he was like, just look for artist-run fairs. And he said, well, the most reputable one is called The Other Art Fair. It's by Saatchi Art.
00:25:50
Speaker
And I was like, so you actually think something that big is going to let me in? And he was like, all you could do is try. So I, and you know, pondered that for a little bit. And I said, well, let me go get some better shots of my art because some of my pieces sold at the show, but not a lot. And.
00:26:09
Speaker
I applied and I got it. Yay. What did you wish for? i got It wasn't even what I wished for because I just didn't think I was getting anything. Then I got it that same night that I had my show, I got a commission. um and and My friend Junie was like, do you know how many artists want commissions so bad? I was like, I actually don't know.
00:26:32
Speaker
yeah yeah i have no I don't know anything about the industry. I just knew that this person asked me to create a custom work, and I was like, okay, I'll do it. I because i didn't i didn't know any i i just really didn't know anything. I thought this was normal. So I was in the other art fair, and then that's when I really hit... Ooh, I'm an artist.
00:26:53
Speaker
but Yeah. Because I was showing my work, and i had never I had been in a few art fairs, but i yet i wasn't it was never in the context of actually being in the world. ah sir um But I sold out my booth, all my painting sold, and all my print sold, and then I got like director's paint. And that Sunday, I was like, I think I'm an artist.
00:27:17
Speaker
Yes. Clearly. what hit That's what it is. Clearly. Wow. Wow. what What year was that? So I got accepted in 2019. We were supposed to have it in 2020, but we all know it. Yeah. Yeah. So then the fair got delayed. Do you remember that three, six month period where the world opened back up for a hot weekend and then you know we thought everything's fine and it shut down again? Well, in that, yeah that's when we had to fail.
00:27:43
Speaker
okay And that's when I like sold out of everything. But also during that full time during quarantine, I was doing ah my quarantine series. It was works on paper and small canvases that I had just picked up right before the city locked down. I bought like those classroom sites of canvases. I wanted to crawl the paper and to make sure I didn't lose my mind. I said, I'm gonna collage every day because like I'm depressed and i'm and'm I'm locked in my room and my family's in Texas, but I'm in New York. And all of those sold.
00:28:13
Speaker
Wow. It's amazing. Throughout COVID, i was my paintings, every time I would post, they would sell. Things actually slowed down after COVID went for me. It was booey. I think because everyone was decorating their homes during COVID. Right. Yeah. So I was selling like crazy, um but I was still doing smaller scale work and then after After we broke out of COVID, that's when my perspective changed because I was like, no, I'm an artist and i I want to do bigger things.
Impact of Social Events on Art
00:28:42
Speaker
And so then my painting started getting bigger and bigger. I started breaking away from just doing collage. In fact, um how I started getting into my topographic graffiti, the words, is ah due to during the COVID period during George Floyd.
00:29:00
Speaker
i ah I was watching Minneapolis Bird and I was so overcome. but Like I was just, I was in pain because again, I'm a very visual person. So like I just kept picturing my nephew, my brother, my father. He did like that. And I remember i I had leftover printouts sitting there in my living room because at that time I didn't even have a studio.
00:29:25
Speaker
I was working on my dining room table. And I just started in tears watching CNN. I was grabbing pictures of my dad and my brother and my nephew. I just started tearing them up. And I grabbed a black paint and I just started painting the canvas. And again, I never used black. Everything I did that I had never done before. Wow. So I grabbed black paint and I started painting the canvas. I hadn't even primed it, but I had to paint it like three times. And then I just I remember because the paper was still wet, I started tearing up the paper and I grabbed the glue. and The glue was in my hair and I decided lapping glue on the on the canvas and I started just putting pieces together and I kept saying, this could have been my brother, this could have been here. like And I just kept building the collage until like I felt like something, except saying it's done. And I remember I kept looking at it crying.
00:30:17
Speaker
And then I kept looking at it and I would say, it's still not saying what I want it to say. i was like i don't know And my insecurity came back again, because I kept saying, oh, I can't make the image say what I want it to say. And I was like, you know what? I'm just going to write what I'm silly. And I remember I grabbed gold paint ah brush and I just started writing on the canvas. Wow. And then as I was writing on it, then I started like adding slashes and adding radios, just whatever felt right. And then I remember I was crying so much. I was like, you know what? People need to see how much I'm crying. So I don't make the canvas cry. And I'm going to grab some high flow acrylic. that I just started squeezing it like a ketchup bottle. All the canvas right near all the eyeballs.
00:31:01
Speaker
Wow. Then I got interference pain. I can't, because i I knew how to use interference pain because I actually used it on my back. I oh. Before George Floyd, it happened that week. I had discovered it when I was at the store that it got on my cat. And I was like, oh, you can see through it when it's there. And so I knew that. So I was like, you know, I'm just going to write human because I kept saying, we're just human. Why are we being treated this way? Like, why are they? Why is my my but in my mind? I was like, why is my brother being killed? Why is my cousin and my uncle? He said, I'm sick of this. We're just human. And I wrote human all over it in a fan's paint.
00:31:37
Speaker
And I remember I stood back and i it was like cathartic because when I was done, it was one of my best works I'd ever made. Wow. and I just got chills from that. I have chills, yeah. It became my new direction, it became my new style, but I remember all I wanted to do was get it away from me. So I remember Minneapolis was burning around two. It was like 2 a.m. Eastern Standard. I put my painting after I made it. So I made the whole painting in like 30, 40 minutes. ah hu Like it wasn't like I thought about it. I was sure emotion. So I posted it probably around 5 a.m. because I didn't sleep that night. And then by 6 a.m.
00:32:22
Speaker
a collector who I still speak to reached out to me on Instagram, and it's like, I wore this painting. Wow. And I told her, I said, this is a mad, emotional painting. I need to know that you're not a terrible person. I said, the because if my painting gets to the terrible person, after the way I'm feeling, we'll flip out.
00:32:37
Speaker
o Because you know sometimes we we don't know how all our collectors are. Sometimes they buy things for opposite reasons than we would ever think. yeah And I had that happen before and I was like, I need to know that you want this because it resonated to you and you don't want this so that you take away my message, the people that need to hear it and feel what I feel.
00:33:00
Speaker
And so then he literally was like, can I call you? And he had, this is the person randomly on Instagram. Wow. And I gave him my number and we talked on the phone and I was like, I think you're the right person to have this painting. And then she wired me money on Dell. I shipped it the next day. Wow. Wow. And I remember I made a sister painting to that one the next day because I was still crying. this sandra fly And all the others.
00:33:29
Speaker
And I remember, I still, i I remember that painting is sold like a year and a half ago after the first one. And I remember going, oh my God, this is the beginning of my new style. Because before that I would do, I still do clean lines, but I didn't have drips. I didn't have the maximalism. I didn't have the organized chaos. Which I love. And now I'm like, that's me. Because your studio in Orcaville was like,
00:33:55
Speaker
look Like I kept telling Courtney had this teeny little, well, not teeny, but small little studio and she's like painting like on the wall and like going crazy. And I had a much bigger studio, which she should have had actually. And I'm tidy, tidily little painting at my little table. So we should have swapped. I should have said first night, you need to be in this space. That was my fault. So.
00:34:23
Speaker
in defense of Bula. Because if she hears this, she needs to know. In defense of Bula, when she asked me, what size studio do you need? At the time, I was only going to do these little squares. I was like, I'm going to do maybe 10 squares. Because I was like, let me just make a few small pieces to sell at the old affordable art fair. That's what I was going to do. But then when I arrived in Orgovo and I saw all that pawn,
00:34:50
Speaker
everything went out the window. Yeah. Yeah. And so then and then when ah Ziggy and their daughter and Luca came by with canvas rolls and I was like. but So I I should have it. But it was my fault. I told them I was only going to do 10 tiny little. But I ended up making three 60 inch by like. yo Yeah. my God.
00:35:18
Speaker
Yep. I know better at this time. i know better they were They were magnificent and that whole experience was magnificent. Let's take a quick minute and thank our amazing sponsors. Our podcast is proudly brought to you today by Jet Creative and Urban Stems. Jet Creative is a women owned marketing firm committed to community and empowerment since 2013.
00:35:43
Speaker
Are you ready to Rebloom and build a website or start a podcast? Visit jetcreative dot.com backslash podcast to kickstart your journey. They will help you bloom in ways you never imagined. And bonus, our listeners get an exclusive discount when you mention Rebloom.
00:36:02
Speaker
And a huge thanks to Urban Stems, your go to and our go to source for fresh, gorgeous bouquets and gifts delivered coast to coast. Use Bloom Big 20 and save 20 percent on your next order. And don't forget to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Rebloom podcast. Thanks to our sponsors and thanks to you for joining us today.
Travel and Family Influence
00:36:31
Speaker
I want to circle back a little bit because you shared the story of your how your family would travel and how that happened and why you were brave enough to just jet off to Vietnam for four or five weeks because not everyone I think would like go there right away but your upbringing I think prepared you for that too. I had a unique upbringing. My parents loved to travel.
00:37:01
Speaker
And my parents had a rule that unless it was like a romantic vacation, they never went anywhere without their kids anywhere in the world, unless it was a true like anniversary vacation. So because of that, I mean, we went to New Zealand a couple of times. We went to Sydney. My dad loved Hawaii. We went to Hawaii like two times a year. ah We were all over Europe.
00:37:23
Speaker
And my dad, he'd love to pull out this globe, and he would spin it. And he would say, okay, everybody, let's figure this, and then wherever the figure would land, if it wasn't dangerous, and it was a war toy, and especially the Atelier for us, if they were okay with black people, for the most part, we'd go.
00:37:42
Speaker
um But because of that, we went to so amazing places. And between the way they raised us where we didn't have any fear. I mean, we were practical. Like we knew being minorities in this world, there's certain things you got to check. But for the most part, they you didn't make it.
00:38:00
Speaker
something to hold us back and make us afraid to do something. We just were more cautious if we were in Germany right or we were in Austria. And I think what helped is my both my mom and dad, both when they were in college, had very unique travel experiences. So my dad, he grew up in Mississippi and he moved to New York just on a whim. I think I get my capriciousness with him and my mom. right like We just do sudden changes big.
00:38:25
Speaker
um My mom, she went to they both went to Dillard University in New Orleans. My mom applied for exchange programs. And she got in, and so similar to me, she's like, well, I got in, I'ma go. And so she ended up living in Yugoslavia um for quite a while. She lived in Austria. And it's so funny, because I love going to Croatia now and see old friends. I i love Croatia because my mom loved the Italians at the time. It was one country before the Serbian protests at the war.
00:38:59
Speaker
um
00:39:02
Speaker
Yeah, it's so like, they already had that adventurous spirit. And I would say even more than my brother, I definitely got it. oh and They definitely got it. Yeah, I love to travel. I've been all over the place. And I remember coming out of college, before up until that point, I was so used to traveling with people. But as I got older, of course, my parents were doing, they were still traveling, because I found where you were always random locations. like Oh, I'll tell you about our family reunion later on. That was funny. That was really funny. But um as I got older, I realized that my adventurous spirit didn't translate to all of my friends. So like they might say, oh, we want to go to Paris. Whereas I was like, let's go to Oman.
00:39:52
Speaker
They're like, let's go and go to the Salt Flats in, like, Peru, right? And they're like, that's crazy. We're not going to go there. I was like, they're like, where do you want to go? I'm like, let's go to the station and art an article.
00:40:05
Speaker
let's go on the National Geographic boat, right? That's what I wanted to do. That's what me going to Paris and London was like, okay, that's like junior league. I want to just look it out. I want to just look it out. You want a big old adventure. My mother was a travel agent and having parents who instilled that in us too, I get that. My brother worked for the State Department, so he's been everywhere. I mean, and that's when you said, oh Vietnam, I'm like,
00:40:32
Speaker
Yeah, my brother's been there. I mean, he's been to some incredible places, but it does. You have this wanderlust that you want to go. There's so many great stories and so many things outside of the major cities. and Absolutely. And when you said, I went to Vietnam, I'm like, not the typical place that in normal you know you know it's like usually it's like oh I'm gonna go to Bali or I'm gonna go to Thailand or but I'm like that ah yeah well you've done that too but which you know it's the priorities of seeing our great world and I bet now how much has all that travel inspired your art? I was gonna ask that same question. Funny story with that so let me actually so I
00:41:14
Speaker
My travel has informed my art, but it's art that no one's ever seen yet. Oh, no I'm still trying to decide if I release it because it's just very different. It's very different. it um It's collage and it's all landscapes and it's all based on my photography.
00:41:34
Speaker
replicas of my travel photographs. Ooh, I'm intrigued. I'm intrigued. It's really good. and i i i'm we I've been working on two or three big ones, little ones. My little ones were part of my quarantine series and they got bought up and I should have kept a Anyway, I don't know how to do it.
00:41:53
Speaker
But I remember my travels informed my art of my art, informed my travels, and several people have asked me, like, you should document your travels and all that
Future Artistic Plans
00:42:03
Speaker
stuff. And I'm like, oh, I have. It's just similar to my other pieces. I'm not always comfortable sharing, though. Like, even my true abstract works. But I have found that in my travel, which is I do a lot of solo travel. I prefer traveling solo. I meet people when I'm there, and sometimes I don't. Like, I'm fine.
00:42:23
Speaker
I'm an extroverted loader, like, I'm good. But I look back, like, I have an archive of photographs. I have about, like, well, you know what? Let me see. I think I have about 48,000. Wow. Wow. Yeah.
00:42:39
Speaker
40,591 photos in my archive. wow So I have a wealth of things to tap into. So it's a matter of, I've been trying to figure out how do I merge these landscapes I'm creating with this almost Afro surrealism, Afro futuristic.
00:42:58
Speaker
point of view. So I have an outer space series because I'm super into astronomy. Not astrology, but astronomy. I think it's my science background. So I love planets, but I love atmospheres. And in that, like what ah what would be the landscapes on there? Could I do parallel you know off-world landscapes that look like real world landscapes. then and i that One of my favorite places to travel to is Iceland. Almost every no sci-fi film films in Iceland because it looks like you're on a different plane. I have a lot of my photography and I've been like, well, how do I merge this? and I've been playing with this now for four years. I've never shared any except for the contest I did it during that quarantine series. so
00:43:42
Speaker
Just answer your question. Travel does inform my work. Y'all just haven't seen it yet. Yeah. when When are you going to share this? Because I'm so intrigued. I need to see it. You know what it is? I think what I'm going to do is I have a residency that's going to start in a month. Where are you going? I'm going to Greece. Nice.
00:44:05
Speaker
I have a feeling, not a feeling, I know I'm going to probably start finishing them up and releasing them maybe after Greece. I do want to see if maybe the gallery wants to show them. If they want to show them cool, if they don't, I'll just do my own thing. Like, I can always do my own thing. So we'll see. How are you balancing having a full-time job with this emerging art career that you're nurturing. You can't keep telling the bosses you're leaving for five weeks, I would imagine. wall i had had to make I have to make choices. So what I do is I am very, I don't want to say the word blessed, but
00:44:44
Speaker
things are favorable for me in that my day job with Gap 8, they are very, very happy to support my art endeavors. That's amazing. Extremely happy. Enough that like there is a there was a shirt I designed for the company i for Black History Month. I would recently told my mentor who's a high up person in Gap.
00:45:09
Speaker
Inc. and Gap brand. I happen to mention to him that I might be working on a public art project in Tennessee and he's like, let me know. We'll get everybody from Gap that's down there to come support, like well like super supportive. So there's that piece. The second piece is my day job. like Some people worry about corporate jobs and you taking like a director in a above position because I'm a senior director VP.
00:45:34
Speaker
and they'll take away a lot of time, but at a certain level in corporate, you usually get a limited vacation. yeah I have a limited vacation, so I don't overuse it, but if I happen to need to take off.
00:45:49
Speaker
three weeks, not a big deal. I could just do it. Now more than three weeks, usually we have to have, I was like, hey, how are we going to do this? So what I've learned now is choose resonancies that are two or three weeks so that it's not is that a It's not something extraordinary because a lot of people in my job take two week, three week, one week vacations multiple times of the year. No big deal. But now I just make sure I choose if I get a residency, that's my my vacation. um But that also means that I choose residencies where I really want to just go.
00:46:25
Speaker
yeah yeah I really want to go to France. I really like Greece. I'm not going to just pick one necessarily in New York. I'm going to pick one away because I do love to be everywhere. So that's that's actually opened me up to residencies where people are like, oh, well,
00:46:41
Speaker
There's one that's in Jordan. I'm like, okay, cool. I want a job two and a half during weeks. But I would imagine too, it also allows you to explore really freely your creativity because you got this day job, which thank you as paying the bills. And now it's like you can create Just as you said, like you can do travel, you can do collage, you can do anything that you want. but Yes, you want to create things that people want and and and you can sell, but there's that also takes a little bit of the pressure off of that too, so you can really let your heart sing.
00:47:18
Speaker
It takes a lot of the pressure off because yeah you know what, the new works, the new body of work that I work on, like I have my main one, which is called the others.
Art Inspired by Marginalized Voices
00:47:26
Speaker
and It is about people that feel other in the society and that's tied to my travels. So each country that I have gone to are now trying to return to you.
00:47:34
Speaker
and document the and do photography of people that feel like there are others, whether it's people who are minorities, identify with different gender identities, identify just being different. So like I interviewed a colleague of mine who is a female identifying, she grew up in a stripped Irish Catholic background. She said, I always felt different because I i wasn't like what my culture told me I was. She's part of the other series. Another friend of mine, drag queen,
00:48:02
Speaker
They're part of the other series. Then when I went to Mexico for my residency, I discovered that there's a whole population of Afro-Mexicanos. I was like, oh, that is perfect. So I documented them. So now I've been doing a lot of research, and my mom has a history teaching background. So I've been asking her, hey, when we were in Australia, aside from the Aboriginal people, what were some other people that were other? And she would tell me. And I'm like, oh, OK. And then I'm like, OK, well, I think I need to go to Sydney.
00:48:31
Speaker
again, but this time I'm going to go into the Outback and see if I can find these people and photograph them. So that's led to like one series, but then my other series focuses in on all types of things. Like I have multiple bodies of work, but I've only released probably one of them.
Celebrating Authenticity and Community
00:48:49
Speaker
i's amazing I I just love you so much and I'm you inspire me and I love that like you're just going to be creating the work that you were put on this earth to make. yeah Yeah. I mean, the themes that you're um going after in your work and and the fact that you want to travel and you always felt like you were other.
00:49:16
Speaker
in different situations and how you're celebrating those people and traveling. And it's just a whole melting pot of Courtney all coming out in in your work. I just love that so much. Thank you. Thank you. bri it's It's, you're so inspiring. And I was thinking of, you know, when we talked on it, we touched on it, the imposter syndrome.
00:49:41
Speaker
But you need to lead with the word artist. I hope you lead everywhere you go with I am an artist hear me roar because you I mean just everything that you see and you incorporate into your work that you've I mean I'm speechless at What you've shared with us today. It's just incredible absolutely incredible Thank you. Thank you. You're You're an inspiration. You're going to be an in a huge inspiration to our listeners because I think so many of ah the friends, and this is the main reason that we wanted to start this, is that we hear people who are doing their day job, they're unhappy, or they're
00:50:25
Speaker
they're wanting to pivot or they're maybe they are in a career and they want to pivot within that career, but they've got fear to do it. And sometimes it's just doing it. It's just putting yourself out there and just, and maybe you're not doing it as a career right off the bat, but it's really expressing yourself in the most pure way that you know how and and bringing the world that you see and and and sharing that. it's Your story is incredible.
00:50:53
Speaker
And can i love I love how you had friends because I think when you start doing that, putting yourself out there in an authentic way, sharing things you love.
00:51:04
Speaker
people show up in your life that are gonna support and cheerlead that along. And you know the fact that your friend said, you need to show this and and now it's in this store and you need to apply for this show. And you know having those people to nudge you along into places where you might not have gone yourself, I think the universe gives us those gifts when you're starting to do things that you love.
00:51:29
Speaker
Absolutely. I mean, it's so plenty in my corporate job. Oftentimes I have a lot of people who like I'm the mentor for them and I'm, I mean, I'm pretty bold, like, you know, I'm pretty bold. So I'm always like, well, who says you can't do that? Well, why not? Like I'm a, that's just my vibe. And even with my art,
00:51:49
Speaker
talking to other folks who I know for a fact, like picking up a good friend in life, he at the time was like, I'm so scared to go and do what I'm passionate about. I remember he visited me in Houston when I was having up a particular low point in my life and we were chatting about his life and I was like, look, I'm, I'm depressed right now. Let's talk about you. And I said, well, what are you dreaming? And He was like, I want to create films and I want to do this, but I don't know if I'm good enough. And I was like, dude, who cares? Just make what you want to make. like all like i'll say Pretend the only two people in the world are me and you. light Make something that's going to make both of us laugh, right? And fast forward to now he's open. Film studio, he's making a show. He's doing all these things. And that we were literally, we hung out this past Friday.
00:52:45
Speaker
that we were looking at how far we came, and we both were in the states where and I didn't think I was an artist. like I knew I was making stuff, but I didn't think I would be successful. i didn't I didn't think I would be in museums. I was worried, like, and am I gonna be taken seriously? He was like, I'm just a a guy from, like, middle America. I identify as gay. I will i do production. No one's gonna take me seriously.
00:53:14
Speaker
And neither one of us thought we were what we were dreaming about being. Wow. Wow. Then that was because he came to visit me during COVID when I was at my low um in his 2024. And like now on my paintings are in foreign museums. He has his production company. He's flying overseas to go check on script and animation. And I'm like, you know what?
00:53:42
Speaker
The only difference between me and him and a few other people is that even though we were doubting ourselves, we still try. Yeah. You still tried and you also had people that believed in you. And yeah I think that's the other thing too, when you've got those friends that say, yeah I've been working on a couple of projects now and I've got friends who say, I believe in this. i but you know and and that's And you believed in him and he believed in you. And sometimes it's just that that voice of belief in your head
00:54:15
Speaker
some because because your your own voice is sometimes tamped down and sometimes you need to hear that from other people.
Reflections and Closing Thoughts
00:54:22
Speaker
I'll tell you what, Courtney, I believe in you. We believe in you. Your work is phenomenal. We want to see that travel series. Okay, we're traveling with her. Lori and I are doing a Rebloom travel series. That's going to be our next one because we want to go we must connect with you. but I'm actually going to be in New York and Jamie has a daughter in New York. I do. I'm going to be in New York.
00:54:44
Speaker
Oh, we're getting to together. We're getting together for sure. I'm doing a one day workshop September 14th at the Gudrun-Sheden store in Soho. Oh, I will come by. You should come to my studio. It's in Jersey City. It's not far. It's at Monica Dapering.
00:55:02
Speaker
okay Well, Courtney, thank thank you so much for being our guest today. I think you have inspired um our listeners to not only, I think you've inspired them to follow their dreams and to read Bloom and certainly travel to cool places and and and look and look for the things that maybe people don't always see in the and your but it express your emotion and your you are a delight and you are a delight and thank you so much for joining us. Thank you. Lori, I'm speechless from from our interview today. How about you?
00:55:45
Speaker
I was so excited to introduce you to Courtney because, yeah, she's a special human being. And there were so many things she said that um really struck a chord. One of them, and I think this is something that people can really take to heart, is when her friend was saying, I want to make films, but who's going to take me seriously? And her advice was, just make it. Make what you want.
00:56:14
Speaker
And imagine you're just doing it for me and for you. I think if people can maybe take that whole perfect perfect grandiose vision of what it might be and just take those steps, just just take a step.
00:56:32
Speaker
and just start making what you want to make or create what you want to make and and put it out there and see how people respond. And and maybe if you don't even care how people respond, it doesn't matter. You can just make it for yourself. Like the night that Courtney was painting in her studio reacting to George Floyd and Like I just like that that canvas is just so full of like it makes me cry thinking about that night and her like all the emotion that went into that piece yeah and the release that that had. Yeah.
00:57:12
Speaker
Yeah, like so many things she says are so powerful. So powerful. And I think it, I think it's also taking, it's not also limiting yourself to one medium. I love that it's just also try something, explore, keep exploring and let your emotion just happen and and and don't be, don't pigeonhole yourself into one particular space or genre or anything. And she's bringing in collage and photography and paint and and all of those to let her her true emotions, um to express her true emotions and authentically. And she was incredible. incredible And I i hope our our listeners have enjoyed this as much. One other thing that um yeah that I really love, and I think this is true,
00:58:04
Speaker
When she went to the other artist show, not knowing the whole world of fine art and going in with a little bit of, you know, naivete, yeah I actually think there's a blessing to that sometimes.
00:58:19
Speaker
And I think that's another thing that stops people. I think they think often that you have to figure it all out or you have to know all the ins and outs of something to go down that path. But there's also a real beauty to not knowing the rules because when you don't know the rules, you tend to do something that's maybe different or new or unexpected.
00:58:42
Speaker
a hundred percent and people tend to notice you and who sold out of her show, but she did. And, you know, that is because maybe she wasn't playing by the quote unquote standard rules she played outside of the box. And I love that. And that's so be courageous, everyone. And we thank you again for joining us and peace, love and rebloom until our next episode.
00:59:08
Speaker
Life is too short not to follow your passions, so go out there and let your heart plant you where you are meant to be and grow your joy. We will be right here sharing more incredible stories of reinvention with you. Make sure to subscribe to our podcast so you never miss an episode of Rebloom. Until next time, I'm Jamie Jamison. And I'm Lori Siebert. Peace, love, and Rebloom, dear friends.