Welcome to Working Towards Our Purpose, a podcast that
offers a different perspective on what a job can be. For everyone
out there that's heard that voice in the back of their head asking for something
more, it's time to listen to it. I'm your host, Gino,
and join me as I interview people who have decided to work in their
own purpose. Together, we will learn, become inspired,
and hopefully find our own path towards working in our purpose.
Raheem Nelson is an artist based in New Haven, Connecticut. He went
to school for Visual Arts and completed his education with a BFA
in cartooning. His background is in traditional cartooning
and oil painting. He currently creates his personal and professional
work on an iPad using the Procreate app. He specializes
in graphic design, portraits and pop art. Raheem's work
has currently been featured in NFT New York City arts and
Ideas, the shops at Yale, New Haven cultural the
Arts Council, the Thai Bar and Power to the patients.
Raheem. Welcome to working towards our purpose. Thanks for having
me, Gino. So thank you for being here. Why don't
we start by you just kind of in your own words, telling us a little
bit about yourself and what you do and that sort of thing. Sure. Sounds
good. So a little bit about me is my name is Raheem
Nelson. I'm a New Haven born and raised artist.
I went to ECA, which was amazing.
I didn't quite start my art education at ECA, but I think I
started to come into my own at Aces ECA, which is right on
Audubon Street. I come from a background that is,
like, in cartooning. I grew up on comic
books sonic the Hedgehog, Spider Man, all the
good stuff. And I would basically create my own comics
for grade school. And when I got to ECA, I started to branch
out into oils and life
drawing, which was a big one. A little bit of sculpture, photography, just
like, pretty much trying all the arts. And I kind of took
that influence with me to college. I went
to New York City for college. The School of Visual Arts is where
I went to continue my education, and I went for cartooning.
But I think for me, it was actually oil painting that was, like
the most impactful on me. The way they set it up was
for our foundation year, our freshman year, we would basically
get to try all the arts. So it was like ECA part two pretty
much. And we had a course for oil painting
was like a few hours in a given day where we would just
either paint a live model or we would paint
different bound objects. And it just really helped me a lot in terms
of just getting used to the paint and creating
something on a canvas. And now I do that stuff digitally. So it's just
interesting how I was able to go to
ECA, get all this learning
really early in my art know, still being
a student and then being able to continue that to New York. So
I love being an artist, born and raised in New Haven. I bring
that energy, the culture, the community, and I put that into my
work. So that's what I pride myself on. Awesome. Thanks
for sharing that. So what kind of led you
to the wanting to go to college for art school? Was it ECA and being
involved in arts at an early like, did you ever
have some thoughts of going to college for different majors,
or did you decide early on that you wanted to be an artist? Yeah, it
was definitely early on. Probably like age seven or eight, to be
honest. Really? I've been just interested in being
an artist for a long time and then also doing it professionally. I
think that was something that I've always been curious about.
So I think I always knew it was going to be like going
to an art college because I just loved the idea of being
trained and developed by different instructors in the arts.
And I think SVA came about
because my mom actually, when she was in high school, she
had a poster of SVA,
and it was like one of their vintage posters and stuff. So she'd tell me
about it, and she'd like, oh, have you thought about this school? And so we
started looking at it, and then they were actually one of the few
schools that we found at the time that took cartooning
as a major, and it was accredited. And then it was also in New York.
And I have a love for New York City, and I love the idea of
being from New Haven but going to New York for college. So I think
it was ingrained in me for a while where art college
was just going to be the move, and that was going to be the next
step of my creative journey. Very cool.
So what made you come back to New Haven after going
to college in New York? I know you're from here and you grew
up here, but what draws an artist,
I guess, back to New Haven? That's a good question.
So the caveat to
going to school in New York, as amazing an experience as it was, as
fun as it was, it was very expensive.
And I never had that chance to actually
dorm on campus. My mom, and know, because she
was helping me greatly, know, pay through college.
And I had grants and loans and stuff like that.
But the room and board was just like, too much. And it was
like, well, if you want to go, you're going to have to consider
commuting. So pretty much for those four years,
I was hopping on the Metro North and then going to class,
like, waking up super early most days because I had to be there for
like, 09:00. So, like, getting the early, early trains
had been taking trains for a long time at that point, and
it was like, a huge undertaking. But I knew it's what
had to be done at the time. So I think making that
transition, deciding to stay in New Haven
and work out here, wasn't that difficult
because I was already commuting between two places and I was like, okay,
it's actually cost effective to
be in New haven, work in New Haven. And if I get
work in New York, which I still know, I can hop on the
train, go meet a client or have it be a zoom meeting or something.
So I think I started developing this way of working,
like, even as a student, where it's like, okay, I live in New Haven, but
I work in New York. I have my classes in New York. So I think
for me, the switch was pretty easy. After I didn't have
to commute necessarily to get to class, it was like, okay, I'm going to go
back to New Haven because I'm still living here, and then just make it work
that way because I think it's just a lot more cost effective.
Interesting point of view. Yeah. Never thought about it like that. It definitely is
easy access to the city from here. That's definitely a plus, for
sure. So what did it look like after you graduated college
and trying to get work in being an artist? And I
imagine a lot of times artists struggle with finding
a job that can pay, and you also have the creative freedom that you want.
What did that look like for you? Yeah, what that looked like for me
was I think it was a lot of self discovery because
I think after graduation, I was kind of
torn between do I want to purely be a
cartoonist or purely be like, an illustrator. And I wasn't
really thinking, like, how I am now, where I've got all these
skills. Like, okay, I can get work in cartooning here. I can get illustration
work over here. For me, it was like black and white at the time. It's
like, okay, if I'm going to commit to cartooning, then this is the work I'm
going to kind of look at, thinking like, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, kind
of. I think right after
graduation, I kind of wanted to be on more of the illustration
path. And I think at first, finding
work was actually pretty difficult. I was
able to curate a show with Arts Council right out of college, which was
great. So that helped with visibility. But in terms of just
having sustainable income, that didn't come until much later.
And I think that was one
area I would have liked more support on in
college. Just like the art business side of it. I think SBA
was great for art education,
learning the techniques. But in terms of the business part of it,
and most art colleges do this too. It's not just SBA. I think
they can support students more efficiently where that's
concerned. So it's like a lot of trial by know,
I learned a lot at the, you know, shout out to my
friend Jose and Winter and everybody over
there. They helped me kind of develop a
business acumen as an artist. And so
I would notice that, hey, I can maybe
do some cartooning for a newspaper, make some
income and do other things like that where
I'm submitting to art shows. So it's like a lot of just finding
myself and making sure I
had a day job. I had a day job as an
assistant teacher for different middle schools and
high schools and everything to support my art. Because I considered like,
hey, I don't necessarily have a
backup plan. It's going to be difficult to want to create
art anyway if the bills aren't paid. So I tried to think of those things
just right out of the gate. Yeah, that's a really
good perspective. I think as far as my own path, I came
from a corporate job and then I thought to myself, once I get to a
place where I can quit, then I'll just be able to do my business or
whatever I'm doing full time. And then I went through like a patch where
I was doing that, but then it got to the point where it became super
overwhelming and burnt out because the money wasn't there. So I think that's
good foresight on your part to be able to be like, well, let me take
the pressure of bill paying off with this thing and then continue
to I kind of learned that the hard way. I
understand. How did
that look for you as far as being able to give yourself creativity?
Did you have jobs that gave you
weekdays or nights and weekends to work on your art? How did you balance
both of those things while still pursuing creative
endeavors? Yeah, quick question. I always find a way
to make it work where I can have time for
my creative endeavors. For a long time, pretty
much right out of college, until most recently,
I had been working as a paraprofessional in the
school system. So summers off
hours be like, I think around seven to
02:00. So 02:00 on
if I wanted to go to Co working spaces and
I could do that. If I wanted to take other assignments,
I could do that, have meetings and things like that. So there were
pockets of time where I could do that. Like in Buffett, I wanted to go
to New York City after getting out of work, having like
02:00 until the evening, like pretty much a lot of
time. So I was able to use that to just get a ton of things
done with clients, developing different
relationships and business, having that window
was really essential. And sometimes,
well, for instance, this example comes to mind. I was working
for troop school, and then I was also
doing art classes for arts for learning.
And sometimes there would be, like, a conflict because as
a paraprofessional, they want you to go and cover a class
if somebody is out or if somebody has, like,
a staff meeting or something. So there was a lot of that. So sometimes
if I would have a class to teach off site at arts for learning,
I would have to make a request of my school to say, like, hey, I
need to leave for this point in the day, and
I'll be back at this time, and getting just the clearance
to have that happen. It was great that I was working with people that
were gracious enough to help empower me to do that.
And then sometimes I would have classes on the weekends and stuff
that I would teach, too, and it wouldn't be a conflict, but just
making time for art and also making time to pay the bills.
And, like, fast forward to the job that I have now at
the milford arts council, which is absolutely
aligned with me being an artist, because I'm helping the
milford arts council have a voice with their communications and their
marketing. I've done a lot of things on social
media for my own brand that I'm able to now take
and put into this nonprofit, and I'm
just having a blast. Like, the board is happy with the work
I'm doing. My boss is happy with the work I'm doing. And we're able to
just have this dialogue and this conversation where it's like,
okay, if you want to take a meeting off site, go take some photos
for an event that has to do with the Milford arts Council, come back, edit
that, and then get it on social media. That could be
considered one of my work days, or I can be remote and I can send
out press releases and I can send out briefs to people. And
it's just kind of like I'm still making that
adjustment to having a job like this because it
has structure, but it's more fluid
than my job at New Haven Public Schools. Like, new haven
public schools, I have to be there by, know, leaving that to
being in one classroom for the most part during the day, whereas
Milford arts council, it's like, okay, you're in the office sometimes
you can also be remote. They encourage me to take on
entrepreneurial stuff as long as it doesn't conflict with the job. So it's like just
being in this space where I'm working in an arts
council as an artist, doing the communication, it's like
everything is aligned with what I
want, where it's like, I'm able to
work on my creative endeavors and have even more flexibility
than if I was still in the school system. Yeah, that's awesome.
I'm happy that you got that job, and congratulations.
Thank you. I kind of also feel like I'm in a similar space.
I've done various side jobs while pursuing my
entrepreneur endeavors, and this year I got a new job at Omo
Bagels in town and kind of just started doing, like
I think I applied to be a barista because I wanted to learn that trade.
But ever since working there, it's a very small, tight knit company, and the
owners are really great and give me the flexibility to kind
of do whatever interests me. And since I started, I've done farmers
markets, and now I'm kind of grown into a social media kind of
content role, which kind of also aligns with my
business stuff. So it's nice to have a different job
that pays bills that you can kind of, like you
said, kind of go back and forth and be like, oh, I learned this over
here, and I can bring it to your business. And I learned this at your
business, and I can bring it to my business. So I think that's kind of,
like, for me, an important point to highlight, because I think
sometimes when you think of being an entrepreneur, you think
you can only have your own business, like I alluded to before
my first year quitting. It's like, I only can do this. I can't do anything
else, or otherwise I'm a failure. But it's like, sometimes that's nice
to interact with other people at a job, and then you get
inspiration from taking time off of your own
thing. So I think that that's really cool. So
shifting a little bit, I do want to talk about your specific art. And
one thing that really interests me that you do is this thing that you call
graphic recordings, and I've never seen it anywhere else.
Maybe it's a thing you could give us more information about what they are, but
I just think that they're a really cool idea, and I think you do them
really nicely. So if you want to explain what. They are thank
you. Yeah. So put simply, graphic
recording is like the art of me,
an artist. I would go into a meeting
or a conference, event, whatever, where
somebody is speaking and wanting to engage an audience.
I, the artist, would be creating visual notes
for what's being said. And I think I'm still always trying to
find a way to explain this so that it's like, in layman's terms,
basically creating a visual
summary of a meeting or a
conference. So by the end of it, you can look at the illustration
with some of the words, some of the bullet points, basically, of what people
are talking about, and then say, like, okay,
this meeting was about social justice reform. This
meeting was about clean energy. This meeting was about
being empowered in the arts in New Haven.
And I love graphic recording because
I'm able to provide a service where people have a voice,
and it's like, you don't have to have just a PowerPoint
presentation or the standard things that you would have for a meeting.
And I'm happy to say I won
a grant from the city New Haven Department of Arts, Cultural
and Tourism in collaboration with the Arts Council to do
graphic recording for New Haven. That's awesome. And my own experience
thank you. My own experience with graphic recording comes from New York.
I had a brief time working in Brooklyn for a company, and
they showed me the ropes of doing graphic recording. Go on site
in Brooklyn to do it, different parts of Manhattan, and then
sometimes traveling. So I got that experience to go to
Texas and go to where else to go, like
Chicago, and create these illustrations. And it
can be done traditionally. If it's done
traditionally, it's usually done like a foam core board and markers.
And you either pack it up, take it with you, or you ship it
to the client, and then you're putting it on easel so you're kind of
drawing and writing things out using these big markers. So I know
how to do it that way. But being a mobile digital
artist and wanting to just make things super simple for
myself and the client, I create all the artwork on an
iPad. So I'll go into a meeting if it's like an in person
meeting. If not, I'll just do zoom. I'll sit down in the meeting, the
person's talking, and usually clients will hire me to
do, like, a keynote presentation or maybe like a keynote
presentation, and then maybe some fireside chats
or something. It just depends on the nature of the job. And so
after all that work is finished and maybe I
have like three, four illustrations to go with
these hour long meetings, then the client is
receiving the illustration that they can turn into a
PDF and submit to their attendees, or they can print
it out. So there are those two things. And then I also like to provide
a time lapse video because Procreate does that
automatically in the background so you can actually see the words coming
out, like where if somebody's talking about marketing and branding,
those words might pop up. And then I'm creating illustrations
that have to do with that, which is why I love having at
least a meeting or two with the client before
actually get on site or the zoom call starts. So
I'm having things like color palettes, maybe like a run
of show, like an agenda. Having an agenda is really helpful for graphic
recording because I want to know what's the talk going to be
about. Is there going to be a title for the talk that
I can kind of include in the illustration and then maybe other
things as well to go with it. I recently did a graphic
recording for Arts and Ideas, their Rise Gala that they
had most recently. And what I enjoyed about it is
it's like another form of graphic recording where it's even
more interactive. It's called a social listening
mural. So I sit in one place and it was in
Lost in New Haven, which is the new museum that's going to be opening soon.
And people would come over and there was a prompt
that says, what's New Haven mean to you? In one
word? And so people would come over and they were excited
because they, for the most part got a little flustered, like, oh,
well, like New Haven, one word. Like, I have to come back to you on
that. So they would circle the room and then they would come back
and say, oh, I have my word. And so some people
would come back and check in to see where the illustration
was. And so I'd have these words, and I
think part of it I had like a hand extended and then there's like a
bind coming out of the person's hand and then different words that sum up
their New Haven experience. And by the end of the night, it
was projected for everybody to see that was having dinner.
So everybody there was able to contribute to this
illustration. So as excited as I am about the standard
graphic recording where I'm going to meetings and I'm taking visual notes and stuff,
the social listening mural part of it is the most exciting for me
because it's like truly interactive art where people get to
contribute to how it looks by the end of the night. Wow, that's super
cool. That's really an interesting way to
make live art and have people contribute to it and
be such a collaborative thing. That's really cool. Do you have any
more of those kind of like lined up? Or do you want to do more
of those sorts of yeah, yeah. To be
honest, graphic recording is going to
be at the forefront of my business.
I'm also doing traditional
murals for Yale, which has been amazing. I've done a
few illustration jobs for Yale as well, editorial stuff.
But yeah, graphic recording is like number one for me. It's not
only lucrative, but I'm able to help people. I'm able
to help educate people. And then I myself, like being an
artist, going into a meeting or whatever, I'm able to learn something
too. So I think it's just like so much synergy
with the skill and just what comes out of it, just what can be used
for different meetings. So I have something
lined up for Hartford that I'm going to be doing in a few weeks. And
I just got an email this morning from a long term
client of mine. They're more like an art agency, so they connect me with their
clients about an opportunity in New Orleans, like
going in person and doing graphic recording. And that's
kind of been like a dream to go back to New Orleans. I say
go back to New Orleans because I've done murals out there, and I only went
once and I haven't been back. So I was like, how do I go back
on business and have that be covered? So
make that happen. But yeah, I think it's a skill
where I can use to travel to different states. I
want to go to different countries and do it. To be honest, I just want
to catch on. And I wanted to start in New Haven. For me, it was
important to start in New Haven and say, like, hey, this is the
skill that I'm doing. I was born and raised here.
I want to bring this skill to New Haven before I really bring it to
other places. And thankfully, I've been able to do that. Like the graphic recordings I've
done for the city and arts and ideas. I think it's really
starting to catch on. So it's not just for me,
like, being a self sustained, sustainable
artist. It's like, how can I do good somewhere? Whether it's for
a nonprofit or different organizations, how can my
graphic recording be used to uplift people? And I think that's like my
mission statement. Yeah, I love that. That's awesome.
So not only the graphic design stuff, you also
do NFTs and you're into passion.
You have so many interests, it seems, but
you were able to go to New York as part of an NFT
that you made. Can you explain to us a little bit more about NFTs
and how NFTs could be helpful for artists and used as
artists and that sort of thing? Sure. So NFTs mean
non fungible token. It's basically something you can buy
on a digital marketplace. Doesn't have to be a piece of art. It can
be like a song or tickets to a show, for
example. I use it for my art.
And I think what's been great about NFTs is that
I've always looked for a way to sell my digital fine
art, and usually it's been like, in
exhibitions or galleries, and I
love doing that. And at the same time, it's like, how
can I maximize my profits and take
something that starts out as a digital file and sell
that where whoever gets it, they can put it up in their
gallery and put it on a monitor or a digital canvas or something like
that. So I think that's where NFTs came in for me, where it's
like this really cool digital marketplace
to sell art and then teaching myself the ins and outs of it.
And I think what I love most about NFTs is the
artist community. I made a lot of friends on social
media just because we were all kind of out
to support each other with the art. And it's
still kind of new. People are still figuring it out,
and the market's kind of tanking right now, but
I'm still able to use that to further my career
and then also help other artists out too. Whether
it's just like a retweet or like a re posting or
something, but where NFT NYC is concerned. And
I actually just applied for this. Again, they
had this exhibition that was going to be in New York and this was
like their second year doing it. I applied the first year, didn't get
in. And I applied for a second year with a piece that
was like near and dear to my heart. And I'm going to switch subjects and
then kind of go back. But it's all part of the same story. This
piece was of Solange, and
I went to Paris in 2017, like this
big trip to Europe and stuff. And I went to the Louvre. And I absolutely
love what I saw in terms of all the paintings and the
Impressionism and just soaking up all these
artistic ideas, looking at the old masters and stuff. So I
kind of brought that energy back to New Haven. Fast forward to
that. I want to say, like September, I guess. I
ran to a friend of mine at Rudy's and he was like, hey, I
want you to contribute artwork for the show. And I hadn't
really listened to no, I was into Solange's
music at the time, but I didn't realize this
friend of mine was like organizing the whole show on her music. So I was
like, oh, that's cool. So I just kind of thought, like, what can I
contribute to this art show? And I thought of the Lube and I
thought about all these figures with
these iconic halos. And when I think
of the Renaissance, I think of like the halos that were flat in the
back because they did not know perspective at that point.
So I always thought that was kind of cool, especially how that's kind of made
a resurgence in art. So I kind of took that
iconography and made it like modern day.
So I created this painting of
Solange with her Afro and everything. And then I
put like a red hood over her, like a cloak kind of covering
her. I guess I was thinking like the Knights Templar or something like that or
like Lord of the Rings. And then I had like a halo, a flat
halo behind her that had song lyrics from one
of her most iconic songs. And then the background was
like kind of brushstrokes, impressionism
kind of thing. And then it was to be printed on
canvas. And I thought like, okay, I need to go big with this.
I need to make an impression. So I went like 36
by 42 inch canvas, which is like just about as big
as I am and ended up being the centerpiece of the
art show. And I submitted this piece to
Nftnyc because this piece that
I exhibited at Artspace when it was open is the
place where I met my now wife because she was the
host of the event. And
it's just wild to me. The more I. Think of this
piece, it had to be in New York City. Like, it had to be on
this billboard because this piece is, like, what helped me get
married, bring this woman into my life.
So they had this opportunity to get
artwork on a billboard in Times Square. So that was, like, one of the main
draws for me. I submit it, they tell me that I'm
in I guess the message goes to spam or something.
So I discover it in my junk folder. I was like, oh, I need to
respond to this, right? Yes, I'm
interested. And not only is
it it's basically, like, where the ball drops. Like, that's where my art was seen.
And then, like, two billboards, like, one to the
left, one to the right, and my wife
was there. My friend Frank Brady was there as well,
and a few other people just to support
this monumentous occasion for my art
happening. It's like, words don't really do it
justice. That feeling like, oh, my artwork is on, like, a
billboard. And I was able to make
that happen with all of this hard work and this dedication
and really, like, taking an
international trip, because getting inspiration in a different place is
amazing, and then coming back and putting that into my art.
So just having my artwork seen in a place
that's considered, like, the center of the world is just
hugely amazing. I don't really have the
words, just sum up what it was like. And then the next
day was great too, because it was like, a two, three day
conference. This painting was used in their
branding, so they had these digital tickets that you could get,
like, NFT tickets you could get. And this painting was featured on
that, and it was featured at the Javits Center where the
presentations were. So, like, on this big canvas board as
you go in my piece, was there, like, one of
the artist tickets you could get and then another canvas that
was like I don't remember how big it was, but it was huge. Like, pretty
much any artist that contributed artwork
and said, yes, you can turn my artwork into a ticket, those were
featured too. So it was just, like, a huge marketing
and branding opportunity for my work. And then
I would go on social media, I think, maybe a
day or two before the conference. And then people
because people would randomly get a ticket, like, if you got a ticket
to the show, you might get my work or somebody else's. People
kept tweeting me. It's like, hey, I got your ticket. I really love this piece.
And it was just, like, such a great
moment as a creative person where people are getting
to discover a piece of art that's so
impactful and so important to me, where it helped me get
married, it helped me meet this person, and now people are getting to experience
it on their own, too. So it was just like, something else.
Wow, that's crazy. I remember seeing you post about it and
being super happy for you and being like, wow, you're in Times Square where the
ball drops. That's insane because I also was fortunate enough to see the
actual canvas that you had. It was up at Known for a little bit,
and it is an amazing piece. So that's really cool that it's got such meaning
to you and that was the one that propelled you to that
sort of, I guess, validation, right? Yeah,
exactly. That's really cool. Thanks for sharing
that story. No problem. So, yeah, as you're
talking about all the different things that you do, I think something that kind
of I noticed or came up for me is that it seems as if you
were never really afraid to try a bunch of things, to
just go and try different mediums of art or trying
different things with art. I think that's kind of an important
thing. And more so important for me as of
recent, is just, like, trying a bunch of things. And even if you can't see
the outcome of it, just see what happens because it'll lead to
things that you never really know without doing it. You would never know
that that could happen. Where do you think that maybe that
came from for you? The openness to maybe try
everything? Yeah, that's a really good point.
I think it comes from my entrepreneurial
spirit, and I think I've been
an entrepreneur for, like, a very young
age when I was doing a lot of
comic books. And I would pretty
much do a comic book a month for myself,
like, whatever story I was developing or, like, from being
a kid. And I remember my mom and I went
to New York for, like, I think it was like the Big Apple Con or
something, and they were publishing this comic book
series called Disney Adventures, and they were interviewing one of the
ladies from the book. And so my mom raised her hand, asked like,
oh, what would it take for my son to be an entrepreneur? Like,
he's doing these comics. He sells them to his friends
sometimes, and he does this whenever he can in his spare
time. So I was, like, drawing it, writing it,
coloring it. I was doing everything. And so the woman answers the question.
It's like, oh, your son is already an entrepreneur. Like, he's already doing it.
And that was just extremely validating for
both me and my mom to know that I was already on this
path to entrepreneurship. And I think it just kind of
comes down to, like, let me see what works. And if it doesn't work, I'm
going to go back to the drawing board. Professionally, I've tried,
like, okay, maybe I'll just be a
portrait artist and do families and businesses and
stuff like that. Or maybe I'll do
urban landscapes and make a go at that. So
some of these things that may not have taken off,
I'll still keep them in my toolkit, but it's like,
okay, maybe this won't propel me where I need to go. Like,
NFTs was an experiment and that has propelled me to a
certain point with Times Square and graphic
recording. I think that's going to continue to
propel me as well because it's just sustainable.
And there are just a lot of businesses, I think, that can use
visual notes for their meetings, where visual notes will
enhance what's being talked about so that people remember it,
so they remember the presentator. So that
whoever's presenting feels supported in what they're doing because
it's like they're kind of being able to play off of the art. It's like
if I'm doing graphic recording and I'm projecting it live,
whoever's speaking can see it come together behind them or beside them.
So that kind of just enhances everything. So
I guess I kind of look like, where is there a need for
the art professionally? And if there's
not, or not as much as I would like, then I can kind of go
back to the drawing board. I think photography has
also taken off for me, too. It's something I'm doing a lot of.
At my current job at Milford Arts Council, we had an
exhibit recently called Tattoo Tribe.
And one way I was able to support them was by
going a little bit early, taking pictures of people coming in and
then taking pictures throughout the night. So I've got
the Canon revel that my wife and I use. And then
I've got a tripod set up on stage to capture
video. So I'm capturing video in one place. I'm
doing still photography. And then there was one
point in the night where I kind of went up the stairs to the office,
and then I was able to kind of open
up. It's almost like a little staging area, like you can see
over to where the crowd would be. So I got some nice aerial
shots too. So I think
for one thing, my photography is informed by
my background as a cartoonist. Or like one thing I can appreciate about
cartoonists and kind of movies and TV is that
it's kind of like a similar language. So if I'm taking a
photo, I'm thinking, how can I tell this story? How can I tell this story
in a cinematic way? So I was able to take all that footage and
photos and stuff, and I turned it into a reel
for the local Arts Council Instagram account.
And I kind of composed it like a movie where the
curator spoke at one part of the night just about
his experience. So I isolated that and then
I kind of put that as, like, the narration
behind this movie scene because that's how I treat it. Like
at the beginning opening credits, like it says,
Tattoo Tribe opening exhibition. The camera
follows you in. So you're seeing where the
crowd is and it's like panning to see the audience, like
kind of things slow down, they speed up, and then the whole time it's
like this person's voiceover guiding you through the exhibit.
And I ended it where it fades to black. And then
I think the line he says something like, without my
clients, I would be nothing, and then it fades to black. I was like, oh,
that's it. That's getting posted and just kind of
storyboarding it in my head and then composing it and then putting
it out there in the world. So even though I'm not necessarily
creating comic books as often as I used to,
I'm kind of looking at videography and photography in a
similar way. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It's
interesting to kind of see how your early influence of comic books
has kind of led to all of everything that you're doing now. And I think
that's important to think about too, is like
transferable skills in the old things that you used to do. And
even so, for me, when I was in a corporate engineering job,
there's still transferable skills that I learned even going through
engineering school that I can then apply to what I'm doing now.
So none of it is really wasted time. It's more so
just propelling you to get to wherever you're supposed to be.
So I think your story has done a good job of showing that, for
sure. So, yeah, we are kind of getting to the end of our time here.
So I have a couple more questions for you. Sure. One, if
you can define what purpose means to you
and how you find purpose in your work, because it has a different
definition for everybody, but I'd. Like to get your thoughts on it. Cool.
Yeah. I like to think that
purpose and happiness go hand in
hand and that you can't have
one without the other. I look at the job I have
now. I look at the kind of commissions and freelance work that I
have and some of the classes that I teach and it all
causes me a lot of happiness. And that makes me
think of alignment. Like, this is aligned with my
values. This is aligned with what I feel like I was put
on this earth to do, connect with people, uplift people
through art. So if this is causing
me to be happy and other people aren't
negatively impacted by it, I think I see that as
being my purpose. And in terms of
the art part of it, I think, again, it goes back
to alignment. Like, what is this painting going to
serve either to me or to my
audience? And I usually think of my audience when I'm working
on something like, how is this going to be received? And I'll let that
confine me or anything, but I think there's like a certain
responsibility as an artist where if I'm creating something
I'm putting out in the world, I do want it to be positive or I
want it to kind of spark a dialogue in a
conversation. And sometimes I'll go back to it like doing political
art. So it'll be whimsical and it'll be humorous, but
it's also like, okay, do you really want this person as president? Like,
this is what I'm trying to showcase to you in this artwork.
So I always think of intent and
what does this piece stand for? What do I stand for as an artist? And
I want to convey that clearly every time I put something out in the
world. Yeah, no, I really like that.
The happiness and the purpose kind of being interrelated. I'm not
sure I've ever thought about it like that before, but it makes total sense to
me when you said it. So the last question that I
have for you is what's next for you and how can people support you
and follow the work that you do? Oh,
great. So what's next for me, I think,
is more graphic recording jobs.
I'd love to attend more events and get
into some conferences where I can kind of be doing this for a few days
at a time and provide like, a ton of work to a client. That would
be great. I definitely want to travel
more. My wife and I are organizing
networking events with the elements of
Abundance, so it would be a tour in Ghana. So we're working on
that. You can actually get your tickets for that now for it. It's going to
be amazing. Yeah. And
in terms of finding me and supporting me, my website
is Raheemnelson.com. You can
follow me on Instagram at Raheem Nelson Arts or at
Raheem Nelson Style as well because I'm definitely into
fashion and suits and all that stuff and
definitely give the Milford Arts Council a follow as well too.
Like, I am doing their communications and their marketing. We have
a lot of amazing productions going on, including the tattoo exhibit that I
mentioned. We're also going to be having a short film be shown at the Milford
Arts Center and then a closing exhibition from our
curator, who is also I forget what instrument he plays, but I know he's
in a band and he's talented. But yeah, it's going to be a
great year, and I'm really happy to be on
here too, Gino. Like, it's been a lot of fun. Yeah. Well, thanks so much
for coming on and sharing your story and your wisdom. And I'll be sure to
get all the links in the show notes so people can find that stuff easily.
But yeah. Thank you so much for your time, Raheem. I appreciate you being on
here. No problem. This is great gino. Thanks.
Thanks for tuning in and listening to Working towards our purpose.
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