The United States continues down a slope that many artists have labeled as a “cultural depression”, where virtually every creative event has been canceled. Reports by the Americans for the Arts has noted that an estimated 15.2 billion dollars has been extracted from the creative industry due to this pandemic and 37% of art organizations have had difficulties providing their product virtually. This sad reality can have a trickling effect due to the amount of bars, restaurants, and retail spaces that rely heavily on cultural events to attract customers. During this period of limited government support, individual artists are finding themselves in the crosshairs of a troublesome situation. The National Endowment for the Arts illustrates that unemployment rates amongst professions like dancers, singers, and painters have skyrocketed compared to the overall national average. These unemployed artists then have to battle the mental health crisis that comes along with isolation and loneliness. Studies have proven that 30 minutes of creative activities can lower anxiety and depression, so separating a professional from their artistic passion can create a complicated issue. Will artists be able to adapt to the new normal and can there be a creative up rival after COVID-19? I reached out to Queen Kima, a multi-disciplinary artist and Dallas native, who is determined to create an inclusive environment that facilitates love and growth. She specializes in visual arts and entertainment and can be seen from the screen to the stage.
A modernistic style called “Art Deco” was introduced due to the effects of the 1918 flu pandemic. This style emphasized the color white to symbolize hygiene. Do you foresee this pandemic having any influences on art pieces moving forward and have you noticed any style changes amongst your own work?
I think that graffiti art for the first time in a long time is going to have its mainstage, but especially with outdoor being a huge thing people are getting to see live graffiti art more and really start to kind of appreciate graffiti art and not like vandalism such as gang-related stuff. Just to clarify for anybody who might wonder, actually graffiti art. I think that style, and then also video projects, like visual projects will have a huge comeback. Even from photos, there’s a famous jewelry designer called Don, he calls himself Don the Junkman. He’s really popular and he’s done some stuff for a lot of really large platforms. Before COVID, he was mostly just focusing on jewelry and then he would create stylistic components for photo shoots, like props, decorated props and things like that. I love his style, it’s very similar to glam.
If you would imagine diamonds and gold and stuff like that, and it’s almost gouty, but not. It’s just enough to make you want it, but he has transitioned into more visual art projects. That’s how I’ve seen him grow his platform over the pandemic, it’s now instead of just having cool photo shoots, he’s creating full photo shoots instead of being the person to bring in that one cool piece. He’s conceptualizing whole shoots and he’s grown his team and I can tell he’s rebranded a little and he’s doing these really avant-garde style projects for social media because he already has the platform. And so that’s working out for him really well. So I think that those visual kind of projects, really a lot of bright flashy, a lot of color and things like that. I don’t know what we’re going to call it, but that’s where I see it going. Very glamorous and funky at the same time. I think that our generation is so open to so many different things that it’s almost trash can art in a good way.
Helen Klebesadel, a well-known visual artist, has mentioned to Artwork Archive that she has started focusing more on her virtual creativity coaching. What has your pivot to virtual opportunities been like and do you think well-known artists in the past could succeed in today’s multi-media environment?
Stoicism was one of my words for last year and it was really convenient. I have a website which had tracked most of my traffic, but what can I do? I started doing research and what I found was a lot of those third-party platforms were not ideal. Even though we are in social media society, social media is really saturated and even though there is a method to algorithms and SEO and all that good stuff, a lot of it is just chance. A lot of it is chance that somebody with a big platform was scrolling and you just so happen to get a hundred views, which is good for you and they saw it and they laughed and they reposted it and then 2000 people saw it and then out of those 2000 people, 30% of them thought it was funny and they shared it and now you’re viral. And there’s no way to predict that. I have a friend that is signed to a major label who got signed to the label because somebody famous likes their song. Their hairstylist was playing music, getting their hair done and they liked the song and she got him a contract with a huge record label. What are the odds of that? It was a situation that was outside of yourself that aligns you perfectly with that opportunity, because it was meant for you. So I think that that is still very much a factor and that we will still have those organic moments but for me I’m not a huge social media person. So I just knew honestly, I can discipline myself to do the work, but am I going to want to do it? And then I used a platform called bandzoogle for my website and they helped a lot. They were like, “we’re upgrading the subscriber package for your web options so that you guys can still monetize your art.”
These companies are realizing that subscriptions are the future. Adobe is a great example. You can’t even buy Adobe products anymore. You have to do a lot of marketing to be successful. My good friend, Meka Jackson, has just been featured in Source Magazine recently and he also is the owner of the Creators Don’t Die studio. He is a social media marketing pro and is really good at cross platform marketing and so I’ve seen people’s formulas that work. A lot of people use his formula also because he is so popular and it works for urban artists and they can be able to pivot like that. I make more conversational pieces or fine art pieces and things like that, those environments are not going to be as fruitful. The price point of what I’m selling, it’s not a good market. So I had to learn that even though I love doing those events, these are young 20-somethings. Economically, they can’t afford my $275 painting. They paid $5 for that ticket to get in there, they’re not going to be able to buy it. So I was able to do the subscription thing and that works for me.
I’ll say Twitch is a fantastic platform because Twitch is very straightforward. Twitch’s originally known for gaming, but they are trying to expand their social demographic and they want more types of art forms because gaming is an art form, even though people don’t want to give gamers credit. Gaming is an art form and it requires a serious level of dexterity, focus, concentration, and problem solving on the fly. But I actually am recently a Twitch affiliate and I’ll start getting paid for my Twitch streams. I don’t think a lot of people still know about it because it is rooted in gaming and computers and STEM is usually in their own bubbles. So you’ve got to at least have some mild level of understanding of how it works and I think that people just need to know that number one, they can’t afford to have somebody running it. They need to not find them on social media because there’s a lot of scamming going on. You need to talk to a real person that actually is there that can physically be there with you because it’s not going to work the same as trying to find somebody virtually to run your social media and things for you, it’s definitely going to have to be somebody that can be there hands-on with the artists, because the artist is producing something physical. So that person needs to be able to translate their physical art into digital and you just can’t do that. So somebody online has never even been in your gallery or in your space to see your art, feel your art, smell your art, and see how you are as an artist and things like that. So I think there still needs to be that bridge, but it’s very much possible for older artists to get on the bandwagon. And I say, go the Twitch way because it’s a very straightforward app. It’s super easy. You just need a capture card that costs maybe $200 and you don’t even need that if you want to just stream off your phone. But if you go to my Twitch, I have really high-quality visuals, which probably has something to do with why I was able to make affiliate so quickly.
The Boston Globe wrote on top outdoor hot spots for murals and sculptures in the local area, providing photos of young artists flying out to the city to work on new projects. Do you forecast any specific cities or regions that will become artistic havens after COVID-19? Is there any key differences between marketing your work in outdoor events versus inside a traditional gallery?
There are huge differences. I will say that I have a background in sales and direct marketing, so brand ambassador roles. I’ve been with big brands where I’m getting tents and equipment and inventory going out to trade shows, festivals, all kinds of huge events. They usually hire artists to be brand ambassadors for that kind of stuff if you’re good at sales, because you have to be able to get people’s attention. So it’s just like the progressive commercials are funny and they’re like skits basically, but they’re really marketing progressive and you’re entertained. It feels like you’re still watching TV, so you don’t mind it. So you go outside to an outdoor event, it’s like, all right, how do I get these people to have fun with me? Because that’s really what it is, you’re creating an experience because they’re already out there. If they’re out there to see you, then it’s almost like a concert kind of feel to where that person is your audience, but then the beauty in the scenery outside is you have the option to catch people who didn’t expect to see you today. Like the Trinity grove, somebody could be driving by and see a large collection of people and not be doing anything, looking for something to do and now you got a huge fan and this person has money and they’re buying stuff and you never would have met them if you hadn’t been out there on the street doing art. So you got this huge level of exposure. I’ve met so many people doing trade shows, outdoor events and stuff like that. I think that it’s easier because we’re already conditioned to see outside as fun at a level. We’re programmed from a very small age that going outside means we’re going to find fun. So the mentality of people coming is going to be, I feel easier to sell to, whereas gallery experiences can often be a little bit more showboating, kind of posh. You’re going there for the experience, but you might not intend to spend money.
The experience of a gallery is to get to know the artist who is behind this art that visually appeals you or not and I think that what COVID is doing for art is actually positive, and I think that it’s weeding out pretentious people because there’s not a space for them anymore, I’ll just be completely honest. I’ve had experiences with pretentious people in this business and try not to take things personally and I’ve learned to ask questions before I respond, especially if it triggers me emotionally.
Americans for the Arts reported that 66% of artists had limited access to resources, spaces, or people necessary for their work. The surveys were also to gain an understanding on the mental health impacts of sheltering in place and social distancing. Do you draw more creativity from isolation or networking and can collaborations be easily done in the current COVID-19 climate?
I would like to just preface what my personal definition of an artist is because that’s a big conversation in itself. If you were to address it from a colloquial level of artists, then everybody’s an artist. We all have the ability to see art, express art, and appreciate art. I think this is a really safe space to cover that because people who choose to make the sacrifice of financial stability or even going against the grain of their families by not going into what is considered a more stable profession, have a different level of internal commitment. This commitment can often manifest from a place of suffering. So people who usually go into art as a profession would be genuinely miserable without doing so. When you compared this with people who kind of are hobby artists, they adapt to this environment differently. A lot of them grew a lot because they had this opportunity not to be influenced by their peers and not so much opportunity to copy or recreate different styles of art which I have no feelings about it either way. Just that lack of access to being influenced by other artists have given a lot of people the opportunity to come into their own style of art and have been able to find a level of individualism within themselves. Meanwhile, some of the more career artists can be a hit or miss, depending on the level of resources.
I’ve seen people just completely down and out, who’ve been in their career for like 15 years and most likely are audio technical artists. There’s not really anything else for them to do that they know of. I had a conversation with a really popular audio engineer who runs sound audio at Trees and a lot of those larger concert venues and COVID left him confused. It left him thinking “I don’t even have a resume to go into another field”. And then when you look at the pay grade of those professional fields, like I’m living a lifestyle right now that’s maintained by the amount of money I make doing this. If I don’t have a skillset in something else, I’m not going to be able to go to something else and still make the amount of income that I’m used to. My whole entire lifestyle has changed and so that’s really impactful on mental health. I’ll say for myself personally, I had already had seasons of growth where I had to overcome those kinds of obstacles. So for me personally, it was just an opportunity to show myself that I have grown in those ways and I do believe in myself. It doesn’t matter what the platform is because I am the art, but I’ve grown in my confidence enough to know that and to be able to pivot. I actually really grew a lot and developed a lot from the isolation. It gave me an opportunity to kind of breathe for a second, because prior to COVID 85% of my income was events. Either me being invited out to events as an artist or people having events here in my space, there was always something going on.
So I was able to actually ask, what else do I want to do? Because this actually isn’t as solid as I realized and I actually was kind of appreciative of that and very grateful because I’m actually also a voice coach. My students still continue to come through the pandemic and that’s how I was able to remain financially stable and actually keep them healthy because part of my program is holistic care. You have to care for your body in order to be a successful vocalist. If you’re not taking care of your body, you wake up with allergies one day before a show and your voice is out, that’s no good. You got to be stronger than that physically. Many of my students encountered people during COVID and didn’t catch it. So you have to breathe air, relax, stay in your space, and don’t worry. Then they issued the eviction moratorium and that helped a lot of people and then I’ve seen more people than ever start businesses and stuff like that. I think that this was almost nature’s weed out. You know how you want to be a doctor and then you go to college and you take a weed-out class for freshman year? They’re like, I don’t actually want to do this stuff. Everybody wanted to be an artist until the pandemic and then it was like, this is not safe. I saw one girl who had a huge platform as a musician. She’s a real estate agent now, she’s got thousands of followers. She just scrapped music. She didn’t even warn us. She doesn’t do music anymore, she sells houses. And so she found that that’s what she ended up being more passionate about. So I think some people are more connected to maybe the popularity and the money and they didn’t realize that and now they’re finding other ways to pursue that instead of just saying, Oh, I’m an artist.
