Today we’d like to introduce you to Aaron The Artist.
Hi Aaron, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I believe we all have a purpose in this life, although we may not know what it is. We all have our own unique gifts. I discovered art accidentally. I was 12 years old when I decided to draw out of boredom. According to my mother though, I’ve been an artist as long as I’ve been able to hold a pencil. Who would’ve known that one random drawing would initiate the domino effect which led me here and molded me into who I am today. When I look back, I realize I’ve gravitated toward my purpose my whole life. Interests as a kid, personality traits, and opportunities I’ve pursued, they’ve all pointed to this one thing, this purpose that I know I have. Art changed my life. From a young age I always loved cartoons, I loved the colors, the different art styles, and the animation. All of these things inspired me to create. I loved it so much that the only way I could express just how much I loved it was to draw it. That’s how I started, with the support of my parents I was able to go far in art. Over the years they recognized my passion from a young age and they didn’t hesitate to nurture my passion to create. I’ve said it before and ill say it a million more times, the reason I’ve been able to make it this far was because of my parent’s support, they invested so much into my art which allowed my talent to blossom. When I was a child, I told people I was going be an astronaut, being an artist was never something that crossed my mind. It was just something I did because I loved it. So how did I end up becoming an artist? I’ve stated before in my previous Voyage Houston article that I basically became an Artist out of spite, to prove to everyone who said I couldn’t do it, wrong. Well, I did it, and the feeling quickly faded when I proved them all wrong. It was a short-lived victory. When I reflect on my life and my artistic career, I realized becoming an artist wasn’t my “purpose”. I didn’t do it for me, I did it for them, and that’s why the feeling quickly faded. Once the money started to come in from my artwork it was like a drug and I quickly became an addict. So then there were 2 things fueling me, negativity and my addiction to money. This was an unhealthy combination, but it worked. I used to tell my friends about the dreams I had of becoming successful, having a diamond chain, owning a bunch of designer clothes, and working with the biggest rappers. I did everything I said I would do, and I got everything I said I wanted. One day I looked back at everything I accomplished and felt nothing, disappointed and really depressed. I spiraled into this negative cycle of questioning everything, was this really it? Was all the suffering worth it? Is this what it’s supposed to feel like? I felt empty. Then things took a huge turn, and my whole world changed. The unfortunate thing about being an artist was that my income was directly tied to my commission work sales. Why is that unfortunate? because when inflation hit, I took a huge hit as well. If nobody had money to spend on art, then I was out of luck. My biggest fear as a full-time artist had come true. The art money had dried up. So now the 2 things I was fueling myself with had dried out as well. I feel like I was forced into rehab. It was rough. My ego had taken such a critically hit, and I was so afraid of failure. I am my biggest critic, when things started to go downhill, my mental health went down with it. This was the greatest blessing that happened to me. How can I say that? I was losing everything that I tied my identity to, money & success. If you’re paying attention, you’ll notice one thing that changed as I tell this story. Love. Everything started because of Love and everything ended when Love wasn’t there, only its bootleg replacements which for me were money and success. Notice how I haven’t said the word “happy”, I wasn’t. Just like drugs, all these things gave me a “high” and I was feening for more and more. I sacrificed my mental, physical, and spiritual health to continue getting that “high”. Remember when I said it felt like rehab? I’m about to elaborate on why. After years of working towards my goals, I subconsciously tied my identity to my accomplishments and my material gain. Who was I without the things that made me, me? I had no idea, I was lost and then God saved me. I took a long break from art and just reflected on life. I strongly believe God blessed me with everything I wanted, just to show me how meaningless and unfulfilling it was. That is why I previously said that it was ” the greatest blessing that happened to me”. Back to my purpose it’s still not just being an “artist”, art changed my life because of the lessons I learned along the way. I learned how to network, create a business, learned to be disciplined, etc. It played such a huge role in creating who I am today. While on my sabbatical (rehab) I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to be happy because obviously, I didn’t know what happiness was. I spent a lot of time reading psychology and philosophy, and while studying, I stumbled across this gem. “The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” – Socrates. I started to realize my problem was unfulfillment, never being happy with what I had, and constantly feening for more. I feel like in my break from art, I learned the keys to happiness. What Socrates is saying in that quote is that happiness is really simple, just be happy with what you have. If you focus on how much of a blessing everything is, you’ll soon start to see just how abundantly God has blessed you, even if you don’t feel blessed. Notice how I said “soon”, it probably took me a few months in “rehab” to cleanse myself from the negativity I used to fill my gas tank with. Now that my focus has changed from chasing money and success, my new reason to create isn’t so new, I just went back to the beginning, to create out of love. I wish I had never been corrupted by the things of this world, but at the same time, it was a blessing. How was it a blessing? everything I’ve been through it allowed me to be here today and hopefully inspire others to learn from my mistakes and be better than I was. Had I remained the same, creating out of love who knows what my art would look like now? Stay tuned because we are going to find out. My purpose in life is to be happy and fulfilled. My future artwork will be made out of pure love and ill be trying my best to impact people with my artwork. I used to be ashamed to call myself an artist because of the negative connotation associated with that title. If you ask anyone who knew me in high school, they’d tell you I didn’t like being called “Aaron The Artist”. There were a couple of Aarons in my school so the only way we knew which Aaron they were referring to was by their “title”. Now I call myself “Aaron The Artist”, and I say it proudly. Although my journey has been a rollercoaster of ups and downs, high highs and low lows, I still made my biggest dreams a reality. I still was able to monetize my skills and acquire success from pure hard work. Being a full-time artist isn’t for the weak, you have to be incredibly resilient to gain success in this cutthroat market. You have to wake up and compete every day. Only the best get paid, and I was getting paid 😉 I’m very proud of my title because I’m living proof that dreams come true, you can do, be, and have anything in this life if you work hard enough. This is just a little checkpoint of how much I’ve grown as a person and as an artist, I can’t wait to see what the future has in store for me.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Success isn’t easy. If it’s easy, it won’t be fulfilling. Nothing in life is easy. There are going to be bumps in the road, that’s apart of the journey. I struggled so much trying to get my name out there. Having to deal with so many entitled, disrespectful celebrities and clients just to climb the ladder to the top. I really don’t want to sit here and relive all the negative things I’ve experienced along the way. I’ll briefly speak on some struggles of being an artist. One of the struggles for me was constantly having to be creative 24/7 and trying to make my next piece better than the last. I put a lot of pressure on myself to perform. I was in constant competition with myself, trying to evolve my art daily, it took a lot out of me and caused me to burn out very frequently. That was the worst thing I could do to myself, being burnt out and still forcing myself to create because the bills weren’t going to pay themselves. I feel like one of the greatest struggles I’ve had so far was learning how to make time for myself. I never clocked out because it wasn’t my job it was my life. I didn’t know how to stop. All I knew was go go go! On a positive note, I’m grateful for all my struggles because pressure creates diamonds. Human beings are made out of carbon, when you put carbon under immense pressure, it turns into a diamond. All of my struggles plus the ones that I felt were going to crush me ended up turning me into a diamond. I believe everything is about mindset and perspective. I just look at my struggles now as blessings, struggles are given to us to make us better. Did you know that melting gold purifies it? I believe that all of the struggles come from the flames of refinement. We are valuable and precious just like gold, the more you are put under the flames just remember that you are being purified. With this mindset, I’m able to overcome any struggle with a smile because I know ill come out of this even better than I was before.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I’m an Artist, to the fullest. I can do almost every medium of art. I would say that I specialized in digital art and am most known for my cartoon styles. I specialized in digital art because it was the best medium for me at the time. It’s a one-time purchase as far as art supplies go. I started off with colored pencils and having to buy art supplies it started to add up over time. While I was in high school, I knew I could make money from digital art in the right niche. So I created an iconic cartoon style because the rappers loved it. I then started to animate my cartoons and over time, the quality has increased incredibly. I’m most known for my attention to detail. I like to call myself the art Kakashi. If you’re not familiar with Naruto, Kakashi was named the copycat ninja. He had an eye that could mimic anything he saw flawlessly. Like Kakashi, if I can see it I can draw it so my artistic talents aren’t limited. I can draw in an art style and make it my own. I’m most proud of my paintings because they come from the heart, most of my art is commission work. Painting is a new medium for me, and I thoroughly enjoy the process. It is so fulfilling to paint because unlike digital art there is no undo button. So when I complete a piece and it comes out how I wanted it to look it makes me very very proud. I think what most separates me from other artists is my versatility, ATA unlimited.
What has been the most important lesson you’ve learned along your journey?
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned along the way I’ve titled “the sheep and shepherd”. I used to tell everyone “man I ain’t no sheep”. Recently I learned though that I was wrong, I am a sheep, and so are you. What am I talking about? I would say I wasn’t a sheep because I’m not a follower. I did what I wanted when I wanted. That made me the shepherd, right? Wrong. We are ALL sheep to something, the bible says “The Lord is my shepherd”. If God is the shepherd, that literally makes us sheep. This metaphor in which humanity, is a flock of sheep tended by God. The role of a shepherd is to lead his sheep to green pastures, to protect them from predators, and to make sure that none get lost or go astray. Well, when I was chasing money and success that was me going astray and making worldly things my shepherd. Look at where my shepherd led me, depressed and unfulfilled. This lesson I learned opened up my eyes to see what was leading me and where it was taking me. Your shepherd can be anything dreams, money, people, addictions, relationships, etc. I’m choosing to let go and let God take the lead. I believe that making anything from this world your shepherd will lead you to destruction. The only way to live a good life is to be led by God. Be careful what you make your shepherd.
Contact Info:
- Instagram:instagram.com/aaronh.art
- Youtube: https://youtu.be/Rfvs1t6gdNU
