Today we’d like to introduce you to Asé Selah.
Hi Asé, 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?
Creating has always been an important factor in my life. It’s like breathing air. Any moment of free time I would get, I’d whip out a piece of construction paper, books with blank pages, or really anything I could sketch out my ideas on. In my early childhood, drawing was the way I communicated, no exaggeration. My mother would take time to make sure I developed proper speech because I would rely on color and images to reflect how I felt. As I grew older, the obsession behind color grew uncontrollably. I remember how I’d draw on my clothes just to express my fashionable taste. I’d do anything to get a message across. My mother didn’t quite like that, ha! She’d soon realize I didn’t have a real interest in participating in sports or any other curriculum activities. She’d began to nurture the artist in me by providing me with more skillful art tools and fundamentals. My mother understood there was no possible way I could see my life without art.
As time progressed, my passion for art lost its way, my mother being a single parent of 4 children, sacrificed a lot, and with sacrifice, sometimes hardships can become very prevalent. I lost a lot, I gain a little. The way I viewed the world changed before me as if it were a rubrics cube. Life became more about surviving. Even though uncomfortable times, there’d be moments when I’d try to communicate and express, and like writers, I experienced a prolonged phase of artist block. I was no longer inspired to create, let alone communicate to the world who I am. My artist block was a direct reflection of my environment. The New England/ Greater New York area, that is. Things were moving fast, ever-changing. After live-altering events, I finally made the decision to dedicate my life to creating profound art. I started becoming more intentional with the way I used color. I started understanding the subject matter I learned through experiences. I wanted to give more relatable circumstances into my work. I became competent as I received an education at a private art institute.
My work had become more revealing of who I truly was. From the contrast to the texture, my work finally developed its purpose. Fast forwarding, I developed an appetite to explore more and become familiar with things I’ve never experienced before. I moved south. Huntsville Alabama became my new home. A new vibration was implemented in my works now. It wasn’t long until I found myself spending more time in Midtown, Atlanta. I fell in love with the city. It was so refreshing to see the art culture in such an unapologetic way. The cherished time I spend in Atlanta has helped shape the framework within my latest works.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not, what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
The journey will always have its ups and downs. In my opinion, you have to take the good with the bad and the bad with the good. In my works, you’ll see how some of my messages about hardship have bright tones of color. This was a style I developed to enable a sense of balance to keep my work at a state of equilibrium. At my lowest times, I feel I was my most honest with myself In my works. I was more vulnerable. Some examples of the hardship I faced were losing everything I owned and starting back to square one, I experienced almost losing my life to gun violence, I experienced the passing of beloved family members and friends. As I kept pushing to overcome my struggles in my life, my works became less rigid and more fluid.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am a visual artist. I perform live paintings for events. I specialize in neo-expressionist/Cubism abstract paintings. One of my silent loves outside of canvas is film. I spend my free time learning the logistics of videography. The concept of telling stories through a lens intrigues me. What I am most proud of is the latest mural I installed for the Midcity District in Huntsville, Alabama. The message in the Mural was to unify the various cultures in the community and exemplify the essence of what love is when we come together as a people.
What sets me apart is my unorthodox approach to my work. My creative process directs itself based on an emotional connection to a subject matter. I measure the amount of colors layered on canvas through the vibrations derived from that particular emotion. My insight for compositions allows my work to have multiple windows of images inside itself. And in other cases, parallels or double meanings. The color pairing is used in my works allows the buyer to feel the vibrations of my work from several feet away.
Is there anything else you’d like to share with our readers?
I’m a foodie! I love trying new foods when I travel to new cities! I also love going to spoken word events and rollerblading.
Contact Info:
- Email: Aseselahart@gmail.com
- Website: Aseselah.com
- Instagram: www.Instagram.com/aseselahofficial
