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Life & Work with Omari Johnson

Today we’d like to introduce you to Omari Johnson.

Omari Johnson

Omari, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin? 
I started my development of being an artist simply off the fact that I needed outlets to release bottled emotions and thoughts. The very first form of art that I picked up was writing poetry/lyrics. Being a writer/lyricist, I go through a thing called “writer’s block,” where some days you just can’t find the words to write how you feel at the moment. From there, I had to figure out another way to spill my emotions, so I picked up painting and expressed myself visually. This may sound crazy, but I think there’s a thing called “painter block,” too because, at times, it’s difficult for me to express myself on canvas. The last attribute of art that I acquired was playing guitar. This helped me express how I’m feeling through sound, and that fed back into my lyricism and creating music. All in all, I cycle through those elements depending on what’s working for me at the time. 

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
My journey as an artist has not been smooth nor was it expected to be. As an artist we have to deal with a lot of self-discipline, contain a high sense of value within ourselves, and battle discouragement along with voices of others that may influence us to believe we aren’t good enough. Starting off, a major struggle of mine was believing in myself. Art, being a possible career choice, was seen as taboo within my family; less traditional, so to speak. I had to go against the grain and continue believing that I can make it happen because I know my feelings and how I am able to present my feelings in different artistic variations are worth something to a population of people somewhere. 

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an artist in every sense of the word. It’s hard for me to specify because I specialize in multiple forms of art, such as music, instruments, painting, and poetry. Each form of art serves as an outlet for me to express myself and how I’m feeling as I go through certain avenues of life. Sometimes I produce artwork or music that express things that are going on around the world as well because my art isn’t just for me, it’s for viewers and listeners to interpret for themselves as a safe space. I am most proud to say that I am self-taught in everything that I do, which took a lot of time, patience and dedication to remain a student improving my craft. Also, last year I released my very first album on all platforms to give my audience more of a personal insight of who I am. I would say the thing that sets me apart from others would be the way I turn my thoughts into reality by keeping faith and driving the road that God has provided for me. 

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
A quality that I value the most within my success is the ability to bounce back and to never give up on what I stand for. 

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Image Credits
Zuri

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