Today we’d like to introduce you to Alexis Walker
Hi Alexis, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
Everything started in Jamaica, 2016, I couldn’t get in the pool because my hair was done prior to the trip for my father’s wedding in a couple days; so one day I was talking to a Rasta while everyone was in the pool. I was 15, depressed out of my mind, clinging to life mentally, and self harming at this point in my journey and it showed on me. Mid conversation the Rasta asked me “why do you do that to yourself”, id told him that I didn’t like myself. He’d in turn asked me where my lineage derived from, where my people migrated from, what my great great grandfathers last name was etc. and I didn’t have an answer. He’d said something that I didn’t know would change the trajectory of my entire life: how do you not like someone that you don’t even know? I went home and dived into black history, then my family history, astrology, numerology, meditation the hole got deeper and I was borderline obsessed with researching, learning and practicing. I had a lot of time. I’d just read and create to express how id felt and I’d noticed that I could start a painting with any emotion and end it at peace, plus time would go by so fast. id been writing poetry since the 4th grade but this is where art visited me in the heaviest way. Later in HS I’d learned of Frida, I saw a lot of myself in her and I enjoyed how emotionally vivid and heavy her emotions were because I shared the same depth. I’d start creating self portraits to depict how I felt. Pouring into them. seeing myself from various angles. I had my first awakening.
In college I was an athlete studying philosophy. The intellectual in me was thriving and life was smooth. Covid-19 came and changed everything. Track stopped and I grew depressed and felt a lacking in identity without it. Again something was calling me to something deeper and higher and gifted me the time to find it. Yoga became a closer friend of mine she helped me see myself and she freed me. I had my second awakening.
2023 With the utmost gratitude I could say that at this point I’d been teaching for a few years, been painting as well and been in a couple art shows, sold a few pieces and dropped only my first book at this point and i’d ran into a troubling time. Prior to homelessness visiting me id said I was going to India. She’d visited to teach me detachment, my true power in building stability from nothing and a need for more gratitude. During this time I still wanted to take my studies to the next level and go to the birthplace of yoga, I was so invested into my spiritual development and development as a teacher. My community showed out for me, helped me get there and it changed my life. It’s hard not to go on as tangent about this trip so I won’t start it. I had my third awakening.
All of these experiences got me to where I am today. A better teacher, a better student, a better person.
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?
I think if it was a smooth road- that would take away from the plot. They say to truly develop a “God Body” you must first experience the depth of yourself and that includes your shadows. The light then follows. I grappled with depression and suicidal thoughts in my teens. Imposter syndrome became a a friend of mine and I had to let her go. Homelessness caused me to feel like a failure then a winner when id learned detachment, gratitude and created stability from nothing. I had trouble believing in myself for a long time, until I got to know myself a bit more. A couple heavier plights visited but thankfully God was always working for me and through me. I received the fruits of my labor in ways that protected me and allowed me to see my climbing my mountains as an excuse to show my gratitude for being able to. Then in turn I can see the lesson behind the moment, life working for me vs. against me. Every no was a redirection, every closed door a new opportunity to find new routes, every trial a chance to prove to myself if I am who I say I am.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a 3x self published author, I enjoy to explore ideologies, building frameworks and provoking conversations and emotions with my poetry, I am also a self taught painter, writer, muse and yogi/yoga instructor. What sets me apart from others is the way my work, my art and my teachings elicit you to feel, and question yourself out of the intention of strengthening your beliefs or opening yourself to more questions to get to the core of what we truly believe and how you interpret the world. While also inspiring people to express fearlessly, and be free. I specialize in liberation through self expression. art saved me, yoga saved me, poetry saved me- id like to equip others with the tools to liberate through self expression through movement, breath and art. im most proud of the evolution of my art work- its a glimpse into my mind and seemingly, im growing (up).
Before we let you go, we’ve got to ask if you have any advice for those who are just starting out?
If you’re just starting in art, whatever medium, my advice is to create fearlessly out of the intention of expressing and freeing yourself. No judgment, no expectations initially. Also you create the best when there is an abundance of energy, regardless of what that emotion is: create while experiencing them all. You may feel like laying down after a heartbreak, but get up and write that energy out, smear it on a canvas, free yourself from you and have something beautiful as a result. You create the best when you feel most like you, get closer to yourself, use art to do that.
If you’re just starting as a yoga instructor, be kind to yourself. Don’t compare yourself to anyone, be inspired by those in the same field and allow yourself to be a vessel.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/empressttree/?hl=en
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@empressttree
- Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/empress-ttree
