Post Sacred Circle Celebration / New Series: BLOOM 🌺
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00:00
“Hey Creators - Welcome to the A.O. Blog Cast. I am Aramis Hamer, the artist. Thank you so much for being here. I am grinning. I don't know if y'all can hear it, but your girl is excited. We are officially starting the A.O. Art Residency y'all, and I am over the moon. If you didn't know, I'm starting my own self appointed artists residency -- I will link the previous blog where I talked about handling rejection and not getting into different residencies -- and just giving myself permission to set aside the time that I want to create. This is like the first day. Well, technically this is the second day; yesterday was the first day, but I was resting. I was resting and recovering because that Thursday, the day before, that was the Sacred Circle Celebration, which was absolutely incredible.”
00:55
“When I think about my Patrons, I'm in awe from the abundance; and the compassion; and the love; and the care that they shower me with on a daily basis. Have you ever just been in a relationship with someone where - platonic, romantic, business, familiar, etc - it brings you joy to serve them, and it also brings them joy to serve you? You're almost competing on who can serve the next person the best? That's literally how I feel with my Patrons. I'm constantly trying to give them free things, give them more content, create more artwork, share even more of the behind the scenes of my process with them; and they continue to buy my work, and show up at events, and send me the most beautiful messages of encouragement when I need it the most. I feel like the Sacred Circle Celebration was a beautiful time to have those experiences in person. I felt like over 50% of the people who came out were actually my Patrons; and the people who joined via the Zoom call, some of them were Patrons as well. I'm gonna be making a vlog about it. When that blog goes live, I'll make sure to link it here. Not only was it a success from the people that came out; from the stories that we shared; from the hugs that we gave; but it was also a success financially, y'all. That's really the tool that helps sustain me as an artist, and that gives me a level of mental freedom where I don't have to worry and stress. I can make sure that my studio rent is paid; the team is paid; we can do all the things. Once all those things are paid and I don't have any sort of money stressors going on in my mind, I can create from this abundant and full place. I felt like the Sacred Circle Celebration served as a fundraiser for this residency.”
02:51
“We got so many new Collectors! Welcome Collectors! Welcome Alicia, Nina, PA, and Dominique Nicholas. Welcome y'all; welcome to the A.O. Exclusive Collector's Club. Thank y'all so much for purchasing an A.O. Original! This was crazy. This was so much fun. We also did an auction. I'm about to recap the whole event. Just know that it was amazing! I will be linking in a vlog.”
03:22
Maxwell performing at Central Washington State Fair
Joe performing at Central Washington State Fair
“To be real, y'all - we did have some hiccups. This was an event where I was trying to do both the in-person experience and the virtual experience. It was a little bit of a struggle on the virtual experience. Personally, I feel like I wasn't able to give the people who attended via Zoom as much of my time and attention as I wanted. I was talking to Andy about it. In the past, Andy worked for Amazon for like 8 years. He's like, "This isn't an Aramis problem. This isn't a Sacred Circle Celebration problem. This is a problem that a lot of corporations and organizations are having right now as we try to juggle this digital and in person space." COVID just opened up the entire world to having virtual experiences. Now that the pandemic is a little bit more under control, we starting to get out a little bit more; we starting to have events. Actually, Andy's friends, Andy and I are going to see Maxwell, y'all! Maxwell is performing live out here at the Washington State Fair, featuring Joe, which we're super excited for. Now that events are happening and the city is opening up a little bit - every business owner, every event planner, every coordinator, anybody who's hosting anything - we're all trying to figure out how do we blend these two worlds? I think for the Sacred Circle Celebration, for the time and energy that I put into the virtual aspect, it turned out okay; but that's going to say I didn't put a lot of time and energy into the virtual aspect.”
04:51
“Let me know in the comments, if you remember the virtual auction that we had in November 2020. I did a virtual auction, which was so dope, called "To The Nines". We did a dope virtual event, featuring my previous studio assistant, whose name was Leah; she was absolutely incredible. We did a live auction, and it was 100% virtual. We had multiple cameras set up; we had all the angles. We had a participant box where I had made the paddles and everything. I will link that YouTube video here, where I was preparing the participant boxes; that was just so much fun. I think that we did a really incredible job. Now, I think where this one (Sacred Circle) was different is that one, we did a silent auction. It was just something that was going on in the background. It wasn't a huge main staple of the event. But, in addition to the virtual aspect, we had people come in-person. When you get people there in real life, I want to hug them; I want to see them; I want to give my time, energy and attention to them. They drove out through Seattle traffic; they circled the block 1000 times probably trying to find street parking; they got dressed; they actually put the energy into come to the event in-person. This is not discounting at all the people who attended virtually. I understand that there's still a lot of people who don't feel comfortable attending in-person events, and that's totally fine. One person is not more supreme than the other. I don't want that to be the language that I'm giving off. I just want to say is that as one individual, I found it difficult to hop back and forth to both spaces (Zoom and in-person). I found myself mostly interacting with the people who were there in-person. Andy and I were talking about this this morning. He made me feel a lot better about it. Shout out to the Bae, y'all. Everybody loves Andy. Everybody loves how supportive Andy is. The one who loves it; loves him the most; is me. Y'all see what I show you of how supportive he is, and it's genuinely only the tip of the iceberg, okay? Even just when he be encouraging me, in our alone time, he's like, "Babe, you did a great job. It was a great event. It was phenomenal." And he's also honest, too. He's like, "Okay, but here are the ways where we could improve. Here's where we could have done it better." I know we can do it better, and I want to work on that in the future. I got some comments on Instagram from folks saying that they didn't even get the link, and I'm thinking to myself, "Did the links go to spam? How do I make it better, where there's more proper communication for the people who are attending digitally?" Every day we learn, we grow, we ebb and we flow. We will continue to get better. I just appreciate everybody who has been patient with me in the process. We just going to keep up leveling, y'all.”
07:42
“I'm gonna transition y'all because we are already planning for 2023 and it's gonna be lit; it's gonna be poppin'. I'm ready to burst out at the seams! I miss seeing y'all in person so much! These events have just affirmed that. It was affirmed during the Zodiac show. It was affirmed for the Sacred Circle Celebration. The more events that are going on, I'm like, "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! We can hang out! We can be on the streets!" If 2022 is open, if the streets is open now in 2022, we about to bust it wide open in 2023. I claim that and I speak that and I'm bringing in the energy of that one-on-one in-person human connection. I consider myself an ambivert. I'm probably an extrovert, let's be real, but I do gather my energy from being alone as well. I feel like I am completely comfortable with having my alone time. I love being alone. I get refueled and re-energized from being alone, but I also get refueled from being around people as well. So, I definitely would consider myself an ambivert. If you're anything like me, you might be excited to get out to in-person events as well. That's what we've been talking about and planning for the next year, y'all. I'm gonna put the little bug here right now.. I'm thinking: pajama party. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.”
09:14
“What do you think about a pajama party? In the last vlog I showed where we had did the photoshoot for the sunflower robes. Those are coming spring 2023 - make sure you get the newsletter to get the tea. Those are coming in next year. We doin' the lounge wear; the robes; potentially pajamas? I don't know yet, but even with the robes we still doin a pajama party. We're brainstorming.”
10:02
“I feel so excited because I'm blooming. I'm blooming into my own. I'm blooming into the artist that I want to be. I talked about this new series that I want to do in a video that I shared. (I'm still editing that video to tell you the truth.) I also talked about it at the Sacred Circle Celebration. I'm just so grateful to now be on the other side of my sacrifice. I'm sitting with y'all, right now, recording this blogcast episode in my backyard, looking at our yard, and our flowers, and our fruit trees. And y'all, we have been saving up for a house for nearly a decade. It has been nearly a decade that we have been saving up to finally purchase a home. Have you ever just thought about something for so long; wrote it down on your vision board; manifested; prayed about it; wrote the affirmation; spoke the affirmations; and then you finally in it? I feel like I'm living in a dream. I'm living in my vision board, and it feels so good. I feel so blessed. And now, I feel like it's starting to make sense. When I just look at all the plants and animals in my backyard, I just see the laws of the universe; and one of those big laws that we don't like hearing, but it's so true, is patience. There is a law; there is a rhythm and flow to this life; there are cycles and seasons. If you try to plant something in the winter, you're going to have a real hard time growing. I'm just honoring the cycles and the seasons of life. When spring hit y'all, everything in my backyard was in bloom. It was like it grew at rapid speed. Everybody has their has their different seasons of life, and part of it, I think, is us understanding those seasons; really getting into a flow where we can optimize whatever project plan that we want to execute in this world. That's what I'm having an understanding about - knowing that I'm not being unproductive or a bad person, or unsuccessful if something isn't blooming in the winter. That's not the season for it - the thing is to prepare in the winter for when the spring does come so that you can be ready. So, it's like I have an understanding now of how some of these systems work. I have an understanding of how I work as an artist. And as a business owner: I have a system and understanding about how Andy works that we've been over; we've been together for over 15 years at this point. I'm starting to get a flow and a rhythm with the team, with Nalisha and Shannon. It just really feels beautiful now that I'm coming into a rhythm. And now, I feel like the roots have grown deep. Now we can grow, now we can bloom into the artist, into the person and creator that we want to be. I've just been so inspired by the flowers here; the pear trees; the plum trees; the apple trees. If you follow me on Instagram you might know that I'm renovating my backyard; creating a bath tub sanctuary back there. You know, we will have to do another candle photo shoot in the bathtub. ***If you missed that we'll drop some pics in the blog for you. I've been working in the backyard and I'm super excited for that. This series is going to include so many things inspired by nature, plants, flowers, divine femininity, black girl magic, the cycles of life, the rhythm and flows, everything. As it continues to evolve I'm going to be sharing more with you, but I am starting the residency today. Part of what I was doing was working in the backyard and listening to the lessons that the lane has to offer, and it has been so profound.”
14:16
“The other thing that I'm going to be doing soon, actually, today, I'm going to Wa Na Wari - they're doing the Walk The Block event - super dope gallery that's out in the Central District. We're also celebrating the grand opening of Art Noir incredible arts organization that's ran by Vivian Phillips out in the Central District. Get down the streets and get inspired. When I'm just working with my head down, nose to the grindstone, I don't really feel like I have the energy space or time or freedom to even go support my friends and the other organizations that's doing dope stuff in the community. What's really nice about this residency is that part of it is to collect as much inspiration around me as I can - visiting different art shows and galleries and working in the land - a lot of these things inspire my process. So, that's where I'm starting off. I'm going to be checking in with y'all just about every week to kind of share what I'm working on; different insights. Stay tuned! Make sure you follow me on Instagram and you are subscribed to the YouTube channel - that's where I get to really share the visuals with y'all! And, if you would like to learn more about Patreon, I will drop the link here where you can join us over there and join the Patreon community. Oh my god, y'all, I'm so excited for what is ahead and I am sending you all the love and light on your journey as well. I hope this inspires you to bloom into the person that you want to become. Thank you so much for listening/reading. Drop a comment below and let me know what you are working on as well. I hope y'all have a fantastic day sending you all the love and the light. Peace.”
