You Are Not a Toys-R-Us Kid Anymore

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00:00

Hey creators, welcome back to the AO blog cast. This is Aramis Hamer, and I'm so happy that you tuned in for another blog cast episode. This is an extension of the video that's going to go live on the YouTube channel, where I was talking about that I did some shadow work, talking to my inner child, seeing what she had to say see and how she feeling. I highly recommend that you check out that video first before you dive into this. But for now.. Are we mourning? Are we are we grieving? I don't know. As y'all clearly know, I am a talker. And that is how I process my thoughts. So I've been processing my thoughts, and what they've been saying is, "It's time to grow up." It's time to grow up. When I hear that, and when I say that out loud, there's like an inner clenching that takes place. If y'all feel me, then you feel me, you know? And it's like, "Oh, that's what you've been doing this whole time. You've been publicly hiding!" I didn't know that was even a thing. Okay, I think I just made that up just just right now -- you've been hiding in plain sight. To give you a little bit of context, the people who are getting this information first are the co-creators over there on Patreon who are helping making this creative and abundant life possible. If y'all are tuning in right now then giving you all a little bit of context. I've been working as a full time artist for the past seven years. It's been a minute that I've been doing this. It's been some years, and I'm very proud of what I've done. I'm very proud of how far I have come, but I also know for as long as I've been doing what I've been doing, some shit gotta change. I know that I can do it better. When you think about it, time is relative and subjective as well. Somebody who's been in a business like 30 years - they look at me like, "Girl, six years? Girl, please. That ain't nothing. I was just getting the hang of it in six years." And I feel it because that's how I feel. I feel like I'm just now getting the hang of it.

03:10

I've signed up for business course. Like, okay, I've been having no one to sell my own for about six years just trying to figure it out. Just Google and shit. Let me officially officially bring somebody on board so that I can really take it to the next level. The thing is, I've been doing damn good by myself, but I also know for the level of experience that I have, I didn't go to school overnight. I've just been I'm very proud of myself. I definitely don't want to belittle how far I've come, but when you have a vision of yourself in your mind, and she just a boss - you just look at her. If anybody has seen Wakanda Forever already (Black Panther part two) - that scene in the very beginning when Angela Bassett walked into the courthouse with all the soldiers, all the women behind her, and she got that outfit on her arms out; she all oiled up; she chiseled, she looking fit, she look as strong, she looked like she bout that bidness. When she came in, I verbally was like, "Damn she bad!" That's who I see for my future self. I see her as being a boss bitch. A bad bitch.

04:42

Okay, we're not there yet. You got a lot more growth that you need to do, and there's a lot more tools that you need to implement to get you to that next level. If you're ready to do that, part of that comes with shedding the narrative and shedding the idea that you a Toys-R-Us kid; that she was SpongeBob loving, Gemini-struttin, talkative, funny, goofy, just silly artist. I just be, "Oh, you know me, I'm just all over the place." No. It's time to not be all over the place. It's time to be in one place. okay? You've done enough, okay? Damn. Is this my higher self? I feel my higher self being like, "Girl, you have fun. It's been fun. You can continue to have fun." That's what I talked about in the Shadow Work video - that fear of that inner child feeling when things get too serious, she feels like she she won't be able to have fun, it will get so corporate so businesses so lack of fun that it'll just suck the creativity out of the artistry that I love so much. In this journey of making this painting and going on this process, I've just had to affirm to that little girl that she's still here for the ride. We still gonna have fun, but it's still time to level up. That's what it's going to look like for me in 2023.

06:14

It's crazy we in December! Leave a comment below and let me know how you feel about it being December already. For me, I'm grateful. I'm really grateful for this coming year, and we got a quite a few changes in the works.

07:32

I'm on my flow. If y'all know on my lunar flow, I like to rest and restore. But I'm coming up to like the second day and I get my energy back. And so I'm like, what I'm seeing here, chillin, let me let me just talk to the people. I mean, that I that I work for me, is not work at all. It's really freedom. I'm sitting here in our guest room. Maybe this could be the recording room? Maybe this is the second content creation room? Maybe this is also like my paint room? I'm pretty far south from my studio, and my commute is pretty intense. Since I've had studios for the past five years, I'm not used to painting at home. I tried to set up an easel and the easel just sat in the corner. It really did. So I ended up just taking the easel to my studio. If you recently came to my studio during the open studio Holiday Market that was at Building C this past Saturday - Thank you so much! It was so amazing seeing y'all in person! What really brightened my day was the people who read the newsletter and knew the password, then came to the studio, told me the password and got a free print. I'm gonna link some pictures, all right, of Keisha of Hannah, of William, who came with Willow and his wife and off man. It was just, it was so great seeing all of you all and just having that moment to connect and have those deeper conversations. I'm just really looking forward to continuing to build that community, in-person and online.

09:22

One of the things we're doing that is creating a secondary space for myself, so that I can be even more consistent with showing up sharing what I've learned about habits, y'all and I think this is a really good tip to share because I did a poll on the YouTube channel, asking you all which go aligns the most with your New Year's resolutions. And I think I put like create more, maybe eat better fitness goals. Spend more time with friends or family or something like that. And the one that was over 73% was create more. So a lot of the people who follow me on YouTube that was their goal and I Like, I feel you, I'm in the same boat. How can we create more? Now? I was looking at the analytics for Spotify, y'all people listening in South Africa; in the UK! Let me know what city, country, or state that you listen in! Drop a comment below. It just warms my heart that so many people are tuning in from all over the world. I'm in Seattle, WA, USA, the Pacific Northwest, and it has snowed. It's been snowing, like the past few days. It's crazy. I'm so happy that it didn't snow during the Holiday Market event and people were able to come out. We had fun and everybody was able to drive there safely. It was fantastic. Knowing that people want to create more, and understanding that the things that help us accomplish our habits, the best is really developing systems and making things more easy and convenient for ourselves. This is coming from James Clear's best selling book Atomic Habits. I'm sure a lot of y'all have probably heard of it. If you haven't yet, used your next Audible credit on that book. It is absolutely incredible. As somebody who was deep into manifestation, and the law of attraction, and scripting, and visualizing; nothing has changed the most for me was when I implemented tactical systems throughout my daily practices to make it easy and more convenient for myself to do any goal that I'm trying to achieve. If I'm trying to create more, keep the art supplies out. Develop a 'creative station' for yourself so that you don't have to unpack things every single time. That's part of the reason that I had got in art studio. When I was painting in my living room, I would paint and then when I was done, I would pack it all up. When the next time that I wanted to create, I'd be like, "I don't feel like unpacking all that stuff." So having the option to keep my paints out, with everything open and accessible to myself - that's the way to do it. If you try to eat healthy, keep an apple or a bowl of fruit on the counte, rather than putting the fruit in a drawer in the refrigerator. That's just another step, another barrier. Eliminate the friction. So, we here in the guest room, y'all eliminating the friction. I'm literally having cramps, all my period, chillin. But because Andy set this up for me, and it's so easy for me to just sit here in this chair and push the record button - now I'm able to just create. It's so easy now, let's do it, you know.

Seattle, WA, USA

14:02

In this coming year, some beautiful things are coming. I'm really gonna be working on creating an entire new body of work. And I hear this all the time like, "Man Girl, you just be cranking out artwork and cranking out content." Actually Marcia just said that when she came to my studio, shout out to Marsha. She's like, "You just be going!" And I'm like, "Yeah! I mean, it's really free flowing. I feel like it's just a part of who I am." I'm an artist. I'm truly an artist. I'm truly a creative and sometimes it's hard for me not to create. If anything I just have so many ideas that it's hard for me not to implement something. And that's why I'm just so grateful for you all. I'm grateful for this community. I'm so grateful for the tools that we have through the internet, through social media, to be able to immediately put content and creativity out into the world. I don't have to wait. I don't have to ask for permission. I don't need gallery representation. We don't need record labels. If you try to drop your music, put that up on SoundCloud. Put that out there on YouTube. It's just, cool. There's no more gatekeepers out here, and I'm walking through the gate. Let's go. I'm ready to share, and from the highest version of myself. I want to do it a little bit more strategically, though, that the way I started my business. In the beginning my art was just so organic and so free flowing, which is so beautiful. But there comes a time when you enter the next evolution and the next stage of your journey, where you're asking yourself, okay, how can we make this better? And I think that's a beautiful thing.

14:48

I think that we are here to create, to experience to learn to connect. I'm reading The Law of One, and what they talk about is that life is about the Creator experiencing itself as the creator, us being the creator, creating, etc. When we try to think, “What is our purpose? What is our mission here?” It's really to create. It's really nothing deep. It ain't even like, save the world. The world don’t need no saving. Now, I know that can be hard to believe, I know that. When you look around the world, the world needs no saving, okay? It was here before us, and it's gonna be here after us. Part of our purpose here is to truly to experience this cosmic dance, and to just live and to be in the highest version of ourselves. And being in the highest version of ourselves is acknowledging those low points as well is not denying in any of those negative emotions is not only resonating in positivity, it's about us acknowledging the Creator within ourselves, and having those creative experiences and experiencing the full spectrum of life, the highs and the lows, the good and the bad. So here we are, and we truly get to do that. I feel like being an artist and being a creator is the most epic roller coaster of life, because it's just like, you get so high, you get so euphoric, and get so blissful. When you finish a project, you're super proud of it, you're like, “Oh my God, I did that!” But then you can get so low and so dark and so sad and so frustrated and unmotivated when you're not able to create or you create something, and now you don't like it. It's the ultimate experience. This is it. If the point of life is for us to experience the highs and the lows, then the creative process is the ultimate tool in order for us to accomplish our highest existence for being here, which is to have those highs and lows in the creative process. And I'm just like, wow. I just feel so grateful to be experiencing this. I feel so grateful to have this level of self awareness in this life to not take it too seriously to honor the moments that I am in now; and to really have fun on the journey, you know, and that's what I'm doing. That's what we're gonna be doing moving forward. And I'm just excited to share what's in store with you all for the next journey ahead. So let me break that down about what's coming for you. First up the changes that are on the rise.

19:04

I'm coming back to out in the streets y'all! Since the pandemic I haven't done any festivals, of course they call they closed down because of COVID, but this past year they did open back up. But I didn't know if I was ready to get back out in the streets. But now I'm ready for next summer. Make sure that you are subscribed to the newsletter because I that's where I'm going to share what art festivals that I'm at. Hopefully I'll be touring different states and different cities. If there's art shows in your area (outside of Seattle, WA, USA,) shoot me an email! I would love to learn more about different things going on in your city.

20:06

If you stay locked in with the newsletter and make sure that you follow me on Instagram, that's where I'm going to be sharing different art festivals that I'm going to be at. One that's definitely right off the tip of my tongue is the Northwest Folklife Festival. I've been going to that one since 2015, or 2016, and I would love for you all to join me there. I think it's during Memorial Day weekend, sometime at the end of May. So make sure you stay tuned! I'm going to be bringing some original paintings out. I'm going to be creating some brand new smaller works. Not too small, though. I talked to the Patrons about how I didn't really enjoy creating smaller pieces, I just I just love painting big. I'm gonna still paint big but just not as ginormous as I paid it for the Zodiac series. So, there are going to be some opportunities coming for you all to be able to enjoy some home size, original paintings of mine that you can have in your house that may be aren't a 10 foot Gemini painting. So get excited for that! The people who get first access to my originals will definitely be the co-creators (Patrons). If you are interested in joining the Patreon community, I highly suggest that this is the year that you do it. As I move forward, I really look forward to growing the community over there on Discord. Discord is an online server where we can chat and we can communicate. I'm also making clear that I don't want to spend too much of my time chatting. I really want it to be a space for you all to connect and for you all to get to know each other even more. When it comes down to me and when I come in and connect with you all that will be specifically during the Create Dates, and during the YouTube live streams. With that being said, we're going to have a consistent schedule moving forward for the create dates and YouTube live streams. At the end of the day, I'm not going to be able to do everything for everyone at all times. All I know is that I what I can do is that I can show up, I can make myself available at a consistent time. And if you're able to come, great! If you're not, then hopefully you can catch it on the recordings.

22:46

Moving forward, every second Sunday is when we're going to have the Create dates with the co-creators for one hour via zoom with the Nebula and the Supernova tier. That's when we come together and talk and see each other on the Zoom call where we see each other on video, we ask questions we connect we create at the same time, or sometimes we just we just talk you know. That'll be taking place every second Sunday. The next one is December 11 at 2pm. And then the one after that will be January 8, after that February 12, and so on. I'm also going to be live streaming on YouTube, every first Monday of the month. Subscribe to my YouTube channel to get notified of new videos, and be a part of the tube team. I'll be painting and answering your questions over there on YouTube. Those videos will not stay up on my YouTube channel. They will be recorded though, and they will be made available to all the Patrons. This is also an opportunity for the people who are in the Light Beam tier, who don't have access to the Create Date Zoom calls, where we can still connect and I can still see you every single month, however it will just be a YouTube live stream and if you miss it, it won't be up on the channel but you will have access to it if you are a Patron (of any tier). I know sometimes folks just like having me in the background while you create art, or while you cook, or are ironing or whatever. The live stream recording will be yours over there on Patreon so mark your calendars. I'm really excited to just show up consistently connect with you all on a monthly basis. If you really deep in the community, this is now going to be twice a month. I know some of the Patrons you know are not able to make the Create Dates every month and have to wait an entire a full another month before we can see each other and before we get hang out. I be missing y'all too. Let's open to twice a month where I get to see y'all. The first one is going to be every first Monday of the month on the YouTube live stream. And then on every second Sunday of the month will be a private time for me to hang out with the co-creators in the Nebula in Supernova tiers. I'm super excited for that. The next public and free YouTube livestream is going to be January 2, 2023. Right after New Year's we're gonna be diving in I'm thinking maybe we could do like some goal setting some vision board, some vibes, light a candle, listen our intentions, and burn our burdens. Let's move forward with the light and grace. I'm so excited for this coming year y'all. That is literally just the tip of the iceberg. I'm going to be sharing more in the coming blog cast episode, so make sure that you are subscribed to the newsletter. And follow me over there on Spotify so you can be first to know when these episodes drop. Thank you so much for joining me today. And let me know down in the comment section what you are excited about in this new coming year. Also let me know what state and city y'all in because I'm curious to see where everybody is located. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you once again and if you haven't checked out the latest YouTube video, Click Here to check it out. Sending you all the love in the light and we'll talk soon. Peace Out!