THOUGHTS & WHAT NOTS
The Last 2 Years
What happened to the time? This is very difficult to write, but necessary. Two years ago I was celebrating the first year of living here in Miami. I was working on the blog post series “My 4 P’s”, which I will complete for the sake of finishing it, and expanding my client portfolio. This post will bring us up to the beginning of 2020. I’m saving 2020 for its own soul searching, quarantined, home office experience, post. At the end of 2017 I wrote about my year in review. I was happy, growing, and deeply focused on my personal art practice. Once 2018 hit things got very interesting, in some good and bad ways. The day after I completed the sculptures for my solo exhibition “Identifying Characters” at Englewood Art Center in February 2018 I received 2 phone calls. The first one was that the cute little coffee shop I had been working at part time was closing. The second phone call was to let me know my dear friend John had died in a motorcycle accident. This was a huge shift that would influence the my direction until now, 2 years after my last blog post.
My solo exhibition went beautifully. I got to see my best friends, and meet sweet baby, Winter, my former roommate’s daughter. I was able to spend 3 days in Sarasota, eating my favorite mac ’n’ cheese from Artisan Cheese Company, drinking coffee, and Jared came up for the opening day with Mondi to bring me home. As soon as I returned home, to Miami, the shift began. That cute little coffee shop decided to pivot and pop-up at an event space in Wynwood. I joined the coffee shop Founder and an investor of the event space for lunch. We politely discussed how this was going to work, and they invited to run the coffee bar part of the space. Not fully understanding the responsibilities, I agreed. I don’t know if this was a huge mistake or if this was the way it was supposed to happen, but I will say that this decision changed the direction of where I was going. The best way to describe it is a “detour”.
The next 44 days….Yes, I counted. These 44 days took bright shining, happy, art making Ariana into the depths of anger, mistrust, and manipulation. It took me further way from what I really wanted to be doing and forced me to grow in a different direction. I am not going to get into all the details. But I will say a handful of those days were incredibly exciting, and fulfilling. Jared and I were given the opportunity to throw a music week event “Alive and Well” which was Jared and Sam’s brainchild that needed some financial assistance to be brought to fruition. That night, March 21st of 2018, was a huge accomplishment considering all the adversity to pull it off on a tight budget from sound, lights, flights, only 2 weeks of promotion during Miami Music Week filled to the brim with other events, and 4 broken bathrooms by midnight. In early April that pop-up and event space was done. It had been bled dry before I arrived, and the moving on took a huge weight off my shoulders and introduced new unknowns.
April was a bit more relaxing. One of the results of working in that event space, was that I made some new friends and was introduced to more people in Miami. Some of the people saw me as the one thing I don’t put on my resume, “store manager” or “barista”. We all know how much a I love coffee and the only reason I was working at the coffee shop was to meet people having just moved here. I was doing my best to shift perspectives by showing these new people my mission. I brunched at the Soho Beach House with one of my design idols. I was commissioned to prep a 13’ dining table from a slab of Sapele with a little help. I was asked to put together a business plan for a building and decided that wasn’t want I wanted. I learned how to say No. I was commissioned to work on a visual branding, photo styling, packaging design, website design, a market booth set-up filled with handmade fixtures and a merchandising plan from May to July for Sayblee. Finally, I was back on course. I was commissioned to build fixtures for a new gym in July. I was selected to show at the Bombay Sapphire Artisan Series for the second year in a row. I was invited to show more sculptures at the gallery that hosted the Bombay event. I was commissioned to create a paper flower photo booth wall for a wedding in January 2019. And I joined my friend Joe for the new store opening of Walt Grace Vintage in October. Jared and I had gone to weddings, traveled to multiple cities around the US 2018, got our noses pierced on Valentine’s Day, and by mid-October I was exhausted….when another opportunity came knocking at my door.
That investor I had lunch with in February is the same person who hired me to build fixtures for the new gym opening in July-August. One day in passing after installing the boxing glove display, he presented another project he was working on. My first thought was, yes I want to design and build a retail space. That is the mission. To create spaces and experiences for people to enjoy. In my mind it’s pretty simple. This turned into something else very quickly. The more we talked the more I dug my claws into the big picture. I think this happened because the original idea was a very broad stroke, and I can’t help but try to understand the big picture because this defines the details. This retail store, Kalma, would become my primary focus for the next 16 months with the title Creative Curator.
From November 1st 2018 until January 14th 2019 I was consumed by Kalma and completing the paper flower photo booth. I still feel like I barely made it through both projects but I did have MANY amazing helping hands in the process. Kalma was originally conceptualized as a modern apothecary type general store. With the CBD trend accelerating in the health and wellness industry that was its main product focus. I was challenged to learn as much as I could have CBD products in a very short amount of time. While working to create an in-store experience that would be elevated and playful. October gave me the time to plan, and then it was paint, wallpaper, and building furniture and fixtures until we got all the permits to open the doors for customers. The store opened on January 14, 2019 in the retail sanctuary Upper Buena Vista. By February one of the people involved in the planning and opening decided to no longer participate in the project leaving just 2 of us, the Founder and me. I took on all the responsibilities that other person was supposed to do, being the store manager, focusing on brand development and product curation. Once again, I was detoured. I took over Instagram marketing, developing the website, training employees, managing store operations, and maintaining the in store experience. It became my full time job. I become invested, because that’s who I am. I spent my 32nd birthday working a shift in the store. I talked about Kalma when I went out, and promoted the store. I did everything I could to create a successful brand with limited resources.
All the while, in 2019, self care of my brand and my why quickly diminished. I only took on 3 freelance projects related to art and my personal mission. Each being realized between September and December. After 2018s huge personal art successes and progress. I was feeling disappointed in myself for the detour. It wasn’t until October when my mom and I went to France and Italy to experience the Venice Biennale and give me a much needed break from my day to day in Miami that I become whole again. When we returned home from that trip I knew things needed to change, I knew it was going to difficult, and I knew that I needed to try harder to get off the detour. I gave myself the benefit of the doubt, I was gentle with myself, and I allowed the rest of 2019 to play out exactly as it needed to. I trusted that if I put the intentions out into the world something would happen and they did. I was linked up to Always Friday Co and commissioned a project that was 100% on mission. I was introduced to Harmont & Blaine as an expert visual merchandiser, and sculptural display artist, because that’s exactly who I am. This was how I ended my year. Back on course, and with 2020 intentions: REFINE.
Creating Community: The Cowork Movement
On Thursday I received a phone call from a great friend. He was one of the 5 people present when I made the official decision to take on the Alchemist Production name and began branding. Zac called to catch up and tell me about his most recent business idea, Coworking. He lives in an area that already has 3 very different coworking spaces, but I believe that there is a shared value in line with the Coworking Manifesto to the greatest degree. I have recently been exploring the idea of work culture, work identity, community and the impact of work spaces. More and more coworking or collaborative working spaces are popping up in cities all around me. This is not a new idea.
Let’s talk about the history of shared work spaces. Cafes are one of the original cowork environments, although the people sitting with paper and pens, or now a days, on their computers are not interacting with each other, the culture is present. Since the 1920s companies have experimented with the psychology behind work spaces from lighting to sectioned departments to open room floor plans. Each experiment measured productivity, communication, creativity, and community. Artist cooperatives like the 10th Street Galleries, a set of artist-run galleries, that began opening in NewYork in the 1950s included studio facilities and exhibition space. These two examples are the foundation of the fundamental ideas influencing our 21st century cowork movement and revitalization of makers.
It’s common place to see a cafe within a contemporary coworking space. Blurring the line between cafe and work space. The cafe may have its own set of company values and the patrons may not share these values on a professional level. This is the distinction between people who work in a cafe and people who are members of the social institution of coworking. The most popular type of coworking space support entrepreneurs in an array of industries. Unfortunately makerspaces are not as accessible as the spaces dedicated to tech startups and other diverse independent professionals. Which brings up personal questions, where do I land in the professional world? Am I part of the maker movement?
The maker movement is defined as the new “DIY”. There is a manifesto made up of ideas converging traditional artisans with technology. I believe I am a traditional artisan but I went to college to learn my personal craft. This may or may not separate me from the movement. It’s still a bit unclear to me. When my partner and I made the decision to move to Miami I began researching studio spaces that would allow me to create my sculptures. I have two major pain points with the kind of making I do. One, I run saws, sanders, and an air compressor regularly which is both loud and messy. Two is I need to stage my objects and present them in a space that will convey the final image. Taking other people into consideration means I’d rather not piss you off with the roaring sounds and on some occasions the weird smells that my materials produce while curing. I started looking into coworking spaces, because I believe I am an entrepreneur, or artrepreneur. I fell in love with Made at The Citadel. Unfortunately the monthly financial overhead was outside of my budget for the amount of physical space needed to support my personal maker needs. I believe in the core values that coworking spaces represent. I want to be part of a community of like minded innovators that explore different industries and can come together on a socially responsible level. I love that each and every different space has a unique visual identity that push the mission and invite entrepreneurs to build the creative business culture allowing them to work in these concept spaces.
I’ve had the pleasure of being supported by BOLD: Cowork when they purchased a commissioned installation for their space. The project was in line with my core values and one of the many reasons I feel supported by cowork institutions. Zac and I are now involved in a conversation about his personal cowork mission taking the fundamental ideas and pushing to create a space that will impact people and support his community. The visual identity is just as important as the business plan. Integrating the two ideas as he moves forward are going to develop the positive impact on the community at large. I’ve seen it first hand. I’ve been supported by and I will continue to support the mission to thrive in a work environment that expresses productivity, communication, creativity, and community, one networking event and installation at a time.