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.
My 4 P's: Product
Most of the time when I think of a product I think of a physical item that is pre-made and then sold. For me that is not always the case. My work seesaws between service and products. My product is always art, no matter what way you push it. When I first started writing about “My 4 P’s” in mid-2018 I was convinced that my product was ONLY an outline of services. I have come to find out through a series of consulting experiences and commissioned projects that I do both. I have some services and the end result is a product of art. The best example I have and one that speaks to my mission is when I create window and interior displays, and also merchandise a store.
Between planning and finding a process for each service and production of a product there is a lot of work that has to be done in order to create the actual product or successfully execute a service. My 3rd P, product, is the get your hands dirty part of the business. Without a product all you have is inspiration, an idea, and creativity. What you don’t have is the technical expression and reality of something useful for others. In other words, you don’t really have shit.
What I mean by this is that anyone, everyone has ideas, can be creative and have inspiration. The imagination to do or create something. It’s not until you are willing and able to roll up your sleeves and actually produce or in services terms, work with another person and be the solution to a problem that you have actually moved from the planning and process side of things into a product that reaches people.
For me, and I’m sure you are getting the gist of things, I like to talk about myself and my experiences here. I have projects where planning and process is a product that I get paid to do before an installation happens. When I am approached with a truly fantastic project that needs a lot of work up front in order to create the best possible product I start with the planning and process as a product to ensure that I am able to fulfill the needs of the client. Once that planning has been approved I move into the product phase. I begin production, getting my hands dirty, and creating things that no one but me can create because through the planning and processing phases I have put myself into the project. The ideas are authentically mine and no matter where I have pulled inspiration from, the production is my hands, thus making it unique.
At the beginning of 2020 I really got honest with myself when it came to what I do and how I do it. I have fumbled around knowing that I make art, in so way different ways. From retail displays and merchandising to brand development, logos, content curation for social media, and being an consultant for businesses and project management. Trying to put a label on each project so that you, the people, can understand my services and products has been a challenge. At the end of the day, it’s all a form of creativity and art.
My 4 P's: People
We have successfully made it to my 4th and final P, people. Oh, how I love this one! When I have made it to people it means that I’ve actually created something of value to myself and to the outside world. It means that the 3 P’s before were successful in someway. It is the final level. Typically referred to as an “end user”, which feels so impersonal to me. I prefer to just say people. My funnel typically looks like the people who are my clients and then their clients having the experience of the product that I created.
Stephen in the Safari Toile Mask to mitigate COVID-19
Finding people to purchase my products or who would benefit from my services always feels like the hardest thing to do. Maintaining clients for repeat projects, or for all around new client/project relationships each its own planning and processing to be fruitful. I’ve been very fortunate to create that at a time of need. But who do you connect the products to the people? This is where marketing taps into the front end and the back end of any business. Last year I was introduced to a book by Seth Godin called “This is Marketing”. It has proved to be my marketing bible. It is the book that forced me to look at my business from a different perspective and being the journey of refining what and how I present myself to the world. This is marketing.
People are vital to any business. Whether it is a B2B or B2C transaction, people are the ultimate interaction. I have to interact with the person that is hiring me for a project, and then have a relationship with them. Once the project is completed that client is going to have a relationship with their customers and in between my work connects and influences the relationship. Art is what binds product to people.
I believe this with every fiber of my being. An in store experience can bring customers into a store, and how the in store experience is presented is through art and design. How the business presents the products within the store influences customers to purchase. In todays world we have unfettered access to people through social media, and technology. Content creation and the curation of the message is marketing, but if you aren’t connected to people and if no one is acknowledging the work are you really filling a void, being valuable, and helping others.
I’ve talked about social responsibility in the past and I’ll say it again for the people in the back. I have a social responsibility to create art for myself and others. It my mission to create to experiences for your enjoyment and delight. Nothing is possible without you, the people