We were lucky to catch up with Lové Iman recently and have shared our conversation below.
Lové, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you take us back in time to the first dollar you earned as a creative – how did it happen? What’s the story?
Now, I may have made an art sale or two prior to this, but this is the first dollar I earned that I remember vividly. 2 years ago I started a podcast with a friend of mine called the Eww Variety Show, we came up with a whole roll out and promo campaign and all of that. The first campaign was “Swipe Right on Eww” where me and my co-host, Bri, both did dating videos. Shortly after I posted my video, a friend of mine DM’ed me and asked how much I was charging for the painting behind my head. If only every sale was that easy!
Lové, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
Hi! I’m Lové Iman, my name means love and faith and that’s kind of the driving factor behind the work I do. My business is called Good Samaritan Firm, and it’s a media company. When I say media, I mean audio, video, visual art, digital art, jewellery, crafting- if there’s a creative project you have in mind my goal is to exceed your expectations. I’ve been making art since I was a kid, I think I just had a lot of feelings and didn’t know what to do with them, or have many people around who understood them, so I’d write or make art instead. I’ve always been a musician, always been an artist. I think that we all are those things to some extent. We all have the ability to tap into the spark that makes us create beautiful things from the world around us, but not all of us become disciplined in it. I spent a lot of time early in my career working with children and doing odd jobs where I’d learn about the ways our brains developed, how to communicate with a variety of people from different age groups and backgrounds, and would find ways to encourage them to feel free and comfortable being themselves. The biggest thing I’ve learned from the workforce is how many people feel suppressed when they don’t have outlets for the things that stress them. I teach art classes for adults, and the most work I do in those sessions is encouraging them to think out the box and shed the walls they have up towards their creative self. By the end of the class they have a piece that they’re proud of, something that makes them say with conviction that they are an artist. When it comes to the branding and graphic design aspect of my work, I want people to feel official. I primarily work with small businesses, entrepreneurs and non profits to make graphics that fit the feel of their brand. I was always told that when you look good you feel good, and I think that works for people as well as brands. You want your packaging and presentation to be something that feels unique to you and can draw people towards you, and I love the collaborative aspect of it, of hearing someone’s vision and being able to bring that to life. I love art, I love the act of creating something from nothing. I think that there’s magic in that.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding part of being an artist is the way that you can make other people feel things deeply with your work. When I see people’s eyebrows raise, or hear a chuckle, or have someone tell me how something I made resonated with them, I feel accomplished. It makes me feel like I’m not the only person who has felt the things that I feel, or been through things that I’ve been through. Because so much of my work is parallel to my life’s journey, it is always really intimate sharing my work. Now that I’m becoming more consistent in the arts, I realize I shied away from doing it for so long for that reason. The more I allow myself to be vulnerable and share myself with others, the more I realize the potential for genuine connection. It’s like I can see the. fabric that we’re all woven from and the threads that connect us.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
I’ve done a lot of things that I’ve never done before this year, one of which was performing at a show at one of my favorite venues. This happened shortly after I was displaced from the place I’d been living. I was still in shock, things were fresh and I was prepping for something that was a pivotal in my life inside of a hotel room. I was nervous, to say the least. The show was called “Keep Swinging” and I made the roster because I’d been persevering through a lot and continued to share my art and work toward achieving my goals. I show up to perform, and before my call time I sit in the car and the anxiety fills the space. I start playing the beats I’d worked on and as I start to recite my lyrics, I feel lighter. When I hit the stage I was still nervous, and it was a little rocky. By the end, though, people are coming up to me and letting me know how much they vibed with my music- from the lyrics to the beats. I felt really accomplished, like I had started to actualize a big part of my dream. It was a moment that I was able to say that I’m truly an artist, and I have every intention of going the distance to follow my dreams.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: bigbbyve goodsamaritanfirmllc
Image Credits
Rachel Dahle Reginald Baylor III