Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Sidney Gage. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Sidney , appreciate you joining us today. Can you open up about a risk you’ve taken – what it was like taking that risk, why you took the risk and how it turned out?

With many creative endeavors I undertake an element of risk is always involved. Usually, it comes to a choice of quality over quantity, feast or famine, buy now and cry later. Creating Visual Art through the medium of paint and canvas is one I find to be the most challenging to take and manage well. I’ve always loved art and wanted to paint beautiful things from a young age.
For many years I never took the steps to fulfill this desire to create. Either from fear, lack of confidence, or fortitude, I always put it on the back burner and even chucked it in the trash as a broken and forgotten dream. I spent many years pursuing a calling in my faith-walk to know Jesus, Christianity, and people on a deep and spiritual level. This led to countless hours of study, conversations, and experiencing highs and lows of turbulent social interactions as an ever-evolving self-aware individual.
After some major losses in my life, I started to express my grief, confusion, and depression through painting. This became a saving grace I did not foresee it could ever be. As I pursued painting more passionately, I grew to love it and found it to be something I could not ignore. This is when the element of “risk” starts to become prevalent.
I’ve heard it said, dreams and aspirations can be seeds God plants in you as a child. They can bloom or wither depending on if you water them. In my mind, committing to being an artist could bring the loss of relationships, security, and (although a fallacy of understanding) my life of salvation.
As a radical of faith, I established many professional and personal relationships with like-minded people. Fear started to arise as I envisioned conversations about leaving the spiritual office and venturing into the world as a creative. I contemplated the loss of finances, charity, and the comfort of dependable security I became accustomed to being a community member of the “church”. The hardest and ironically the most unnecessary distraught invoking feeling of losing the love of God in my life. Would chasing this dream ultimately lead to my destruction and worse yet, my rejection?
Many people in “the church” have poured knowledge, kindness, and encouragement into my life. I feared dishonoring them as I became an artist versus an evangelist of the Gospel in the traditional sense. I built my life around working in and receiving support from the church body. The radical change in my profession brought numerous challenges to that model. Some of my relationships were lost, some endured, and thankfully, some grew deeper.
This pursuit also brought the loss of meals, amenities, and peace of mind to my depleting bank savings. Visual art can be costly and time-consuming to make. Many a night I endlessly calculated the sacrifice of one thing over another to get supplies, enter shows, and travel to explore the passion of being an artist. Every choice was a high-level risk that would bring ruin if nothing panned out. Living blessing to blessing became, painting to painting! Times I lost, I lost badly, and other times, I just managed to get by.
Again, the highest risk and yet the most secure aspect of this endeavor was fulfilling a calling, my eternal security, and a sense of being loved in and by God. A constant struggle I wrestle with is my faithfulness to God ensures His love for me. This in itself is a fallacy. I’ve found God to be love, to love without end, and to be faithful to a capacity I could never achieve or was created to be. Tossing and turning, tear after tear, prayer after screaming, and being riddled with anxiety I came to the peace of risking it all. The easiest thing can be the hardest to accept right? In the Bible, Jesus tells us to have faith as a child. Faith in him, faith in the One who sent him, and faith to receive the good things promised.
Looking back at the risks I’ve taken to chase dreams, passions, and callings, those mindsets seem light I ask myself. Were all the risks necessary? maybe not. Were they all real? probably not. Did they help me to love myself, people, and God more? Most definitely!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

My name is Leon, I create under “Sidney Gage”, my middle and last name. I use my middle name as an honor to my late mother who is my biggest supporter and encourager in creative adventures, and when very mad or happy.. the only person to use my middle name. lol

I love God, music, art, and meeting new people. God intercepted my life when I was a young boy and has continually redirected my journey in many unexpected and explainable ways. Music has always been in the background of my memories and a passion I hope to realize as a movie score and the potential of its healing properties through frequencies. Art is my self-expression to navigate the emotional rollercoaster of being human and leaving something beautiful for others to find along their path. Meeting people is an endless spring of inspiration, inner growth, a mirror to the heart, and an opportunity to share in adventures.

I work to inspire, encourage, and be a part of people’s artistic expression as a vehicle to overcome life challenges, create cherished memories, and be a positive influence within the earth and stars.

Living many years paralyzed by fear, regret, and shame, through creativity and expression of the arts, I found healing in my spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical life. It was hard to take the first steps; it was scary to be vulnerable and embarrassing to fail. Each failure brings mastery, each step gets you closer to the goal line, and each moment of fear teaches you to be brave in adversity.

One of my great teachers is Failure. Whether that be trying to do things on my own, living in contrast to my authentic self, or shrinking back from stepping out to experience life to its full beauty with others. Failure is inventable, invaluable, and unattainable if you never try!

If my brand, art, or practice has anything remarkable to share in life:

I hope it is love.
I hope it is the influence to create opportunities for people to explore their passions.
I hope it leads to dreams becoming reality.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

Being creative has expanded my imagination to look at life through the lens of others. It has also given me an appreciation of history, culture, and the journey of mankind.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Although my current numbers may not reflect a strong social media-building model. I have learned a few things through reinventions, self-destructions, and half-hearted attempts. 

When building a following, audience, or tribe, always start with a solid foundation. Knowing who you are, being as authentic as possible, writing goals, and not taking things too personally are sure steps to success. 

In music, I gained a fairly large organic following at the time just being myself, for myself. I became overwhelmed by opinions, negativity, and lack of growth leading to deleting my accounts and giving up for a time on the project. Although I learned so much from it, I lost many friends and contacts due to my unwise and unhealthy reactions during the process. With the changing landscape of social media practice, trends, etc, it has been a long road and difficult to recover.

You won’t make everyone happy and that is okay! It can take only one wrong external voice you listen to that will silence the one inside. An extremely permanent choice with potential to unravel everything is never wise when you are in emotional distress. Take a breath!

Preparation and dedication can exceed all expectations. Being consistent in your practices, genuine in your content, and consistent in your executions can go a long way in building a social account. 

Create things you love, with love, and love will find it!

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jesuslovesabstract
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@sidneygage?si=rxNDJcnnFSnfvRxJ
• Other: I’m currently in between host providers for a website. schedule to be created in July 2024