We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Sage Gallon. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Sage below.

Hi Sage, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

Taking Risks seems like all I’ve done. I did a Painting for a good friend of mine who was pregnant with her second child. That was, as hard as it is to believe, over 23 years ago. After finishing the Painting, these words repeated relentlessly in my head. Finally, I wrote the words down. It would become my first poem. I would start writing from there in spite of my poor ability to spell, my fears and the insecurities I had grown accustomed to. I took the risk of doing something contrary to my fasr

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.

I, like many am an unlikely story. I’ve come from homelessness and addiction to create an amazing life. I had my first Exhibit in 2013, a group show where I displayed Prints from my “Crack(s)” Series. “Crack(s)” was a document of my relapse after 11 years of sobriety. I had come home after a run, I had no more money, drugs or access to either. I lay on the floor and scratch out this Painting… poring all of my pain into it. Up until that moment, it had been some 20 years since I had painted. I soon checked myself into a Sober Living, I was at risk of loosening everything if I hadn’t, including my life. While in Sober Living, I started painting a lot, I would post images of my Paintings on Facebook, not thinking anything about it. Early in 2014, NBC’s The Grio named me as one of the 40 Black Artists to watch, March of 2014 I had enough Work to do 2 Solo Exhibits in LA. I had completed my first Album, Naked Under My Clothes and filmed the first Vodeo. Later in 2014, I produced my first NY Opening in a Gallery in the lower East Side. I was featured in an Exhibit at the African American Museum in Philly in 2015 and have been working hard to continue to build my business and expand on my Work. In March of 2024 I was flown to Dubai to do a live Painting for an Organization, we auctioned the Painting and it sold for $16,000.00, March of 2024 I was flown to Richmond VA where I was hired to do some Original Work for a big Film coming out soon.
I have faced many challenges in this journey, from the lack of money and support to having a once close friend robbing my house, stealing everything including my Hard Drives. The thing I’ve learned most is that with Faith and Hard Work, nothing can stop you. Believe in the process, your self and how your Work can affect others lives.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I started my first Production Company in 2015. I had no idea what I was doing, I had no money to do it… all I had was faith and determination. I had two Friends that were like Brothers to me, both men had years of experience in the Entertainment Industry. John Bines, a brilliant Editor, Writer and Director. John had been cutting for 30 years, he worked everything from Sex in the City to the David Chapelle Show. Jay Bennett, the second guy, had two Emmys . I, a creative with a ton of ideas… I thought we had a good team.
I would work my Resturant Jobs to fund our Projects. Up at 5-6am for pre production, take a 30 nap and head to Work, leave that job and go to the second job, get home around 9-10pm and work on Post until 2-3am, rinse and repeat. We were able to create a lot of content that I am still proud of but for several reasons, Jay did not work out. I had to spend thousands on just correcting mistakes. Jay and Raindeer Productions parted ways
A year later, john and I come home to find the place had been burglarized. They took EVERYTHING, including my Hard Drives with ALL of my Work… music, films, videos and all of my photography. It was devastating but my default is always solution. With no help from the police, I conducted my own investigation. Scouring over hours of surveillance footage there it was… Jay, a person who was once like a brother to me, a man that I had not spoken to in an entire year, parks under the surveillance camera, gets out of his car, locks it and then is seen again loading his car with my items.
I could have allowed this to break me, after all, tens of thousands in equipment and all of my work was gone. But instead, I used the robbery to motivate me. I could not allow myself to fail, that would have made Jays efforts successful, instead I moved on. Friends gave me a lot of support. When Jay was finally arrested, we were able to recover some of my Work.
One lesson I learned from that experience is don’t ever give anyone the power over your destiny, what God (whatever God is to you)has for you is uours

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

The lesson I had to unlearn… I had to unlearn the decades my head told me that I wasn’t good enough, that I was fat and ugly and that no one loved me. I had to silence all of those voices that screamed me into Crack House’s and homelessness. I had to replace those voices with promises and purpose. It was at that point I was able to create content that I hope will affect people

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Sagegallon.com
• Instagram: @sagegallon
• Facebook: Sage Gallon
• Linkedin: Sage Gallon
• Youtube: Sage Gallon
• Soundcloud: Sage Gallon

Image Credits

All Work is created by Sage Gallon