Often, those who tread off the beaten path are misunderstood or mischaracterized and so we asked folks from the community to reflect and tell us about the times they’ve been misunderstood or mischaracterized.

Adrien Converse

Artistic expression has always been a mainstay in my life for voicing what has been ignored and overlooked. I grew up in a very authoritarian environment where being heard and being accepted depended on a sort of “smile for the camera” attitude. Pretend everything is fine, and don’t rock the boat! I was trained as a classical pianist starting at the age of five, and in my hours off the clock I learned to make up my own music as a form of emotional catharsis. I came to do the same with visual art, as a way to reflect on my own sense of reality. Read more>>

Astor Bonder

The type of art I make is not for everyone, and I understand that. However, we are living through an intensely reactionary moment, and I receive a lot of abusive messages online due to misplaced fear and anger at the subject matter I depict. Some of these come from the usual suspects: dyed in the wool homophobes who only intend harm. These I can disregard. The worst messages are the ones that come from within the queer community, but which come from a place of fear– fear that by making the kind of art that I do (erotic, outwardly queer and trans) I am somehow validating the accusations flung by the Right, and that they will be tarred with my brush. Read more>>

Edward Varnie

What I’ve learned on my journey as a creative is that there are two fundamental truths about storytelling. First the audience’s personal experiences shape their takeaway from a film. No matter my intentions as a creator, viewers will engage with my work through the lens of their own feelings and ideological perspectives. Which often shape their experience before they see a frame of one of my films for better or for worse. Read more>>

Jeida K. Storey

I don’t know a single spiritualist, entrepreneur, or creative who hasn’t received criticism or questions when they pursue their passion. As a spiritualist, especially one who was raised very Christian, my work has been under a specific type of scrutiny. People who knew me then have questions about who I am becoming. They question the validity and significance of my work because they don’t know that Christianity doesn’t own divinity. They don’t know that there is abundant life outside of the Church. People associate “tarot reader” with being a “devil worshiper” or “demonic.” Read more>>

K Rollin’

I think as an artist, I’m often being perceived by others, and a lot of the time It is misguided perception and sometimes off the mark. I always like to ask people their first impression of me just to get an idea of how I could be presenting myself in society, and we’re also in the age of social media and that plays a big part of that. I think that based on my social media and RBF, a lot of people mischaracterize me to be unapproachable and stuck up, but that’s not the person that I am at all or even close. A lot of my close friends find out that I’m super considerate, caring, and my heart is open for the development of our relationship, until something I wouldn’t even consider doing has been done to me. Read more>>

Kimberly Conrad

I think professional artists in general are misunderstood in that our art is our job; our living. We work like every other employed person, and social media is a big part of that, but there is a lot of judgement from non-creatives especially on social media platforms around selling, be it courses, artwork, or art related products. I have experienced this, as have many colleagues, and artists that I coach. This has been at times, a hot topic for me. Read more>>

Monday Blue

Several years ago as I was packing up my equipment after playing a set in a day long lineup, a longtime DJ colleague camp up to me, gave me a hug and said, “I don’t care what anyone says, you’re a dope DJ.” While I managed to say “Thank you!” internally my Gemini mind started whirling… I had so many questions: “So, there are people who don’t care for my deejaying?” “What am I doing or not doing that warranted *that* statement?” “Is everyone who ever booked me just humoring me??” Read more>>

Oscar Loreto, Jr

As an adaptive skateboarder I do feel our art is misunderstood. Before the influx of adaptive skateboarders over the last 5 years it did feel that it was a “circus” sport. A lot of the time I would do “One man demos” promoting and raising awareness for the sport, but very often it felt more of a pity party than inclusion. Read more>>

Santiago Molina

My experience with the world is one of like a caged bird who remembers how to fly. During my childhood, my family raised me as a free bird, but then as I grew up and experienced life, I felt like I was being put into a cage, and still today I feel the same way. Not only regarding my artistry but just who I am. So every day is a conscious decision of not letting the world keep me in a cage. Whenever I create something visual such as self-portrait, I write a poem, and share my digital camera’s footage, some people wonder if that is art, or some would say there is “too much going on” or just nothing at all, and he is just calling “that” art. Read more>>

T.w. Pilar

I recently spoke about this topic with Vinisha Rumph on her podcast Parallel Play; and after opening up about it, this is the perfect question to start off with. My work is very rarely mischaracterized as I found that the materials I use translate very well to the viewers. The steel very loudly announces the association with industry and the moss I employ obviously embodies nature, from there the viewers can mostly piece together the vibe. However, my use of plastics particularly concern some folks. Im often asked how the use of new, rather than repurposed, materials encourages sustainability or prompted to explain how the support of production can be applied to environmentalism- which are wonderful provocations. Read more>>