We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful See Drye . We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with See below.
See, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you tell us about a time that your work has been misunderstood? Why do you think it happened and did any interesting insights emerge from the experience?
I’ve been a full-time artist for a little over a year now. I’m learning that most people don’t take it serious when you say you’re an artist. It’s always followed up with “what do you do all day? You just paint?” I don’t think people take being an entrepreneur seriously at all, as if we are just sitting around all day. There are many types of artist disciplines and careers inside of each. I’m a teaching and engagement artist. So I use my artwork inside of a curriculum I created to help students find their voice. All artist aren’t starving or just sitting around with free time, some of us are actually making the world a better place.
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 Christian Drye, professionally I go by “See Drye.” I am a visual artist that focuses on abstract graffiti with acrylic and spray paint. I’ve been doing art since the show Pokemon came out, we would draw all of the characters whose cards we didn’t have. Growing up, art became less and less cool because now we wanted to play sports and get girls. I randomly picked it back up in college at Central State University, where I designed majority of the flyers on campus. The way I was designing the flyers almost looked like paintings or small works of art, so I eventually was intrigued to go deeper in my artistry bag. My journey literally went from drawing Pokemon to: designing flyers, creating a T-shirt brand, fashion styling, clothing customization, I have my own greeting cards, a curriculum and more
Today, I felt God calling me to become more intentional with my art, it needed to be more of me being vulnerable to help someone. I was able to transform my personal artwork into a curriculum that helps kids recognize and communicate emotion, find confidence and become better people. Being able to help someone become a better person and show them that you care, through art, is crazy dope. I’m blessed.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
This is my mission statement for my life: to be demonstrative of God’s power through ART + Fashion and to specifically show the hood God’s creative power.
Even before I started claiming the term “artist,” I’ve always felt I had the power to create what I wanted. I define what’s cool, I’m my own standard and I want to stand out. My interest are not of the environment from which I came, my taste and what I deem cool, is not of the hood. So my goals is to basically see as much of God’s creations (people, places, culture) as possible, document it in varies ways and then display it to the world, specifically the hood. I want to help rewrite the negative connotations of the hood: it’s okay to be different, it’s okay to show emotions, it’s okay to express yourself -that’s what my art is about. There is so much beauty in the world, I need to create ways for people to see it. Have you ever heard of Mount Rainier? Google it if not, it’s breathtaking! The hood deserves to know about this type of stuff, it’s way more outside of our neighborhoods than some of us are exposed to. Apart of my purpose, I feel, is to connect the two – the hood and everything not so, hood.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
It’s a tie between (1) my students seeing the art lesson working in real time and (2) the opening night of a art show. They both show signs of progress and serve as beacons of light for my journey.
Contact Info:
- Website: Www.SeeDrye.com
- Instagram: @seedrye
- Facebook: See Drye
- Youtube: @SeeDryeInColor
- Other: Tik Tok: @seedrye
Image Credits
Ronald Blassingame