We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Jason Hayth a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Jason, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

So this is a good question. If I could go back in time I would have started my creative career earlier. Backstory – I did art my whole younger life. I was given the gift of art at a very young age, I learned as an elementary kid how to draw from drawing from my favorite comic book characters. I kept this up through highschool but I was equally talented in sports so my effort when towards that and got me in college playing football and running track. I stopped doing art from 2004 to about 2018. It was my little girls birthday and she was in love with TMNT and I could not find her a cool pair so I made a pair for her. I drew with fabric markers her favorite ninja turtle. She loved them and my friends were amazed and did not even know I had artistic talent and said I should make it a business. During this time I felt lost I had gotten out of the navy in 2016 and really wasn’t sure of what to do. I started to dabble a little in art more and I took a drawing class my teacher was a black man from the Bahamas. It was eye opening to see a black professor in art and his encouragement and challenged me to grow because she saw so much more in me. I got my graphic design degree and this started everything but it still took me a little time to get serious about it. I feel like I wasted my 20s and could have started and honed my craft earlier than now. I feel like I would have been further a head right now than I am. Hindsight I feel like art was always meant to be my path and wish I would started path sooner. I think I would be more experienced and right now had much more of a name than I do now in the art world. Social Media was easier to get noticed then, than it is now as well.

Jason, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Jason Hayth. I am a bi-racial man who was born in Jacksonville, FL. I was raised all over the country, you could say I was kind of a military kid with how much I moved around, my dad always changed jobs. These experiences I have gained through my life from living in the South, Midwest, and the West coast and my travels around the world have influenced who I am as a person. I was a two sport athlete in college, served 4 years in navy with honorable discharge, and 2 degrees have given me also much life experiences. These experience has made it easy to find common ground with many people and helped me relate to those around me. These life experiences have also influenced my art and the subjects I choose to create art about. I think my diverse upbringing and challenges sets me apart from others. My experiences have opened my mind and look at problems from different angles. I never been able to fit into category in my life so because of this its cause growth and gain comfortability in the uncomfortable. I got into the art industry seriously about 3 years ago. I am a visual artist and graphic designer. I got my graphic design degree Sept. of 2022. I got into this industry from the support of some of my closet friends, my spouse, and family. I do many forms of art from traditional acrylic paintings, custom sneakers, digital illustrations, and graphic design work like logos. The services I offer are custom sneakers, custom traditional paintings, logos, landing pages, product design, and many more. my favorite is painting though, I love to paint whatever I get my hands on shoes, murals, skateboards and whatever else. One of my strengths is to take my clients ideas and images from their head and bring them to life. One of the complements I get most is ” this looks better than I could ever imagine.” I take pride in my work and I am great and piecing together random ideas into a cohesive piece. I think this is one of the things I am most proud of. Another would be my original paintings because those are the most me and me baring my soul to the world to be judged. I paint to uplift and inspire those around me.

Can you share your view on NFTs? (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

I think NFTs are a very interesting subject. I don’t think digital will ever replace physical work. That being said I think the future is heading towards them both being one of the same. The digital pieces will go with the physical ones. The NFT I think will be a way you can verify that you have the real thing the original. I see art as an investment, not only are you investing in the artwork for yourself but also the artists and what the artist will do in the future. My goal is to always increase the value of my past work with my future work. The painting that the person bought may have cost them $3000 now is worth $30000. I think what is the best and most important aspect of NFT is that the artist can continue to benefit from their work. If this artwork is now worth 30000 and the owner sells it, the artist gets paid lets say 10% of this sell the artist continues to get a profit off this piece instead of just one time payment. I think this is beautiful aspect and looking forward to this outcome.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

I think from the perspective of a non creative they just see a pretty picture, but they don’t know what created this piece. I believe in art the artist puts themselves in a painting. You could see a piece and not realize that maybe the artist was in a lot of pain, maybe from a divorce, or death of a close friend, or maybe something less serious and just feeling down. It could be positive experiences as well, all this I believe goes into a painting. So ask the artist what was your feeling or meanings behind a painting, you can gain a lot of insight into the artist. Another thing that a non creative person may not see is the many hours to hone this craft and struggles to get to this point in their art career. Non creatives see a piece and think its beautiful, but than question why this piece cost so much. They should take in account, hours to create this piece, the years honing the skill to create this piece, the supplies, and so much more. The last thing I will mention is that if the non creative wants to commission a piece research what type of style you want and take a look at the artist work. Don’t go to a artist that specialize in realism and you tell him you want to do surrealism or street art. Hire an artist because you love their style and you want a piece of artwork of theirs in that style. The artist will be more appreciative and will do a much better quality of work, each artist is as unique the work they create.

Contact Info:

• Website: sundiataart.com
• Instagram: sundiata_art
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-hayth-sundiata-art/