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

Hi A.C., thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?

MythoFutuRiddim, a cultural arts festival to date is the most meaningful project I’ve worked on. In 2018 I was working as a full-time graphic designer and pursing a solo art practice in the evenings and weekends. Upon being laid-off, I had to re-calibrate, re-focus and re-center Art art a main component of my daily routine.

In response to the lack of viable and sustainable opportunities for artists, I began to focus more on creating opportunities for other artists rather than individually pursuing my own personal artistic goals. From this desire, the project, MythoFutuRiddim was born. MythoFutuRiddim is a combination of the words Mythology, Afrofuturism, and Riddim/music. The festival combines art, design, music and performances within a unique cultural dialogue that explores how artists use these themes to spark their creative process. This exhibition is now preparing its third iteration in a series of nomadic grass roots projects focused on promoting early-career artists. With this exhibition and those that follow, I’m committed to helping artists begin, develop, and sustain creative careers on their own terms.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I describe myself as an Artist, as an individual who is dedicated to creating improvements in my environment and lasting relationships through Art.

I’m deeply concerned with arts equity and artists rights. To that end, I lead Keyeser & Marie, a company which manifests opportunities for artists by creatively investing resources into the development of sustainable careers. Keyeser & Marie is named after my grandparents, Ben “Keyeser” and Marie Evans. As a young child, the art in their home and within their salon conversations inspired me to not only pursue art as an individual but to also provide relevant art opportunities for others. The organization is inspired by their memory and all projects are energized by the intent to create careers of genuine ownership for artists.

For many years I pursued art as a generally individualistic pursuit through fairly traditional methods of career advancement. I found myself in a depressing cycle of excitement (at new opportunities), submission (to an opportunity) and ultimately rejection. I had seen and been taught through media that a successful art career was similar to winning the lottery, rather than something that one could ultimately dictate and control.

After being laid-off in 2018 I went through a tough process of trying to understand exactly what I wanted “to be”. A fundamental change occurred in my artist mindset, when I came across a TedTalk by Sadhguru, an Indian yoga guru and proponent of spirituality. He posed a fundamental question in his presentation. When he asked, “In your career path, what have you genuinely tried to create for someone else?” This simple but powerful question felt directed to me. Sadhguru went further to explain that in his opinion, lasting happiness couldn’t be realized in a tunnel-vision, “me-first”, selfish approach. True fulfillment, in his words, could only be experienced by creating unconditionally for others. At that moment the organizational intent for Keyeser and Marie was created. I still pursue individual projects, but by far the most rewarding projects are those driven to create opportunities for others.

Our organization, Keyeser & Marie is a full service arts resource, encompassing design, book-publishing, web-development, event services and much more. We support an annual cultural arts festival, MythoFutuRiddim, and seek to provide arts enrichment opportunities for artists of all ages, backgrounds and abilities. We are proud that with minimal outside investment, we have been able to create lasting impact in many areas. We are hopeful and optimistic that the future holds even larger opportunities for the artistic relationships we are building.

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

I had to unlearn the concept that others have ultimate control over the path of my artistic career.

The gatekeepers in the artistic world have created a toxic environment whereby ownership, leverage and control can only be experienced and maintained by a small group. The backstory comes from pursuing artistic relationships for “exposure”. In hindsight, these relationships were actually detrimental to the path of my artistic career. Over time, I’ve learned to develop a clear concept of what represents “success”. As opportunities arise, they may seem to be immediately lucrative, but if they aren’t in alignment with your long-term mission they must be refused. Upon review, most opportunities represent exploitation for the artist and profit for others. Once you understand that no price is worth your artistic integrity, “clout chasing” becomes a dangerously expensive habit. In the long-term, if you develop a plan and path to that plan’s execution, no one can ultimately stop you from getting to your destination.

We’d love to hear your thoughts on NFTs. (Note: this is for education/entertainment purposes only, readers should not construe this as advice)

NFTs are a neutral tool, they (and the technology underlying them) don’t necessarily represent something inherently good or bad. Like most things, NFTs are based on the use case. In a positive sense (for artists), NFTs can be used to creatively connect to new collectors, encode perpetual royalties into sales and help artists lead the field in the emerging digital economic system. Conversely NFTs can be used to further centralize art ownership into fewer hands. As cryptocurrencies increase in value, the bar for entering, sustaining and competing with larger organizations becomes progressively more difficult for individual artists. It would help for artists to see NFTs and the underlying blockchain as a new tool or new medium. The same way a painter may experiment with brush strokes or a photographer may experiment with F-stops, artists should explore blockchain technology as an added aspect of their individual artistic practice. With this attitude, much of the stigma surrounding NFTs could give way to a clarity that provides perspective on how NFTs & blockchain technology could be applied to their work in new and remarkable ways.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://acevansart.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/keyesermarie
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonie-a-c-evans/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/mythofuturiddim

Image Credits
Tiye Bazzey A.C. Evans