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

Alexis, 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?

Heyo, my name is Alexis Tyson. I am Creative born and raised in Baltimore City. I’ve spent the past 6 years curating and sharing my art around the city. I am a visual artists with a focus primarily in acrylic paint. I’d describe my style as expressionist. My art focuses on self-reflection and the multi-dimensional consciousness we all develop as we get to know ourselves and community better. I currently attend University of Maryland, Baltimore County and am seeking my degree in Graphic Design and Entrepreneurship. I’ve been working in the graphic design industry for the last 3 years. My goal as a designer is to strengthen community organizations and institutions ability to connect with the public and create a strong visual identity that reflects their mission. I am also a Curator and have put together exhibitions in museums, galleries and virtual spaces. Curating to me is the art of the experience, not just for the viewer but also the artists. Exhibitions give us concepts and topics that are thought provoking. I want to highlight Baltimore artists because they’re some of the most talented groups people I’ve been blessed to be a part of and meet. I also want to create spaces that activate our ability to critique and question the things that have been taught to us. Art in all of its forms is expression and I am in love with the human expression – however it appears. I will continue to create and build experiences and work that allows myself and others to find their expression.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

When I had my first art show; Heedless at A Gallery About Nothing in Baltimore – I was weary of sharing my work. Up until that point in November of 2019, I had been painting in the comfort of my childhood room. I spent nights just painting, a song playing softly in my headphones and often no words being spoken. For me the process of painting was a therapy – an immediate diffusion for the emotions and thoughts that constantly took up space in my mind. I was very adamant about not sharing my work back then, because at the time it wasn’t for other people to see or understand. It was for me to see the physical representation of my own changes. I found a lot of comfort going to bed with every inch of my room covered with paintings – it was the reflection of self I needed to begin to start to recognize my being amongst the influence of the world.

Finally, when my room was impossible to maneuver in almost – my parent asked what I wanted to do with all this art and I was stuck. The idea of sharing was always at the back of my mind but I was so content with myself being the only one aware of their existence that it never was an option. I decided to do my show as a step into my future, uncertain and nervous but with the strong sense of ‘its going to be okay’. The show went amazing and as I walked around speaking to people, I was struck by what they told me. I found myself hearing people find emotions and feelings they couldn’t speak in the art. It was an “exactly” moment for most and their joy in finding some understanding was infectious. The night was spent with me grinning and urging people to go as deep into their interpretation as they wanted. Back then I didn’t name my pieces – they were moments in time that I didn’t want to pinpoint with a name. My passion comes from sharing experiences with others.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

So originally when I started my journey as a painter, I had gotten into the habit of finishing painting in the same session that I started. This would look like painting for 6 – 7 hours straight. Now, that wasn’t a problem and I enjoyed painting in these quick burst. At the time, I’d recently switched over from doing pencil drawing and was beginning to develop my style. As I got more confident in using my eye in paintings – I’d always get a sense of what was missing. I never did drafts or created sketches – it was always a feelings or sense that I was seeking to share so drawing it beforehand wasn’t helpful because of how fluid those things were in myself. A drafted sketch would prove useless once I sat down to work and had a completely different relationship/though process around the subject. To compensate for that I’d start and paint until I felt that the feeling had been “explained” completely on the canvas. I used to feel very proud that I had this intuitive approach towards painting.

Then I started curating more seriously and took a break from painting to focus my energy there. It wasn’t intentional at first but I noticed I had little energy to create in that aspect when doing gallery work. It was okay but I never really developed my process to adjust for painting in small increments when I could. As a result when I would paint – the work would feel incomplete and lacking to me. I could no longer to make myself do paintings in one sitting, the artist I was becoming didn’t have that same maniac energy (which I’m happy to say). It was around that time that I found began therapy again and started trying to address being Bipolar II – as my life became more regulated and I began to trust myself more, I couldn’t use the same stimuli and quick fixes to release energy. After painting sporadically and never being fully satisfied for about a year – I became depressed with the thought of losing my will to paint. I had to take a moment to figure where I was feeling drained (School, work, etc.) and where I wanted to grow as a creative. This was when I took about 8 months off from painting to give myself a moment of rest. We all experience burnout and I had been ignoring it to my own detriment for a year. I had to make the pivot to minimize that amount of projects and roles I took on. I can say looking back that my quality of life, business plan and career improved greatly from that decisions. Don’t let grind culture push you out of finding comfort in your existence.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.thetwz.com
• Instagram: @twiztiee (Me) and @thetwz (Art Archive)

Image Credits
Brandon Armstrong, Hotel Revival, Kenyetta Reddick, Daisy Brown