We recently connected with Amai Rawls and have shared our conversation below.

Amai, appreciate you joining us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?

I knew I wanted to pursue my artist career when everything was pointing in that direction. I’ve been into art my whole life. As a child in school i used to draw to calm my mind, I remember I would challenge myself to draw something as realistic as possible. In my eyes art was always just a ‘hobby’ never something i could see myself making a decent living from, as society’s ‘starving artist’ narrative is ever-increasingly being pushed on emerging artists. Eventually I started to do art a little more but i was making it from cut up dollar bills, people loved it. I won a Scholastics National Gold Medal for one of my Money Collages in highschool, I realized again that not only is it cool and fun to do, but people really love to see it and are always in awe at what i’ve felt I kinda just ‘made.’ I thought to go to and art college but it just didn’t sit well in my head for society’s idea of a ‘sound future’. So i Pursued a degree in business management, and during my junior year some issues arose with my government scholarships, so it was either take out a loan, or drop out. Me being so stubborn I immediately dropped out, and i was taking art more serious but I wasn’t fully in ‘art mode’. Thinking back this was definitely the moment i realized i wanted to be an Artist, but i still hesitated to take the step. I got a job working at UPS loading packages and did art on the side. I sold my first two artworks a month in at the job, then the next month…. I’d sold three more. I then thought about all the times I had told myself about the risks of becoming a ‘starving artist’ and I realized I should stop dipping my toes in the water and just make the jump, and so I did. I knew I wanted to pursue my artist career when everything around me kept pointing to it,

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

I’m Amai Rawls, But I go by Brochevski in relation to my art! I’ve done art all my life, but I never took it serious until October 2021. I create intricate collages made of real U.S Dollars. I cut them all up using my X-acto knife and glue them to a sturdy piece of paper, resulting in an expensive image of my choice. A lot of the subject matter in my work revolves around my love for life and its ever shifting balance. To be happy, we have to be sad, and vice-versa, most of my work communicates and explores the deeper feelings associated with maintaining our own balance, equilibrium, or homeostasis. I feel all Artists do this to an extent but I feel that what sets me apart is not only my medium of choice (money), but also that I actively seek multiple ways to tell the same story, using wordplay from common idioms and similes and bringing them to life in my own head, then transferring that mental image into a physical object that you can view and make sense of.

I’m most proud of the amaizing people i’ve been able to meet and connect with on my trek through the art world. The inquisitive minds here feels like a field where all of the art dreams of my childhood are becoming my reality. Something I’d love to let my followers know about me is just how much I love art. It’s the only place I can express myself and never feel ashamed in the result. It’s crazy how a single artwork can represent a thousand words, a million emotions, and a billion thoughts. But something I want people to know about my work specifically is that behind every piece (most), there is Plenty of character and personality in them all. I’ve shared my best moments as well as my worst ones with art, blood, sweat, tears, fist pumps, ive danced with my work, sang to it, even eaten with them (that one sounds weird haha), my work is the part of myself that I’d never feel comfortable talking about had the art not been there, there is something very important about finding that outlet in everyones lives.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding part of my work is definitely the children, the smiles, the ‘wow that is cool’ parts. as a child i was inspired by the art I saw in textbooks, seeing art was this world-shaking experience for me, so seeing a child’s eyes light up as a result of my art is not only the most rewarding part but personally my favorite part.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

Talk to galleries! I wish I knew how caring and inviting the art scene can be sometimes. There have definitely been times where I’ve felt i didn’t fit in or that my work wasn’t going to make the cut, especially when talking to galleries. I was always scared to ask for help or insights on using materials, etc. But after developing some great friendships with some galleries it’s like having a mother bird or someone who really just wants to help you on your journey, no matter what it may be!

Contact Info:

• Website: brochevski.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/brochevski
• Facebook: facebook.com/brochevski
• Linkedin: linkedin.com/amairawls
• Twitter: twitter.com/brochevski