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

Andrew, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?

Yes I have! What I had to learn was that things take time to cultivate and nurture – but with consistency you can build something that is able to support your lifestyle. One thing I’d like to encourage people with is to not overthink things in life…. sometimes when trying to make a plan or trying to decide what to do, we end up “thinking” our way out of what we want to do. We typically begin by contemplating everything that may go wrong in the process, instead of what will go right. I do believe in having a plan, but sometimes the need to know how things will work out can keep us from taking the very important first steps. My experience has shown me that the way is illuminated as we walk, not before we walk. Clarity comes from action and not preceding it, and while there are many problems to solve along the way, things tend to work themselves out. I’d say…never wait until it feels certain to begin the process. You can, quite literally, begin today. Stay consistent and after some time you will look back and see how all those little decisions to show up were the building blocks to the life you desired.

Andrew, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

From a young age, I’ve always gravitated towards the arts – music and visual arts. There was a moment during my college education where I discovered the art of Japanese tattooing at the school library. From this moment, I felt a strong inspiration and draw towards the arts of Asia. As an American-born Taiwanese, and son of immigrants, I have always wanted to find a way to express the broad experience of being both Asian and American. I love both cultures and believe this is a unique perspective that should be shared. I look at the arts – my paintings, tattoos and my brand as a way to inspire my audience to forge their own path and find their way to tell their story. My works are a culmination of all of me, my interests and my mixed cultural background.

My overall message to the world is that we have the opportunity to create the life we want, and that despite our unique situations, backgrounds and cultures – we all hold a little piece of the entire truth. Art and creativity is the means through which we can communicate and express these truths… and how we can invite others to experience our unique truths with us. Everything I do aims to serve this goal – to show the world that there may be way more to this experience that we’ve learned to call “life” and to be able to create our experience is what it means to become free – the freedom to choose. We can find freedom in this life by learning to express our true selves without fear or shame, and art is an incredibly powerful tool that we can use to pursue this end for ourselves and others.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

Throughout the process of discovering your purpose and your path you will encounter many challenges. This is why staying in our comfort zone can seem so appealing at times. Choosing to forge your own path as a person and as an artist is much like cutting your own path through a forrest, versus walking the path that has already been laid out. You will encounter a lot of unforeseen challenges in the form of situations, disappointments and things that don’t according to plan or take longer than you thought they would.
I’ve experienced a lot of failures along the way. For everything that does work out, is another that doesn’t. It just seems to be the way things go. What has really helped me is faith in the fact that for every door that closes, another opens. Often we can get stuck on thinking about the closed doors, when there may be an open one right next to us.

I had to learn that it was never my job to make everything work out perfect – but that my responsibility was to stay faithful to myself and my purpose, and let the universe take care of the rest. As you rise, there will be more and more beneath you trying to keep you down to the same level, to take you back down to Earth. But you have to know that you were meant to fly, and that gravity just comes with the situation.

Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

I’m trying to find my freedom – freedom of my time, freedom of my mind, and freedom of my life. If the sum of our lifespan is a composition of every moment we live and how we choose to spend each of those moments… then I want to be as free as possible in those moments. Will i be satisfied with being a consumer in this world, or do I want more?

As I walked down my path as an artist, I realized that the arts was my way of creating my own freedom. Converting my passions to my means of living showed me that I could create the lifestlye I wanted by doing something I love. In this world, we are often pitted between doing what we love and making a living, but I feel like one of the most important things to do in order to free my life was the figure out how to create a situation where I didn’t have to choose. No, it’s never peaches and rainbows, but the reward is much deeper than that – that my time and energy is spent into building my own path and my own dream, and not anyone else’s.

My goal is to create my own freedom through my lifestyle and my artwork.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.andrewblooms.com
• Instagram: @andrew.blooms

Image Credits

Judah Cooper Payne, Fulani Jabri, Annabelle Camp