We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Ann Adele Blassingame a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Ann Adele thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Did you always know you wanted to pursue a creative or artistic career? When did you first know?
I realized I wanted to pursue a creative path during my 1st year in University. Originally, I had signed up as a business major, and during orientation, I quickly realized that was not the path I needed to take during my undergraduate. For me, art, specifically printmaking, was a way for me to investigate myself and my values. As soon as I realized that was what I needed to do for myself to grow, I immediately switched my major and classes, throwing myself into the art world – a world I had not been in since my first year in middle school.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
My name is Ann Adele Blassingame, and I am a tattoo artist and printmaker! I currently reside in Colorado and have obtained my B.A. in Printmaking, with a minor in Anthropology, from the University of Northern Colorado. Currently, I am pursuing an M.B.A. in Marketing from the same university!
During my time in university as an undergraduate, I found printmaking, a craft which I will always hold near and dear to my heart. The craft requires patience and care, as mistakes are easy to make and difficult to erase. For me, printmaking became a meditative practice, which allowed me to sit with my thoughts and investigate them in ways I hadn’t been able to before.
I have experienced a variety of traumas throughout my life, and printmaking allowed me a space to explore and understand those traumas, in order to come to terms with them and move beyond. Printmaking, when used with intention, is extremely healing and allows a release of negativity into something which becomes a physical memorialization of grievances. During my senior year gallery, Naïveté, I was able to present my culmination of works to my community and help others to feel seen and heard.
My current primary form of art, tattooing, is something I realized my passion for during the pandemic in 2020. Seeing how permanent tattooing is, it was a natural progression from my printmaking experience. As a Black individual who is fascinated by tattooing, I have found that there is an extreme lack of Black tattoo artists and Black inclusive tattoo spaces. Through my work, I aim to help change this situation and advocate for more Black creatives to jump into the field. With this, I also want to help provide inclusive spaces for all identities to feel welcome to getting their ‘forever art’. Receiving a tattoo is an extremely intimate process, which involves a sort of transformation – physically and spiritually. This process is one that should be treated with high regard and professionalism, which I hope to provide for any client looking for a tattoo.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
In the ideal world, at the end of my creative journey, I hope to find enough success in my art that I can support myself and a family. As a younger individual, a lot of my generation feels a sense of hopelessness when it comes to making a living in any sense. Inflation is constantly forcing us to find new ways of living, and it has become increasingly challenging to meet living standards with one or even two incomes. I have already met my goal of finding myself and my values through my art, and while I continue to do so, I hope to achieve financial security through this journey. I would love to have the privilege of being able to solely create, while helping others to do the same!
Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?
Being in the university setting, especially in the art program, students are constantly comparing themselves to others. Everything become a competition, even the smallest of assignments. During this period of competitive art creation, I feel that many people lose themselves and their individuality to other people who they perceive to be “better” or “more qualified”. In this race to achieve the same accomplishments, as those who we see as “better,” we become so caught up in everyone but ourselves. This is something which I have had to realize over and over, even to this day. During my time in classes, I felt so compelled to do what my friends were doing because I saw the success it had granted them. Without realizing it, I had caused harm to my own character and I had been unknowingly telling myself that I was not as good as everyone around me. As soon as I realized what I had been doing, things began to turn around for me. I was invited to present my art for an award. I received scholarships for my art. I got connected with big artists who encouraged me to keep creating. I even had my own solo gallery! I had to unlearn my internalized competition to do any of those things, and it was the best thing I could have done for myself!
Contact Info:
- Website: babubearx.wixsite.com/babubearx
- Instagram: babubearx
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/babubearx