We recently connected with Ashante Blackwood and have shared our conversation below.

Ashante, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Naming anything – including a business – is so hard. Right? What’s the story behind how you came up with the name of your brand?

So my business name is “Artisticlifestyle6” I came up with it almost 5 years ago when I decided to take my art more serious. In the days when I really wanted to pursue Art full time I had a lot people tell me Art is just a hobby it’s not a profitable lifestyle. I’ve always lived outside the box so I never fit into the norm of nine to five job. When I seen an opportunity to prove everyone wrong I did just that. To me art isn’t just a hobby it’s a lifestyle everything around us is artistic. We see and live art through us everyday whether it’s music or fashion, everything comes from some sort of artistic expression. The “6” at the end of my business name stands for Toronto as it is sometimes referred to as “the 6ix” in slang terms, and I’m a Toronto based artist.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Ashante Blackwood(Artisticlifestyle) is a 27 year old fine artist and model based in Toronto. She specializes in portraits and concept art, her work captures the beauty and struggles of her culture and the process of her growing up insecure about things that identify her as a black women. Ashante is a full-time artist/business owner who has always had love for fashion and art, she believes art has no limits so why should she. Just like her work she likes to be creative with her fashion looks and art. Being a plus size model and full time artist is the dream and goal of hers. The bodies of works produced tell a story of her finding her purpose and finally learning to embrace as well love the features that make her the highest level of beauty from her ancestors.Her goal is to one day open up her own gallery/space for Art,fashion,music and events to showcase Toronto’s greatest under minded talent.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

Throughout my career I had to learn that rejection doesn’t equal failure. Being an artist isn’t for the weak, there’s going to be times where you don’t always get into the exhibitions you apply for or artwork that doesn’t sell. Instead you have to see it as everything happens for a reason and that wasn’t my path. I believe that God always has a bigger and better journey for me when faced with rejection. In this industry all it takes is one yes to change your life.

Alright – let’s talk about marketing or sales – do you have any fun stories about a risk you’ve taken or something else exciting on the sales and marketing side?

So last year I had my first big break on social media with my art. I was going through a rough patch with art and I was struggling to find an inspiration/passion. I really wanted to try something different, new and fresh with my work but still keep it true to myself. Throughout this process I hadn’t painted a landscape piece in a couple of years, and really wanted to incorporate that in a new piece. My boyfriend gave me a suggestion to combine my style with a landscape piece and see where it goes. The piece turned out amazing and ended up being my most famous piece that was sold all over the world. The timelapse video of me creating the piece went viral on tiktok with over 3.5 million views, 600,000 likes and 15,000 comments. The original piece was sold in 2hrs of being posted for almost 2K and I made 7K in poster print sales in about 2 weeks. This was such an unexpected and beautiful moment for me in my career. Till this day the painting is still trending and getting reposted everywhere after almost two years of being out.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.artisticlifestyle6.com/
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/_artisticlifestyle6?igshid=MjEwN2IyYWYwYw==
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AshanteBlackwood6?mibextid=LQQJ4d
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/artisticlifest1/status/1557494139104755717?s=46&t=tKRyiPgbr00z5TuM_FPTlg
• Other: Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@_artisticlifestyle6?_t=8du8Ol7VQCT&_r=1