We were lucky to catch up with BlissArmyKnife (Bliss) recently and have shared our conversation below.
BlissArmyKnife (Bliss), thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. How did you learn to do what you do? Knowing what you know now, what could you have done to speed up your learning process? What skills do you think were most essential? What obstacles stood in the way of learning more?
Art became an extension of my mediation process and for me was an act of healing.
Somewhere around that time I was introduced to the concept of automatic writing, a technique I was then able to translate via drawing. It was an intuitive process. It was through automatic drawing that led me to see abstraction as a subconscious exploration. When I was younger I didn’t really have in mind the concept of art, I simply enjoyed the act of drawing and replicating my favorite heroes and manga images. When I returned to the practice of drawing I had a better understanding of the vastness of what art can be and look like. I think the natural process of growing and exposing myself to more art is what assisted me in expanding my scope of what can be created, and in that, abstraction became a language that resonated with me. I leaned into abstract figuration as an observer of the conversation between my mind and spirit.
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?
My artist name is BlissArmyKnife, which is a play on the name of the tool “Swiss Army Knife.” To me this is a representation of my multidisciplinary nature. As an artist I’m attracted to many forms of expression. So whether it is painting, writing, beatmaking, photography, designing, drawing, digital art etc, my inspiration is to be an artist without boundaries around my creation and to be seen as such. I prefer to oscillate though styles and genres in which I choose to explore my work. So, as an artist, as BlissArmyKnife I would like my potential clients, fans and followers to expect no one thing from me, I supposed to have no expectations— to continue to be surprised. For me it is a statement in itself that I continue to evolve in my work without bounds.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
I feel like the pivoting never ends lol. I’ve had many stage names and monikers and continue to explore the possibilities of what’s next for me. I understand how that might be difficult in maintaining an “audience” but I suppose at the end of the day my artistic expression runs so parallel to my souls journey and that is an extremely intimate process for me, so I hope to just be witnessed and not looked at something that’s solely being marketed, at the end of day this is my human experience and im sharing my discoveries along the way.
So yeah pivoting, at one point in the beginning I was mainly a rapper, the drawing and painting came later. I didn’t really have much expectations. I was just having fun and really felt the need to pivot in my daily lifestyle, I felt the need to do something more and so after some time it became a large part of my life and artistic output.
As I was touching on earlier, I feel as though I pivot in styles and genres often and it’s honestly an integral part of my process.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The goal for me has always been self discovery and evolution, freeing myself from myself and advocating for my sovereignty. I feel like in this world there’s so much nonsense and interruption and noise that is soul crushing. Art is what keeps me alive because it is my livelihood, it is how I maintain consciousness of who I am. Without it I couldn’t spiritually sustain. I’m really just trying to stay alive and hopefully inspire my neighbor to do the same.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: blissarmyknife, thebakgallery
- Youtube: blissarmyknife
- Soundcloud: blissarmyknife
