Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to C.R. Florence. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
C.R., appreciate you joining us today. It’s always helpful to hear about times when someone’s had to take a risk – how did they think through the decision, why did they take the risk, and what ended up happening. We’d love to hear about a risk you’ve taken.
I think that my path toward working in the arts could be considered non-traditional. I don’t have a formal education in the arts, but as long as I can remember my being an artist has been a core part of my identitity. I didn’t have an easy childhood and I come from a low-income family with a single mother. I never viewed a degree in the arts as something that was an option for me, and ultimately I dropped out of school and pursued working full time in a long series of jobs that I never really cared for, and that I could never call a career. In the later half of my twenties I found myself with a family of my own – my partner and I have two children – and working at a full-service gas station in the next town over from where we lived on Cape Cod in Massachusetts. At this point I had been working on short comics for various anthology collections and doing other freelance work in my spare time, but it was a struggle to find time for my creative work. Then the Covid-19 pandemic happened.
I worked at that job for the better part of 2020 and through the worst of the anxiety and uncertainty that the whole world was experiencing at that time, but ultimately I ended up being one of the countless people “let go” because of the conditions of the pandemic. When I tried to file for unemployment my former employer gave me an incredibly difficult time and things became very stressful – but, I used the free time that I had to lean into my creative work. After years of dead-end jobs it occured to me that I had a choice, and an opportunity to leap into the unknown, and to pursue my art serioulsy. I was tremendously nervous, but my partner was so encouraging and supportive, and in the end – or I guess what I now think of as a new beginning – I took that risk!
Because of that decision my life has changed immensley for the better. I’ve found meaning in my work, and I’ve found community and friendship with so many other creatives. I don’t think it’s finished “turning out”, and it’s thrilling to experience each day as a new chapter in an adventure that’s always full of surprises, and that I’m so excited to be on.
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?
I go by C.R. Florence, and I am a comics artist, illustrator, an arts educator, and advocate. My work is very much centered in community and in confronting social issues. I take an active role in my community by working with the local schools, libraries and arts organizations where I teach comics art and storytelling. I also teach a class for boys between the ages of 9-13 to help them develop healthy coping skills through the arts and to build resilience. This year I’m thrilled to be working with my local public library on a couple of big projects, one being a grant-funded graphic-novella that explores the history and evolution of the library with an eye toward those who have been historically excluded from the development of these community spaces – the other being the areas only comics convention, now in its second year, that I’ve helped organize both years.
My experience growing up in a very low-income houshehold with a single mother, and having dealt with many of the issues surrounding poverty like addiction, mental illness, homelessness and incarceration inform all of my work which includes advocacy around housing and immigration. The comics work I’m most proud of has been my contribution to the 2020 comics anthology ‘BORDERx: A Crisis in Graphic Detail’. The anthology (created by Mauricio Cordero) was originally created to raise money for the South Texas Human Rights Center. In 2023 my work and that of several of the other contributors to BORDERx was recreated as massive prints which were included in the multi-disciplinary symposium “Advocating for Children in Migration” at the University of Colorado. This March the exhibition was shipped to Hyannis and it is currently exhibited at The Cordial Eye Gallery. Alongside the work from BORDERx, I’ve helped to curate the works of local immigrant artists, and to organize a series of events to engage people with the work and with immigration rights organizations – including a Know Your Rights event done in collaboration with the Cordial Eye and Amplify POC Inc.
My work includes comics, covers, zines, and illustrative work often mixing politics and pop culture. I’m currently working on my first graphic novel titled ‘Black Sam’, a story about working class rebellion and the dream of building a new, more democratic society set against the backdrop of the Golden Age of Piracy, following the rise and fall of pirate Captain Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
People used to be born into community and have to strive to find their individuality, but now we’re born into a rugged individualism and must strive to find community. In our modern capitalist society we’re forced to be competitive in everything we do. Everything is commodified. Artists have historically struggled on the margins of society to make ends meet as some of the lowest income earners, and now we face the rising wave of artificial intelligence – which, in my opinion, has vast potential for good, but is being harnessed instead in the service of capital at the expense of not just artists, but the working class as a whole. I think that in order to help artists, society should support innitiatives for publicly funded artist housing and universal healthcare. I believe that by guaranteeing that people’s basic needs are met you unlock their full potential for creativity, innovation and productivity. I believe that artificial intelligence as a means of copying art to create content should be rejected by society outright, and in every situation or industry in which artificial intelligence inreases productivity, those gains should be shared equitably allowing for the working class to work less with no reduction in wages. What is the point of all of this progress if not to improve the lives of all of humanity?
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
I think I’d have to say the most valuable resource for any artist or creative professional is their community. In my experience many artists tend to be introverted, socially awkward or shy about putting ourselvess out there – all of those things certainly describe how I’ve felt personally. It wasn’t until I started putting myself out there that I really started finding success and more importantly, finding people who are invested in me and my work. One of the most transformative and consequential moments in my career came after being accepted into my first arts fellowship. I learned so much and had the opportunity to connect with all of these incredible artists who felt very much the same as I did, and out of this experience I became part of a real creative commmunity from which have sprouted innumerable opportunities and further connections.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://crflorence.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/c.r.florence
