We were lucky to catch up with Javen Barnes recently and have shared our conversation below.

Javen, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. I’m sure there have been days where the challenges of being an artist or creative force you to think about what it would be like to just have a regular job. When’s the last time you felt that way? Did you have any insights from the experience?

I’m very happy as an artist and working in all sorts of creative spaces. I think about what it would be like to work a regular job all the time. I never consider the thought as an actual possibility, but I get curious about it. As an artist, especially in a time when it’s so hard to be one, you have to be intensely delusional. But also, you have to be super realistic. Not in a negative way, but in a way that you understand what could happen. Like anything could happen. So, you have to gamble in this really harsh in-between that can definitely feel overwhelming. I think most people find comfort in knowing that they’re not alone in that experience which is very true. It helped me some, but I know that if I worked a regular job, I wouldn’t have that issue. Everything would feel so much more stable and predictable, and I honestly hate that. It’s really anxiety inducing for me. I have so much respect and gratitude for people that can work regular jobs because I know how difficult that would be for me. I’m sure there would be so many solutions to things I think about now, like finding a stable income or having a strong work to life balance. Yet, I like to have those issues. Maybe not the issues themselves, but I feel better working myself through that rather than feeling bottled or restless. I don’t really know if there’ll be a time in my life when I don’t think about that question, but for right now I kind of use it as a guide.

Javen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Blusho, and my actual name is Javen. I’m a fibers artist and a fashion creative of sorts. I got into fashion around sophomore year of high school. I was in a rough patch at the time, and I wanted to express myself somehow to kind of make myself feel better. I had just downloaded Pinterest and just went crazy on finding new ideas and stuff. I really liked surrealist art so I started taking pictures with my mom’s camera and edited them with all types of stuff. I started taking pictures of myself and wanted them to look more interesting, so I started getting into fashion and personal style. I became a fibers artist earlier this year. I started to get interested in the construction of clothing and in a textiles class I took, I started to make patterns for clothing. A couple months later, I learned how to needle felt and I fell in love with making fine arts pieces made out of all sorts of fabrics I had a lot of information about. I’m definitely proud of how fast I’ve grown as a fiber’s artist. I started in March and since then I’ve been a featured artist in an exhibition and an international magazine. But I think all of that comes from me discovering something that I love so much as an adult but also as the little kid that I still am. Fibers gives me something where I can just sit down and genuinely play. At the same time, it gives me an outlet to express my most complicated and toughest emotions.

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

I want to have conversations. Not just talking to other creatives but genuinely connecting with people. As much as I want to travel the world and see certain places, I find more joy in being somewhere that I would have never expected and talking to a stranger. That’s how I experience. I’ve found myself at my happiest when I’m sitting down having hour long conversations with someone, I met 30 minutes prior about whatever. All of my work comes from my interpretation of what someone expresses or a conversation I’ve had with someone. My experiences with people and seeing them eye to eye as another being sharing this Earth has never served me wrong. Now it serves my art. And I work hard towards a day when my art can serve me in the same way. I want my art to open opportunities for me to go places and really be free. Not free in the way that I can buy anything I want, but free in a way where I can sit down across from someone so different than myself in another country and not have to check the time of day. That makes the kid version of me very happy and makes me as an adult appreciate so much.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I wouldn’t say I have a big social media presence, but I can say I have a very strong foundation of people who enjoy watching what I do on TikTok. The funny thing is, I don’t actually do anything on there. I typically put on an outfit and talk about something I’m interested in or what’s on my mind over a song and the video comes out to be a couple of seconds. Or I’ll post random pictures with completely unfiltered excerpts. Whatever it is I posted, I found that the same people would come back. From people I know personally, and people I have never met in my life. After two and a half years, I realized that I achieved that through being myself. The same person you would talk to during lunch is the same person I am when I press record for a video. It’s tempting to be someone else online, and I think everyone has that right. And it’s so scary to be so yourself online, but it works. There will be people who find you entertaining, value what you say, or look to you for their wants and needs. A sense of relatability really grew there for me. I only recently started to show my artwork on there and I realized that when people enjoy your person, they’ll support anything you do. As foreign as they may seem, people online are still people.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.blusho.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lwrcsejai/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/javen-barnes-54a893333/
• Other: TikTok: @shonenluvsme

Image Credits

Artist Headshot: Henry Cary-Williams

Comme des Garcons Shoot and BTS Image (of me dancing): Isabella Guerra

Yohji Yamamoto Shoot: Georgia Burroughs