We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Reshada Pullen-Jireh. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Reshada below.

Alright, Reshada thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Do you wish you had started sooner?

I feel like my entire adult life has been my creative career. However I really wish that I was brave enough to ask questions about how to begin exhibiting sooner. I’ve taught art, painted live at events, hosted community art activations, and sold my work at art festivals for years. However, I feel as though I am just beginning to take advantage of the opportunities to exhibit my work in galleries and museums.

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.

I am a visual artist. I paint and use mixed media to tell stories about everyday life. I am very interested in communicating joy and connectivity as an act of resistance. In many spaces in the US, we have been overtly taught that the gathering of black people means trouble, or mischief, or chaos. Our world is progressively becoming a society of people who are overwhelmingly alone. People need community. My work seeks to explore the dynamic energy of connecting and choosing joy. My art is colorful, and joyful. I intend to evoke joy. I want my viewers to feel light, uplifted, and seen.

For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?

The most rewarding thing about being an artist is to have a space to be heard, uninterrupted. I’ve been in so many spaces in which I have been expected to remain silent because of my perceived age, my occupations, because I am a woman, because I am black. There have been so many spaces where people make assumptions about my stories, my own lived experiences because of how I might identify. Creating declares that I am alive. I am here. This is who I am without the titles, the roles, or the expectations to fulfill.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative?

The assumption about most artists is that we are lazy, unorganized, and undisciplined. Yes many of us are lead by our whims and moods, but truthfully nothing is created without the ability to persevere in the face of difficulty. It takes discipline to develop your creative voice, it takes organization to tend to the business of being an artist. There are deadlines, collectors, budgets, networking, community building, and constant decision making. As a creative you have to learn your own balance between making, and tending to the rest of your life. It’s easy to go through periods where all you can think of is what you are creating, how to communicate your ideas, how to manage your exhibits, how to protect your work, how to reach your audience, and how to contribute to the community at large. At the same time you still need to show up as your full self for your family and other areas of your life.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.reshada.com
• Instagram: @reshadapj
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/reshada-pullen-jireh

Image Credits