We were lucky to catch up with Tia Nichols recently and have shared our conversation below.
Tia, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Are you happy as a creative professional? Do you sometimes wonder what it would be like to work for someone else?
Am I happy as an artist? Yes, more than no! I often find myself challenged with creative block, feeling overwhelmed with balancing my work life, personal life, and time set aside for my practice. I work two jobs and volunteer with several non-profit 501c3 organizations and find myself up at strange hours trying to make a mark on a canvas or further my passion for alchemy. I do wonder what it would be like to have a regular job- but in my case particularly, I wonder what it would be like to return back to corporate capitalist work environments. I weigh out the pros and cons and realize I’d probably be miserable in mundane work environments that don’t foster my passion for the arts. I would feel completely separate from who I am and what I do just for the sake of “quality of life”.
Tia, 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?
Well hello! My name is Tia Monae’ Nichols, and some call me T or Moe. I am a working, interdisciplinary artist focusing on visual arts as well as music. I started creating visual art and exploring music since I was three years old. Once my family returned to the States (military life), I started signing up for more art electives and joining in on summer camps and intensive programs offered by Michaels Crafts Stores and the public schools I attended. By the time middle school and high school rolled around I knew I wanted to be an artist, though I wasn’t sure if I was signing up for the “starving artist” life folks often warn about. I ended up getting my Bachelor of Arts from the University of Virginia and soon after, my Masters in Fine Arts from Wayne State University. Academia provided networks and resources that I otherwise wouldn’t have known to access. As a result of my formal training, diversity in experience, resilience, and dedication; I began working as a Visual Arts Coordinator, Chief Curator, and Gallery Director in Detroit immediately out of graduate school.
I often create for exposure, and simply sharing my passion for the arts to audiences that are receptive of my work, story, and desire to inform and confront through visual narrative and storytelling. I also do commissions, though I prefer the freedom of creating from my own ideas, perspectives, and experiences. As a gallerist and artist, I understand the challenges that other creatives face and I am willing to troubleshoot, bridge gaps, and create opportunities of support that not all arts administrators can provide. I am most proud of the progressive art scene in the world, and the level of talent that is emerging to inspire other to do the same.
For you, what’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative?
For me, the most rewarding aspect of being an artist is the ability to tell a story, my story, the stories of my community, and the stories of history often overlooked or misconstrued; and having those stories be received and digested. I truly love when others can connect to my work whether it be for the technical approach, composition, content, or concept driving the motivation for a particular piece or series. I am not sure about other creatives, but having work that encourages people to stop in their tracks is the icing on the cake. I feel if someone can skim your work and quickly decipher everything in one take, it is not as successful as it could be; it’s almost too easy to digest and therefore not worth the effort or extension of time. BUT when someone comes back to your work, studies your work, intimately explores your work- you know you are communicating something that is worth further investigation.
What can society do to ensure an environment that’s helpful to artists and creatives?
I feel society can best support artists, creatives, and a thriving creative ecosystem by expanding their definition of what is “good art”. This may sound silly, but the lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in society’s institutions that claim to support the arts is so limiting in output and input. The audience, viewers, or patrons of those institutions in society aren’t always art appreciators, collectors, or artists themselves; some are of course, but sometimes people are not exposed to art in their daily walks in life and -for example- a museum may be their only dose of art. If all they see are a plethora of walls full of European expressions of art with figures of one pigmentation, how can the diverse demographics of our current society possibly relate? They don’t see themselves in these expressions of what must be deemed as “good art” because these works are placed on pedestals in these clinical spaces, but is it really good art? It’s all too bureaucratic and narrow minded. Not to disregard the work of others and the expansion of more inclusive works of art being brought forward and to the light, I just think we have to break down barriers of access and how things have been defined.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.moemoeproco.com
- Instagram: @moemoeproductions
- Facebook: Moe Moe Productions
Image Credits
Legends Cinema