Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Watson Mere. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Watson, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.
In September 2018, after receiving my Master of Business Administration from Florida A&M University in 2015 and working in corporate America in Philadelphia, PA for three and a half years, I left everything I knew and built in Philadelphia and moved to New York City with only two months of capital in my bank account to survive and no concrete plan. I only had the ambition and unrelenting drive to come to NYC and figure out how to make it as a visual artist in a city that has shaped many iconic artists and creatives that I have looked up to since my adolescent years in the town of Belle Glade, Florida.
Moving to New York City was a tremendous risk. I only knew one person and no real connections and the city was infamous for shattering dreams and leaving young hopeful talents as an empty hollow shell. But being an artist for me was something that transcended the frame of a dream. It was something for me that stood squarely between the crossroads of purpose and a force. And it is with this awareness that I entered the city in a windowless basement in Brooklyn, New York, and began to write the story of this journey. Four and a half years later, I have participated in several group and solo exhibitions in different venues and galleries in the city and around the world, I’ve sold pieces to a widely diverse group of collectors, I’ve been humbly grateful to attain several awards for my visual and performance art pieces and I’ve also been able to maintain a studio space in the midtown Manhattan at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts. I am still on the vigorous journey but I pray at the end of it, the story can be utilized as an inspiration to fuel others.
Watson, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
My name is Watson Mere and I am originally from Belle Glade, Florida. I have been making art since I was two years old. I was unable to speak until I was 5 so a teacher in a school that I attended taught me how to draw in order to communicate. Although I eventually learned to talk at the age of five, I never stopped creating art and it has essentially been a vehicle I have utilized to communicate ever since. I took the practice more seriously in 2016 after my work garnered some attention online and in the Philadelphia art scene and I have been an exhibiting artist for the past 8 years.
My current artistic practice involves creating artworks that touch on the complexities of African diaspora culture and fusing these wide ranges of themes with ancient mythologies in an effort to provide a new perspective on the everyday rhythm and scope of black life. Within this journey, I have been most proud of the spaces in which my art has been able to be exhibited, which include the Barclays Center, Brooklyn, NY; Venice Art Gallery, Venice, Italy; The Billie Holiday Theatre, Brooklyn, NY; and the Norman Rea Gallery, York, United Kingdom, amongst others.
My goal for each symbolically layered piece is to create a meeting ground where modern themes of black culture and ancient African symbolism can communicate a griot-like story to the viewer. Allowing them to gaze into familiar experiences and ideologies or giving them the opportunity to view and analyze a world they may have never noticed or understood.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
The most rewarding aspect of being an artist to me is selling a piece to a collector and having the piece become a part of their home and daily life. It gives me so much joy to see photos of my work hanging in someone’s home or actually seeing the work in their place of solitude in person. The piece becomes a center of conversation for visitors and provides the collector with an art piece that they can constantly scan and find new symbolism and meaning in for years to come.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I first read the book Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill in 2009. To me, the book teaches the user how to have the right mindset to essentially achieve whatever the mind can conceive and believe. At the time I utilized the teaching of the book to go back to school and attain my Master of Business Administration from Florida A&M University. Once I began my art career in 2016, I used the same lessons in the book to empower my thoughts into action and to assemble myself into an emerging artist even though I received no formal training in the arts from a university. I would recommend the book to anyone who is looking for those first steps in turning a dream into a reality. The book is proof that the first step truly begins with your thoughts.
Contact Info:
- Website: Watsonmere.com
- Instagram: @artofmere_
- Facebook: Art Of Mere
- Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/w-mere-94a354225
- Twitter: @artofmere_