Working Towards Our Purpose

Welcome to Working Towards Our Purpose, a podcast that

offers a different perspective on what a job can be. For everyone

out there that's heard that voice in the back of their head asking for something

more, it's time to listen to it. I'm your host, Gino,

and join me as I interview people who have decided to work in their

own purpose. Together, we will learn, become inspired,

and hopefully find our own path towards working in our purpose.

Raheem Nelson is an artist based in New Haven, Connecticut. He went

to school for Visual Arts and completed his education with a BFA

in cartooning. His background is in traditional cartooning

and oil painting. He currently creates his personal and professional

work on an iPad using the Procreate app. He specializes

in graphic design, portraits and pop art. Raheem's work

has currently been featured in NFT New York City arts and

Ideas, the shops at Yale, New Haven cultural the

Arts Council, the Thai Bar and Power to the patients.

Raheem. Welcome to working towards our purpose. Thanks for having

me, Gino. So thank you for being here. Why don't

we start by you just kind of in your own words, telling us a little

bit about yourself and what you do and that sort of thing. Sure. Sounds

good. So a little bit about me is my name is Raheem

Nelson. I'm a New Haven born and raised artist.

I went to ECA, which was amazing.

I didn't quite start my art education at ECA, but I think I

started to come into my own at Aces ECA, which is right on

Audubon Street. I come from a background that is,

like, in cartooning. I grew up on comic

books sonic the Hedgehog, Spider Man, all the

good stuff. And I would basically create my own comics

for grade school. And when I got to ECA, I started to branch

out into oils and life

drawing, which was a big one. A little bit of sculpture, photography, just

like, pretty much trying all the arts. And I kind of took

that influence with me to college. I went

to New York City for college. The School of Visual Arts is where

I went to continue my education, and I went for cartooning.

But I think for me, it was actually oil painting that was, like

the most impactful on me. The way they set it up was

for our foundation year, our freshman year, we would basically

get to try all the arts. So it was like ECA part two pretty

much. And we had a course for oil painting

was like a few hours in a given day where we would just

either paint a live model or we would paint

different bound objects. And it just really helped me a lot in terms

of just getting used to the paint and creating

something on a canvas. And now I do that stuff digitally. So it's just

interesting how I was able to go to

ECA, get all this learning

really early in my art know, still being

a student and then being able to continue that to New York. So

I love being an artist, born and raised in New Haven. I bring

that energy, the culture, the community, and I put that into my

work. So that's what I pride myself on. Awesome. Thanks

for sharing that. So what kind of led you

to the wanting to go to college for art school? Was it ECA and being

involved in arts at an early like, did you ever

have some thoughts of going to college for different majors,

or did you decide early on that you wanted to be an artist? Yeah, it

was definitely early on. Probably like age seven or eight, to be

honest. Really? I've been just interested in being

an artist for a long time and then also doing it professionally. I

think that was something that I've always been curious about.

So I think I always knew it was going to be like going

to an art college because I just loved the idea of being

trained and developed by different instructors in the arts.

And I think SVA came about

because my mom actually, when she was in high school, she

had a poster of SVA,

and it was like one of their vintage posters and stuff. So she'd tell me

about it, and she'd like, oh, have you thought about this school? And so we

started looking at it, and then they were actually one of the few

schools that we found at the time that took cartooning

as a major, and it was accredited. And then it was also in New York.

And I have a love for New York City, and I love the idea of

being from New Haven but going to New York for college. So I think

it was ingrained in me for a while where art college

was just going to be the move, and that was going to be the next

step of my creative journey. Very cool.

So what made you come back to New Haven after going

to college in New York? I know you're from here and you grew

up here, but what draws an artist,

I guess, back to New Haven? That's a good question.

So the caveat to

going to school in New York, as amazing an experience as it was, as

fun as it was, it was very expensive.

And I never had that chance to actually

dorm on campus. My mom, and know, because she

was helping me greatly, know, pay through college.

And I had grants and loans and stuff like that.

But the room and board was just like, too much. And it was

like, well, if you want to go, you're going to have to consider

commuting. So pretty much for those four years,

I was hopping on the Metro North and then going to class,

like, waking up super early most days because I had to be there for

like, 09:00. So, like, getting the early, early trains

had been taking trains for a long time at that point, and

it was like, a huge undertaking. But I knew it's what

had to be done at the time. So I think making that

transition, deciding to stay in New Haven

and work out here, wasn't that difficult

because I was already commuting between two places and I was like, okay,

it's actually cost effective to

be in New haven, work in New Haven. And if I get

work in New York, which I still know, I can hop on the

train, go meet a client or have it be a zoom meeting or something.

So I think I started developing this way of working,

like, even as a student, where it's like, okay, I live in New Haven, but

I work in New York. I have my classes in New York. So I think

for me, the switch was pretty easy. After I didn't have

to commute necessarily to get to class, it was like, okay, I'm going to go

back to New Haven because I'm still living here, and then just make it work

that way because I think it's just a lot more cost effective.

Interesting point of view. Yeah. Never thought about it like that. It definitely is

easy access to the city from here. That's definitely a plus, for

sure. So what did it look like after you graduated college

and trying to get work in being an artist? And I

imagine a lot of times artists struggle with finding

a job that can pay, and you also have the creative freedom that you want.

What did that look like for you? Yeah, what that looked like for me

was I think it was a lot of self discovery because

I think after graduation, I was kind of

torn between do I want to purely be a

cartoonist or purely be like, an illustrator. And I wasn't

really thinking, like, how I am now, where I've got all these

skills. Like, okay, I can get work in cartooning here. I can get illustration

work over here. For me, it was like black and white at the time. It's

like, okay, if I'm going to commit to cartooning, then this is the work I'm

going to kind of look at, thinking like, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, kind

of. I think right after

graduation, I kind of wanted to be on more of the illustration

path. And I think at first, finding

work was actually pretty difficult. I was

able to curate a show with Arts Council right out of college, which was

great. So that helped with visibility. But in terms of just

having sustainable income, that didn't come until much later.

And I think that was one

area I would have liked more support on in

college. Just like the art business side of it. I think SBA

was great for art education,

learning the techniques. But in terms of the business part of it,

and most art colleges do this too. It's not just SBA. I think

they can support students more efficiently where that's

concerned. So it's like a lot of trial by know,

I learned a lot at the, you know, shout out to my

friend Jose and Winter and everybody over

there. They helped me kind of develop a

business acumen as an artist. And so

I would notice that, hey, I can maybe

do some cartooning for a newspaper, make some

income and do other things like that where

I'm submitting to art shows. So it's like a lot of just finding

myself and making sure I

had a day job. I had a day job as an

assistant teacher for different middle schools and

high schools and everything to support my art. Because I considered like,

hey, I don't necessarily have a

backup plan. It's going to be difficult to want to create

art anyway if the bills aren't paid. So I tried to think of those things

just right out of the gate. Yeah, that's a really

good perspective. I think as far as my own path, I came

from a corporate job and then I thought to myself, once I get to a

place where I can quit, then I'll just be able to do my business or

whatever I'm doing full time. And then I went through like a patch where

I was doing that, but then it got to the point where it became super

overwhelming and burnt out because the money wasn't there. So I think that's

good foresight on your part to be able to be like, well, let me take

the pressure of bill paying off with this thing and then continue

to I kind of learned that the hard way. I

understand. How did

that look for you as far as being able to give yourself creativity?

Did you have jobs that gave you

weekdays or nights and weekends to work on your art? How did you balance

both of those things while still pursuing creative

endeavors? Yeah, quick question. I always find a way

to make it work where I can have time for

my creative endeavors. For a long time, pretty

much right out of college, until most recently,

I had been working as a paraprofessional in the

school system. So summers off

hours be like, I think around seven to

02:00. So 02:00 on

if I wanted to go to Co working spaces and

I could do that. If I wanted to take other assignments,

I could do that, have meetings and things like that. So there were

pockets of time where I could do that. Like in Buffett, I wanted to go

to New York City after getting out of work, having like

02:00 until the evening, like pretty much a lot of

time. So I was able to use that to just get a ton of things

done with clients, developing different

relationships and business, having that window

was really essential. And sometimes,

well, for instance, this example comes to mind. I was working

for troop school, and then I was also

doing art classes for arts for learning.

And sometimes there would be, like, a conflict because as

a paraprofessional, they want you to go and cover a class

if somebody is out or if somebody has, like,

a staff meeting or something. So there was a lot of that. So sometimes

if I would have a class to teach off site at arts for learning,

I would have to make a request of my school to say, like, hey, I

need to leave for this point in the day, and

I'll be back at this time, and getting just the clearance

to have that happen. It was great that I was working with people that

were gracious enough to help empower me to do that.

And then sometimes I would have classes on the weekends and stuff

that I would teach, too, and it wouldn't be a conflict, but just

making time for art and also making time to pay the bills.

And, like, fast forward to the job that I have now at

the milford arts council, which is absolutely

aligned with me being an artist, because I'm helping the

milford arts council have a voice with their communications and their

marketing. I've done a lot of things on social

media for my own brand that I'm able to now take

and put into this nonprofit, and I'm

just having a blast. Like, the board is happy with the work

I'm doing. My boss is happy with the work I'm doing. And we're able to

just have this dialogue and this conversation where it's like,

okay, if you want to take a meeting off site, go take some photos

for an event that has to do with the Milford arts Council, come back, edit

that, and then get it on social media. That could be

considered one of my work days, or I can be remote and I can send

out press releases and I can send out briefs to people. And

it's just kind of like I'm still making that

adjustment to having a job like this because it

has structure, but it's more fluid

than my job at New Haven Public Schools. Like, new haven

public schools, I have to be there by, know, leaving that to

being in one classroom for the most part during the day, whereas

Milford arts council, it's like, okay, you're in the office sometimes

you can also be remote. They encourage me to take on

entrepreneurial stuff as long as it doesn't conflict with the job. So it's like just

being in this space where I'm working in an arts

council as an artist, doing the communication, it's like

everything is aligned with what I

want, where it's like, I'm able to

work on my creative endeavors and have even more flexibility

than if I was still in the school system. Yeah, that's awesome.

I'm happy that you got that job, and congratulations.

Thank you. I kind of also feel like I'm in a similar space.

I've done various side jobs while pursuing my

entrepreneur endeavors, and this year I got a new job at Omo

Bagels in town and kind of just started doing, like

I think I applied to be a barista because I wanted to learn that trade.

But ever since working there, it's a very small, tight knit company, and the

owners are really great and give me the flexibility to kind

of do whatever interests me. And since I started, I've done farmers

markets, and now I'm kind of grown into a social media kind of

content role, which kind of also aligns with my

business stuff. So it's nice to have a different job

that pays bills that you can kind of, like you

said, kind of go back and forth and be like, oh, I learned this over

here, and I can bring it to your business. And I learned this at your

business, and I can bring it to my business. So I think that's kind of,

like, for me, an important point to highlight, because I think

sometimes when you think of being an entrepreneur, you think

you can only have your own business, like I alluded to before

my first year quitting. It's like, I only can do this. I can't do anything

else, or otherwise I'm a failure. But it's like, sometimes that's nice

to interact with other people at a job, and then you get

inspiration from taking time off of your own

thing. So I think that that's really cool. So

shifting a little bit, I do want to talk about your specific art. And

one thing that really interests me that you do is this thing that you call

graphic recordings, and I've never seen it anywhere else.

Maybe it's a thing you could give us more information about what they are, but

I just think that they're a really cool idea, and I think you do them

really nicely. So if you want to explain what. They are thank

you. Yeah. So put simply, graphic

recording is like the art of me,

an artist. I would go into a meeting

or a conference, event, whatever, where

somebody is speaking and wanting to engage an audience.

I, the artist, would be creating visual notes

for what's being said. And I think I'm still always trying to

find a way to explain this so that it's like, in layman's terms,

basically creating a visual

summary of a meeting or a

conference. So by the end of it, you can look at the illustration

with some of the words, some of the bullet points, basically, of what people

are talking about, and then say, like, okay,

this meeting was about social justice reform. This

meeting was about clean energy. This meeting was about

being empowered in the arts in New Haven.

And I love graphic recording because

I'm able to provide a service where people have a voice,

and it's like, you don't have to have just a PowerPoint

presentation or the standard things that you would have for a meeting.

And I'm happy to say I won

a grant from the city New Haven Department of Arts, Cultural

and Tourism in collaboration with the Arts Council to do

graphic recording for New Haven. That's awesome. And my own experience

thank you. My own experience with graphic recording comes from New York.

I had a brief time working in Brooklyn for a company, and

they showed me the ropes of doing graphic recording. Go on site

in Brooklyn to do it, different parts of Manhattan, and then

sometimes traveling. So I got that experience to go to

Texas and go to where else to go, like

Chicago, and create these illustrations. And it

can be done traditionally. If it's done

traditionally, it's usually done like a foam core board and markers.

And you either pack it up, take it with you, or you ship it

to the client, and then you're putting it on easel so you're kind of

drawing and writing things out using these big markers. So I know

how to do it that way. But being a mobile digital

artist and wanting to just make things super simple for

myself and the client, I create all the artwork on an

iPad. So I'll go into a meeting if it's like an in person

meeting. If not, I'll just do zoom. I'll sit down in the meeting, the

person's talking, and usually clients will hire me to

do, like, a keynote presentation or maybe like a keynote

presentation, and then maybe some fireside chats

or something. It just depends on the nature of the job. And so

after all that work is finished and maybe I

have like three, four illustrations to go with

these hour long meetings, then the client is

receiving the illustration that they can turn into a

PDF and submit to their attendees, or they can print

it out. So there are those two things. And then I also like to provide

a time lapse video because Procreate does that

automatically in the background so you can actually see the words coming

out, like where if somebody's talking about marketing and branding,

those words might pop up. And then I'm creating illustrations

that have to do with that, which is why I love having at

least a meeting or two with the client before

actually get on site or the zoom call starts. So

I'm having things like color palettes, maybe like a run

of show, like an agenda. Having an agenda is really helpful for graphic

recording because I want to know what's the talk going to be

about. Is there going to be a title for the talk that

I can kind of include in the illustration and then maybe other

things as well to go with it. I recently did a graphic

recording for Arts and Ideas, their Rise Gala that they

had most recently. And what I enjoyed about it is

it's like another form of graphic recording where it's even

more interactive. It's called a social listening

mural. So I sit in one place and it was in

Lost in New Haven, which is the new museum that's going to be opening soon.

And people would come over and there was a prompt

that says, what's New Haven mean to you? In one

word? And so people would come over and they were excited

because they, for the most part got a little flustered, like, oh,

well, like New Haven, one word. Like, I have to come back to you on

that. So they would circle the room and then they would come back

and say, oh, I have my word. And so some people

would come back and check in to see where the illustration

was. And so I'd have these words, and I

think part of it I had like a hand extended and then there's like a

bind coming out of the person's hand and then different words that sum up

their New Haven experience. And by the end of the night, it

was projected for everybody to see that was having dinner.

So everybody there was able to contribute to this

illustration. So as excited as I am about the standard

graphic recording where I'm going to meetings and I'm taking visual notes and stuff,

the social listening mural part of it is the most exciting for me

because it's like truly interactive art where people get to

contribute to how it looks by the end of the night. Wow, that's super

cool. That's really an interesting way to

make live art and have people contribute to it and

be such a collaborative thing. That's really cool. Do you have any

more of those kind of like lined up? Or do you want to do more

of those sorts of yeah, yeah. To be

honest, graphic recording is going to

be at the forefront of my business.

I'm also doing traditional

murals for Yale, which has been amazing. I've done a

few illustration jobs for Yale as well, editorial stuff.

But yeah, graphic recording is like number one for me. It's not

only lucrative, but I'm able to help people. I'm able

to help educate people. And then I myself, like being an

artist, going into a meeting or whatever, I'm able to learn something

too. So I think it's just like so much synergy

with the skill and just what comes out of it, just what can be used

for different meetings. So I have something

lined up for Hartford that I'm going to be doing in a few weeks. And

I just got an email this morning from a long term

client of mine. They're more like an art agency, so they connect me with their

clients about an opportunity in New Orleans, like

going in person and doing graphic recording. And that's

kind of been like a dream to go back to New Orleans. I say

go back to New Orleans because I've done murals out there, and I only went

once and I haven't been back. So I was like, how do I go back

on business and have that be covered? So

make that happen. But yeah, I think it's a skill

where I can use to travel to different states. I

want to go to different countries and do it. To be honest, I just want

to catch on. And I wanted to start in New Haven. For me, it was

important to start in New Haven and say, like, hey, this is the

skill that I'm doing. I was born and raised here.

I want to bring this skill to New Haven before I really bring it to

other places. And thankfully, I've been able to do that. Like the graphic recordings I've

done for the city and arts and ideas. I think it's really

starting to catch on. So it's not just for me,

like, being a self sustained, sustainable

artist. It's like, how can I do good somewhere? Whether it's for

a nonprofit or different organizations, how can my

graphic recording be used to uplift people? And I think that's like my

mission statement. Yeah, I love that. That's awesome.

So not only the graphic design stuff, you also

do NFTs and you're into passion.

You have so many interests, it seems, but

you were able to go to New York as part of an NFT

that you made. Can you explain to us a little bit more about NFTs

and how NFTs could be helpful for artists and used as

artists and that sort of thing? Sure. So NFTs mean

non fungible token. It's basically something you can buy

on a digital marketplace. Doesn't have to be a piece of art. It can

be like a song or tickets to a show, for

example. I use it for my art.

And I think what's been great about NFTs is that

I've always looked for a way to sell my digital fine

art, and usually it's been like, in

exhibitions or galleries, and I

love doing that. And at the same time, it's like, how

can I maximize my profits and take

something that starts out as a digital file and sell

that where whoever gets it, they can put it up in their

gallery and put it on a monitor or a digital canvas or something like

that. So I think that's where NFTs came in for me, where it's

like this really cool digital marketplace

to sell art and then teaching myself the ins and outs of it.

And I think what I love most about NFTs is the

artist community. I made a lot of friends on social

media just because we were all kind of out

to support each other with the art. And it's

still kind of new. People are still figuring it out,

and the market's kind of tanking right now, but

I'm still able to use that to further my career

and then also help other artists out too. Whether

it's just like a retweet or like a re posting or

something, but where NFT NYC is concerned. And

I actually just applied for this. Again, they

had this exhibition that was going to be in New York and this was

like their second year doing it. I applied the first year, didn't get

in. And I applied for a second year with a piece that

was like near and dear to my heart. And I'm going to switch subjects and

then kind of go back. But it's all part of the same story. This

piece was of Solange, and

I went to Paris in 2017, like this

big trip to Europe and stuff. And I went to the Louvre. And I absolutely

love what I saw in terms of all the paintings and the

Impressionism and just soaking up all these

artistic ideas, looking at the old masters and stuff. So I

kind of brought that energy back to New Haven. Fast forward to

that. I want to say, like September, I guess. I

ran to a friend of mine at Rudy's and he was like, hey, I

want you to contribute artwork for the show. And I hadn't

really listened to no, I was into Solange's

music at the time, but I didn't realize this

friend of mine was like organizing the whole show on her music. So I was

like, oh, that's cool. So I just kind of thought, like, what can I

contribute to this art show? And I thought of the Lube and I

thought about all these figures with

these iconic halos. And when I think

of the Renaissance, I think of like the halos that were flat in the

back because they did not know perspective at that point.

So I always thought that was kind of cool, especially how that's kind of made

a resurgence in art. So I kind of took that

iconography and made it like modern day.

So I created this painting of

Solange with her Afro and everything. And then I

put like a red hood over her, like a cloak kind of covering

her. I guess I was thinking like the Knights Templar or something like that or

like Lord of the Rings. And then I had like a halo, a flat

halo behind her that had song lyrics from one

of her most iconic songs. And then the background was

like kind of brushstrokes, impressionism

kind of thing. And then it was to be printed on

canvas. And I thought like, okay, I need to go big with this.

I need to make an impression. So I went like 36

by 42 inch canvas, which is like just about as big

as I am and ended up being the centerpiece of the

art show. And I submitted this piece to

Nftnyc because this piece that

I exhibited at Artspace when it was open is the

place where I met my now wife because she was the

host of the event. And

it's just wild to me. The more I. Think of this

piece, it had to be in New York City. Like, it had to be on

this billboard because this piece is, like, what helped me get

married, bring this woman into my life.

So they had this opportunity to get

artwork on a billboard in Times Square. So that was, like, one of the main

draws for me. I submit it, they tell me that I'm

in I guess the message goes to spam or something.

So I discover it in my junk folder. I was like, oh, I need to

respond to this, right? Yes, I'm

interested. And not only is

it it's basically, like, where the ball drops. Like, that's where my art was seen.

And then, like, two billboards, like, one to the

left, one to the right, and my wife

was there. My friend Frank Brady was there as well,

and a few other people just to support

this monumentous occasion for my art

happening. It's like, words don't really do it

justice. That feeling like, oh, my artwork is on, like, a

billboard. And I was able to make

that happen with all of this hard work and this dedication

and really, like, taking an

international trip, because getting inspiration in a different place is

amazing, and then coming back and putting that into my art.

So just having my artwork seen in a place

that's considered, like, the center of the world is just

hugely amazing. I don't really have the

words, just sum up what it was like. And then the next

day was great too, because it was like, a two, three day

conference. This painting was used in their

branding, so they had these digital tickets that you could get,

like, NFT tickets you could get. And this painting was featured on

that, and it was featured at the Javits Center where the

presentations were. So, like, on this big canvas board as

you go in my piece, was there, like, one of

the artist tickets you could get and then another canvas that

was like I don't remember how big it was, but it was huge. Like, pretty

much any artist that contributed artwork

and said, yes, you can turn my artwork into a ticket, those were

featured too. So it was just, like, a huge marketing

and branding opportunity for my work. And then

I would go on social media, I think, maybe a

day or two before the conference. And then people

because people would randomly get a ticket, like, if you got a ticket

to the show, you might get my work or somebody else's. People

kept tweeting me. It's like, hey, I got your ticket. I really love this piece.

And it was just, like, such a great

moment as a creative person where people are getting

to discover a piece of art that's so

impactful and so important to me, where it helped me get

married, it helped me meet this person, and now people are getting to experience

it on their own, too. So it was just like, something else.

Wow, that's crazy. I remember seeing you post about it and

being super happy for you and being like, wow, you're in Times Square where the

ball drops. That's insane because I also was fortunate enough to see the

actual canvas that you had. It was up at Known for a little bit,

and it is an amazing piece. So that's really cool that it's got such meaning

to you and that was the one that propelled you to that

sort of, I guess, validation, right? Yeah,

exactly. That's really cool. Thanks for sharing

that story. No problem. So, yeah, as you're

talking about all the different things that you do, I think something that kind

of I noticed or came up for me is that it seems as if you

were never really afraid to try a bunch of things, to

just go and try different mediums of art or trying

different things with art. I think that's kind of an important

thing. And more so important for me as of

recent, is just, like, trying a bunch of things. And even if you can't see

the outcome of it, just see what happens because it'll lead to

things that you never really know without doing it. You would never know

that that could happen. Where do you think that maybe that

came from for you? The openness to maybe try

everything? Yeah, that's a really good point.

I think it comes from my entrepreneurial

spirit, and I think I've been

an entrepreneur for, like, a very young

age when I was doing a lot of

comic books. And I would pretty

much do a comic book a month for myself,

like, whatever story I was developing or, like, from being

a kid. And I remember my mom and I went

to New York for, like, I think it was like the Big Apple Con or

something, and they were publishing this comic book

series called Disney Adventures, and they were interviewing one of the

ladies from the book. And so my mom raised her hand, asked like,

oh, what would it take for my son to be an entrepreneur? Like,

he's doing these comics. He sells them to his friends

sometimes, and he does this whenever he can in his spare

time. So I was, like, drawing it, writing it,

coloring it. I was doing everything. And so the woman answers the question.

It's like, oh, your son is already an entrepreneur. Like, he's already doing it.

And that was just extremely validating for

both me and my mom to know that I was already on this

path to entrepreneurship. And I think it just kind of

comes down to, like, let me see what works. And if it doesn't work, I'm

going to go back to the drawing board. Professionally, I've tried,

like, okay, maybe I'll just be a

portrait artist and do families and businesses and

stuff like that. Or maybe I'll do

urban landscapes and make a go at that. So

some of these things that may not have taken off,

I'll still keep them in my toolkit, but it's like,

okay, maybe this won't propel me where I need to go. Like,

NFTs was an experiment and that has propelled me to a

certain point with Times Square and graphic

recording. I think that's going to continue to

propel me as well because it's just sustainable.

And there are just a lot of businesses, I think, that can use

visual notes for their meetings, where visual notes will

enhance what's being talked about so that people remember it,

so they remember the presentator. So that

whoever's presenting feels supported in what they're doing because

it's like they're kind of being able to play off of the art. It's like

if I'm doing graphic recording and I'm projecting it live,

whoever's speaking can see it come together behind them or beside them.

So that kind of just enhances everything. So

I guess I kind of look like, where is there a need for

the art professionally? And if there's

not, or not as much as I would like, then I can kind of go

back to the drawing board. I think photography has

also taken off for me, too. It's something I'm doing a lot of.

At my current job at Milford Arts Council, we had an

exhibit recently called Tattoo Tribe.

And one way I was able to support them was by

going a little bit early, taking pictures of people coming in and

then taking pictures throughout the night. So I've got

the Canon revel that my wife and I use. And then

I've got a tripod set up on stage to capture

video. So I'm capturing video in one place. I'm

doing still photography. And then there was one

point in the night where I kind of went up the stairs to the office,

and then I was able to kind of open

up. It's almost like a little staging area, like you can see

over to where the crowd would be. So I got some nice aerial

shots too. So I think

for one thing, my photography is informed by

my background as a cartoonist. Or like one thing I can appreciate about

cartoonists and kind of movies and TV is that

it's kind of like a similar language. So if I'm taking a

photo, I'm thinking, how can I tell this story? How can I tell this story

in a cinematic way? So I was able to take all that footage and

photos and stuff, and I turned it into a reel

for the local Arts Council Instagram account.

And I kind of composed it like a movie where the

curator spoke at one part of the night just about

his experience. So I isolated that and then

I kind of put that as, like, the narration

behind this movie scene because that's how I treat it. Like

at the beginning opening credits, like it says,

Tattoo Tribe opening exhibition. The camera

follows you in. So you're seeing where the

crowd is and it's like panning to see the audience, like

kind of things slow down, they speed up, and then the whole time it's

like this person's voiceover guiding you through the exhibit.

And I ended it where it fades to black. And then

I think the line he says something like, without my

clients, I would be nothing, and then it fades to black. I was like, oh,

that's it. That's getting posted and just kind of

storyboarding it in my head and then composing it and then putting

it out there in the world. So even though I'm not necessarily

creating comic books as often as I used to,

I'm kind of looking at videography and photography in a

similar way. Yeah, definitely. Yeah. It's

interesting to kind of see how your early influence of comic books

has kind of led to all of everything that you're doing now. And I think

that's important to think about too, is like

transferable skills in the old things that you used to do. And

even so, for me, when I was in a corporate engineering job,

there's still transferable skills that I learned even going through

engineering school that I can then apply to what I'm doing now.

So none of it is really wasted time. It's more so

just propelling you to get to wherever you're supposed to be.

So I think your story has done a good job of showing that, for

sure. So, yeah, we are kind of getting to the end of our time here.

So I have a couple more questions for you. Sure. One, if

you can define what purpose means to you

and how you find purpose in your work, because it has a different

definition for everybody, but I'd. Like to get your thoughts on it. Cool.

Yeah. I like to think that

purpose and happiness go hand in

hand and that you can't have

one without the other. I look at the job I have

now. I look at the kind of commissions and freelance work that I

have and some of the classes that I teach and it all

causes me a lot of happiness. And that makes me

think of alignment. Like, this is aligned with my

values. This is aligned with what I feel like I was put

on this earth to do, connect with people, uplift people

through art. So if this is causing

me to be happy and other people aren't

negatively impacted by it, I think I see that as

being my purpose. And in terms of

the art part of it, I think, again, it goes back

to alignment. Like, what is this painting going to

serve either to me or to my

audience? And I usually think of my audience when I'm working

on something like, how is this going to be received? And I'll let that

confine me or anything, but I think there's like a certain

responsibility as an artist where if I'm creating something

I'm putting out in the world, I do want it to be positive or I

want it to kind of spark a dialogue in a

conversation. And sometimes I'll go back to it like doing political

art. So it'll be whimsical and it'll be humorous, but

it's also like, okay, do you really want this person as president? Like,

this is what I'm trying to showcase to you in this artwork.

So I always think of intent and

what does this piece stand for? What do I stand for as an artist? And

I want to convey that clearly every time I put something out in the

world. Yeah, no, I really like that.

The happiness and the purpose kind of being interrelated. I'm not

sure I've ever thought about it like that before, but it makes total sense to

me when you said it. So the last question that I

have for you is what's next for you and how can people support you

and follow the work that you do? Oh,

great. So what's next for me, I think,

is more graphic recording jobs.

I'd love to attend more events and get

into some conferences where I can kind of be doing this for a few days

at a time and provide like, a ton of work to a client. That would

be great. I definitely want to travel

more. My wife and I are organizing

networking events with the elements of

Abundance, so it would be a tour in Ghana. So we're working on

that. You can actually get your tickets for that now for it. It's going to

be amazing. Yeah. And

in terms of finding me and supporting me, my website

is Raheemnelson.com. You can

follow me on Instagram at Raheem Nelson Arts or at

Raheem Nelson Style as well because I'm definitely into

fashion and suits and all that stuff and

definitely give the Milford Arts Council a follow as well too.

Like, I am doing their communications and their marketing. We have

a lot of amazing productions going on, including the tattoo exhibit that I

mentioned. We're also going to be having a short film be shown at the Milford

Arts Center and then a closing exhibition from our

curator, who is also I forget what instrument he plays, but I know he's

in a band and he's talented. But yeah, it's going to be a

great year, and I'm really happy to be on

here too, Gino. Like, it's been a lot of fun. Yeah. Well, thanks so much

for coming on and sharing your story and your wisdom. And I'll be sure to

get all the links in the show notes so people can find that stuff easily.

But yeah. Thank you so much for your time, Raheem. I appreciate you being on

here. No problem. This is great gino. Thanks.

Thanks for tuning in and listening to Working towards our purpose.

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