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Nellie King Solomon

Artist

“Hi-ya” is a painting about the moment you’re going to make it happen. You spend all this time in preparation for something and then the actual time spent on the moment itself is quite small and calm. Just like in life: it’s chaotic and busy and most of your time is spent taking the steps to set yourself up. But the actual moment can feel anticlimactic, its built up for so long and the reality is the moment can be small. But it is in these small moments that Growth begins to churn, that your heart is open and your mind present, and you speak to the world. It is these small moments you disengage from the noise and center yourself. You are in touch with your soul, your community, your child. And this is where your Hi-ya manifests and gains power.

I asked artist Nellie King Solomon to describe her “Visions of Growth” and to take her rituals around painting and apply them to techniques and ideas that we all can carry with us to process our steps and prepare for “our moments”. I knew she was the perfect person to engage in the conversation when she showed me her latest latest work of an airplane runway & an abstract ring blob painting, which is about the moment when you are on an airplane and the captain asks you to turn off your phone, all technology. Where are you then?

These questions I ask of myself all the time and have stimulated the current TMP topic of Growth. In the disconnect with lack of noise, where do you land? Are you at peace? Are you present?

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