JENESIS Magazine Issue 58 Feat. Baron Batch

pictured: makayla wray Issue 59 Content 04 chromos eyewear 06 shop412 08 brim beast: melin brand 12 Makayla Wray 16 freako rico 18 matt gondeck 20 olivia odiwe 22 sean beauford 24 baron batch

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JENESIS Magazine 5139 Penn Ave Pittsburgh, PA 15224 info@jenesismagazine.com Managing Editor J. Thomas Agnew jtagnew@jenesismagazine.com Staff Writers Charne Graham, Trevor Leard, Jesus Araujo, Alaina Sapienza, Christopher McManus, Matt Brown Acting Editors For Issue 59 Matt Brown Staff Photographers Jordan Beckham, Andy Menarchek, Jimmy Schaffer Digital Operations Devin Thomas devin.thomas@jenesismagazine.com Business Development Joi Price joi@jenesismagazine.com

EDITOR’S letter

this issue is in support of the creatives. creatives consistently need your love and support.

Go buy, promote, pass their information online, visit their stores, pay at their events. sincerely, Thomas Agnew

INTERVIEW BY THOMAS AGNEW | PHOTO BY JMY JAM

How did your background lead to the creation of Chromos Eyewear?

I grew up in the glasses business. Eyetique and 3 Guys Optical are my Dad’s (Norman Childs) stores. So I grew up in the industry and know the products pretty well. When I was up in school at Syracuse, I came up with the idea. It started as just a sunglass line based on being just a mid-tier priced but nice product. Had a lot of friends that knew what my family was about and they’d ask me for discounts on the Raybans’, the Oakley’s, the big brand names out there. I could get them for $125, $150 and up but that’s still pricey for college kids. So, I developed some polarized sunglasses for $65 and that kind of took off. I had built up a group of campus reps also.

Then I moved into the regular glasses which was a natural progression and those have been doing so well, we decided to open a store.

Chromos Cares is an important and innovative opportunity to help children. How did you develop that to also represent the brand?

Chromos Cares is what I’m most proud of.

It’s close to a year, around last Fall, we started developing the idea. My father and I were sitting around the table talking about how he’s been selling glasses for 40 years and I’ve been doing it for about 4 now and it’s fun but we wanted to do more and we wanted to give back. Especially with Pittsburgh being our city the idea just struck us to give back to the kids in the city. After doing some research, I saw it was a pretty big problem. There are kids who don’t know they can’t see and that’s leading to learning struggles. If a kid in the 8th grade is on a 3rd grade reading level, it’s not that he can’t read, he just can’t see the book. After months of pushing, we were able to get into public schools and we can’t wait to get the program rolling in the Fall.

Though you were familiar with optical aspects, creating a frame and building a brand is different than handling already established names. What were the main goals in launching Chromos?

A lot of goals were being up to date with styles. Current with everything from frame styles, sunglasses, and create a cool brand that people feel comfortable with. I try to blog

a bit but I’m not great with that yet [laughs].

The hashtag #FrameYourLife is the idea of using your glasses to see the world to see life so it’s the window to your life and what you can see out there and everything you can do.

Things like that have a bit more of a lifestyle brand involvement as well. There are a lot of cool brands that make cool stuff that’s not available and its way up there in price or you can get it here or there.

Most would think “he’s the son of Norman Child. What problems would he ever encounter?” Could you talk about the complications you’ve run into with the business…

There have been countless hurdles. I have the advantage of having a wonderful mentor in my Dad; he’s done it before, he’s done it a long time, and he’s done it successfully. So, when I have questions I can go to him. It’s a whole new brand and it’s all on me. He’s not really helping me with anything. He’s said “It’s your project, you run with it; I’m here to help you out with advice.”

Some of the main stuff has been with the store. I wanted to be open in May and here we are July. There were different construction hurdles, working with contractors, something I hadn’t worked with before that I had to learn on the fly. In general, we’re working on just getting the Chromos name out there with the brand. There’s a lot that goes into it and without a big budget for advertising, I’ve had to do a lot of creative and boot strap stuff to get the word out there.

While I have the support of someone being successful, building a new brand is tough.

ARTICLE BY THOMAS AGNEW | PHOTO BY GREGORY NEISER

On how the importance of branding early helped the longevity of Shop412…

Consistency. The brand is always meant to grow with us, never meant to stay in one place too long. I feel like there is never one given time you focus on branding, it is never ending as the world around you is always changing. How you see it can change in a day, any day. You are a reflection of what you have seen, and tell a story with where you go.

It should mature, and it should stand for something.

On how people continue to connect with the brand outside of the 412…

It’s exciting. Our TOGETHER billboard & brand campaign that we ran last year was our way to celebrate Pittsburgh to the world. You don’t need to be here or have direct ties to be able to relate to our messages. The current tide of our country is arguably at its lowest, and now is when we as a country need each other the most. Everybody. Equally. Our nation was built on cities just like ours.

Hometown is Hero. We’ve traveled near and far, even in the strangest places, everybody knows someone from Pittsburgh. It’s an addicting place; with real, honest people.

On how they choose who to collaborate with other businesses …

Collaboration is king. We look for synergy and overall cohesiveness. Everything starts with a story and a cause. We aim to solve problems through our releases while letting small details reign supreme. Our goal is to make items that function with intent. We look to work with likeminded individuals that are eager to push the envelope, working towards a common goal where the end of a project is way bigger than any one of its parts. We always want to leave something better than we found it.

For example this Spring we collaborated on a rain jacket with KWAY, a storied outerwear brand from Paris in the 1960’s. Weather wise, Pittsburgh is a taste of London, mixed with a bit of Seattle, topped with San Francisco.

Luckily, the timing was great on the jacket; in June and July it rained every single day and I

wore the hell out of it.

Last month we worked with Jeff Staple, the Black Fives Foundation, and ’47 Brand to celebrate the story of Pittsburgh’s Monticello Athletic Association. They were a historic African American basketball team of the 1910s (1911 World Champs) that featured Cumberland Posey Jr., a pioneering star that also played for the Homestead Grays and is in the MLB Hall of Fame and soon to be hopeful NBA Hall of Fame with the help of this project. We designed with some of our industry’s leading independent heavyweights hailing from Los Angeles, NYC, Chicago, D.C., New Jersey, Philadelphia, and of course our beloved Pittsburgh.

This collection is offered worldwide, through stores in Australia, China, Dubai, London, Germany, South Africa, Scandinavia, South Korea, and Japan. We debut the line at a gallery in the Lower East Side called Wall Play, shortly after it was on sale exclusively at the legendary street boutique down the street, Reed Space.

On the releases that opened things up for the brand…

Our player releases were important to our brand, but we like to fuse street culture with the hometown, in a respectful way. Working with Tim McGurr, professionally known as 13thwitness, was equally as important on a national scale as Kris Letang was on a local one. 13thwitness is arguably one of the godfathers of street photography, there is a good chance he’s been an inspiration on how you shoot a photo on Instagram. In retrospect, Kris Letang is one of the NHL’s top defensemen, and consistent candidate for the Norris Trophy as league’s most valuable d-man year in and year out. They are very similar, yet incredibly different. We like that.

Different is good.

INTERVIEW BY TREVOR LEARD | PHOTO BY RYAN GUNTER

When it comes to quality, there is no hat brand right now better than Melin. They are flipping the industry on their heads, and replacing the standard middle of the mall hat with a high-fashion product. Using fabrics like imported Italian cashmere, and quilted lambskin leather, it’s not hard to see why these hats start at three times the price of its competitors.

The hats come in four styles: the Horizon, Camper, Original, and Classic fits. Each style has its own elements that make them unique, and give the consumers more options on how they want their hat to fit. The brand isn’t even half way to 10 years in production, but that hasn’t stopped them from building a presence unlike any other. In order to find out a little bit more on the brand, we hit up one of the co-founders, Corey Roth.

Brim Beast: What’s been the biggest change since the first launch back in 2013?

Corey Roth: I think it is important for a brand to be constantly evolving and in some state of change. We are experimenting daily with new designs, different materials and fresh ideas to continue to push the boundaries of what is possible within headwear.

For the normal hat consumer, the price seems a bit much. But on the other hand, we hundreds of thousands of consumers are spending upwards of $300 for a pair of shoes. Going forward, will you be targeting consumers like this in the street wear industry?

I think this question directly reflects our view on the market and our price points. Melin was never intended to be for everyone. There are more than enough standard hat options for someone who wants a simple cotton twill or acrylic wool hat for $35. We created Melin for those people who wanted something that was special. Generally the only objections about our price, come from people who have never tried on a Melin hat in person.

For someone who may have never purchased a Melin Brand hat before and has an average sized head, would you recommend the Classic Fit or the Original Fit?

Our two most popular fits are The Horizon Fit and The Classic Fit, but much like denim, your favorite fit completely depends on your personal preference. As a headwear specific brand, it was important to us that we created an option that works for anybody, regardless of how they like their hat to fit. The Classic Fit is our version of a traditional six-panel baseball hat. The Horizon Fit, which is still six panels, but has a horizontal front seam gives a more fashion forward look and sits just slightly deeper than our Classic Fit. Our Camper Fit is our take on the traditional five-panel silhouette, which was inspired by the cycling caps from the 1980’s. Lastly, The Original Fit is our largest fitting silhouette, which was designed for people who like a much deeper fit or have a larger head. I usually roll with The Horizon or The Classic Fit myself.

No matter how well I dress or tell the bar/club bouncer how much my hat is worth, they won’t let me in wearing it. How do you think we can break this perception that hats are meant only for baseball players and sunny days?

There was a time when denim and sneakers weren’t allowed in the club either; we’ve seen this progression with many categories of fashion. It wasn’t until a luxury category of designer denim and premium sneakers were created and embraced by the freshest tastemakers who go to these nightlife establishments that perceptions changed.

The reason that other headwear styles like fedoras and drivers have been accepted is because they are created with premium fashion in mind. This is the same foundation that Melin was created on and as more of the world learns that there is now an elevated option with baseball style caps, you will see those outdated views change as well.

MELINBRAND.COM [ABOVE: melin "TRILOGY" BLACK $180.00 | MELIN "SEQUAL" Anthracite $180.00]

We created Melin for those people who wanted something that was special.

With street wear brands like Supreme and Stussy, the initial price of their products isn’t too unreasonable. However with such limited quantities, it means that resellers are the ones making the most money. Have you thought about this with Melin and what do you think about limited quantity releases?

I am a personal fan of both of those brands and I think that strategy works well for them.

We currently do the same thing with the top tier of our most exclusive products. For example, we created a hat called “The Ambassador” which is made from Italian cashmere, ostrich leather, genuine pony hair and has a flawless eight point diamond embedded in the under visor seal. We only created 35 pieces for the world and at $1200 retail, it is now sold out. That being said, I feel it’s important that people are able to see, touch and try on a Melin hat in person to truly understand how we are so different and special. If everything that we did was limited to 35 pieces, it would be difficult to give the world their first in person exposure to Melin.

Hat consumers generally like hats because it gives them a way to express themselves. How do you take this into account with the brand trying to be upscale compared to some of the colorful designer pumping out of brands like New Era every week?

Self-expression was a major reason why Melin was created. While we wanted a premium hat option since it didn’t exist, it was important to us that it is infused with elements and inspiration from our Southern California upbringing.

Saying “This Is Earned” can only go so far in terms of people understanding why the prices are higher. What’s the best thing that you are doing that makes store owners and a company like Lids want to carry your hats?

Our price points are driven from using the most premium materials in the world. Our slogan is really just a reflection of what is in our head or what we are feeling at the moment. Today we are often asked what we have learned or what advice we would give about creating a brand. My answer to that is that nothing great comes easy and it takes an insane level of commitment to achieve huge successes…or, “This Is Earned.”

Just like if I want something, I got to earn it.

- MAKAYLA the next to join fashion’s elite There’s nothing but positive reviews when speaking to her peers and buyers of her MAW brand clothing. She’s very resourceful and if you’ve seen any of her creations, she can make a one of a kind piece almost out of anyting.

The positive aura surrounding her will take her to new heights and in this interview she speaks of her inspirations, creating timeless pieces, and more.

We’re forced to label you a fashion designer but hustler fits you the best. How important is it to have that mentality while working in this business?

I honestly feel like that’s one of the best questions I ever got. It’s really hard to be like I’m just a fashion designer when there are so many creative things I want to get into. It’s crazy that you used the word hustler because I definitely feel like me and my family has worked that way. My father is a barber and he started the shop when I was born. My sister owns her own nail salon and when we were younger we always did side jobs. I was out with the boys shoveling snow and my sister would be making earrings. I just always had that mentality of getting it on my own. Just like if I want something, I got to earn it. It ties in great for being an artist. A lot of artists don’t have that mentality to go out there and put there selves on the table and sell their work.

It’s something you have to be able to do to network and be seen.

What is your favorite part of the process from cutting the cloth to a finished piece?

I hate cutting fabric. I’m a hoarder; I hoard fabric. I have fabrics from the 20’s, 60’s, 70’s, and when I have to cut it to make something I get so paranoid like “don’t ruin this.” My favorite part has to be the assembly. The full assembly is my favorite part when it comes to sketching the idea, getting into it, and as you see it growing and molding, I get so excited.

My first leather jacket I ever made, I was screaming in the studio like “it’s my baby, it’s being born, y’all got to come see this.” I’m

calling students out of their rooms and it looked like nothing but a ball of leather [laughs]. As soon as you see it when you finish it, it’s like a burst of enjoyment. I get so hungry to get to the next one. After I did my first one I seen my flaws, I seen what I had to do, and I wanted to get right into the next one.

Fashion deals with precision and a lot of skill. What aspect of creating at a professional level was the hardest to deal with?

Procrastination. That can be a terrible one.

Also, just working out of Pittsburgh because I don’t have the right tools. The environment is different. In NY, there’s a whole garment district. If I need a button, if I need a zipper, I can go right to the back door and there it is.

Being in Pittsburgh, I have to travel. Or ordering online when I’m working with materials; I want to feel it I want to see how heavy it is. So a lot of times I’m traveling back and forth to cities that have those means for me and that’s one of the most difficult parts to me. Trying to get the ingredients to perform.

“oh yeah your making all this money,” I’m like I’m putting this all right back into the business.

Is it hard to focus on making timeless pieces rather than predict or run with the current trends of the industry?

Anybody can go with trends. Trends are the easiest things you can go to. Making timeless pieces, things that you want to wear all week long definitely is something I’ve grown into wanting to produce more especially with value and quality. At first I would always be like “I want to make the new, never before seen” but really those great quality pieces that just have those details that speak for yourself and people can see you in that garment, that’s definitely something I’m trying to approach more when I’m creating pieces now. For me, if I buy something I got to be able to wear it all the time until it comes apart. I want people to wear my garments like that.

What’s a change in fashion you’d like to help drive to the forefront?

Something I’m passionate about that’s already moving is bringing the ties together of high fashion and low fashion. I’d like to make luxury goods and also just a hoodie or a t-shirt; I want a label that can carry both and be respected the same. [Points at clothes] This t-shirt is respected just like this dress that’s $1,000 because at the end of the day they came from my mind and creativity and I value them the same.

What’s your biggest source of inspiration outside of fashion?

Music. Music is super inspirational. I cannot work without music. I will even turn on a certain genre of music for whatever piece I’m making. For instance the jacket, I was playing The Smiths.

How did you deal with finance when you were starting and how do you still work around it?

In the beginning of it, it was hard. Trying to balance school full time, I worked part time or as much full time as I could, or I’d do side jobs of making people’s dresses or outfits. I always had to work just to get a class project done.

Materials and everything are way too expensive. I don’t know who ever thought making clothes would be cheaper than just buying them because it’s your money and it’s your time. It’s not easy. I remember times I would be working all day at school, I’d miss the bus to go home, and I’d have to walk home two hours because I couldn’t afford a taxi. As time progressed, I was able to balance it more.

I started getting more into streetwear brands. I was working with the brands in Pittsburgh.

From putting on tags to switching out sleeves and it got me more familiar to how things worked.

I had a thing going on with Boots Printing Company where I would put their tags on and they would print me t-shirts. That’s how the MAW t-shirts funded me just to make the clothes on the runway. You know how people see that you’re sold out and say “oh yeah your making all this money,” I’m like I’m putting this all right back into the business. It was like that for a while until people respected me more to buy more expensive pieces. Now, I have the business bank and I have the personal bank. My business is booming but personally, I need to go sit down [laughs].

CHECK OUT MORE INFORMATION ON Makayla wray AT: makaylawray.com on twitter: makaylaawray on nstagram: moomoomaw

artist: Freako rico

“I don’t like social media as much as people think I do,” Freako said. “I was big on Tumblr but I was using Instagram the wrong way, looking at asses and shit.”” frko.bigcartel.com

freako rico ARTICLE BY TREVOR LEARD | ARTWORK BY FREAKO RICO

Art, unlike sports, has no boundaries, and no restrictions to what can be made or created.

This quality, showing heavily, is certainly what Action Bronson saw when he first discovered Atlanta artist Freako Rico, and commissioned him to do his single covers, show flyers and album artwork for his latest release, “Mr. Wonderful.”

Freako has been an artist since an early age, with his first piece selling before he was even a teenager. The drawing sold to then Mayor of Atlanta Shirley Franklin, and was a still life of drums, according to Freako. “$250 for a drawing, it was framed nicely,” Freako said. “It was a charcoal drawing with a green frame, it was nice, for a 10 year old.”

Flash forward 10 years from his first dollar made, he began drawing images no politician in their right mind would buy. In college, he said girls would ask him to draw them, like a scene straight out of the Titanic.

“That was an excuse, they didn’t want to sound like hoes, cause they know I was gonna call them that,” Freako said on women asking him to draw them nude. “I was actually trying to draw and paint them and they were always trying to pull down my pants.”

Drawings like those would seem very innocent next to some of his most recent work though, with many of them featuring naked women.

Although graphic images like Action Bronson receiving oral while riding on the subway, or the crazy things he has his prison rat Roberto say, Freako thinks his art still isn’t too out there.

“If anything, I go and add on it to it,” he said on his drawings ever being too crazy when he first sketches them. These unconventional drawings are what make his brand, and make him the perfect match for working with an artist like Bronson.

Bronson brings lyrics that most wouldn’t imagine and Freako was there to bring them to life. One of the first drawings this can be seen in is the one Freako did for “Through the Eyes of A G,” where he depicts Bronson in a mustardyellow Mercedes with Mrs. Piggy and Kermit

The Frog Before drawing for Bronson, Interscope Records wanted a preview of his skills and asked him to draw an Eminem themed Christmas card. He drew what would end up as a post for the Detroit artist’s Instagram. As for drawing an Eminem cover for a single or album, Freako said he wouldn’t want to, and of course wanted to take it to the next level. “I wouldn’t want to do a cover, I would do a Ken Kanniff skit,” Freako said.

Social media is a big part of any modern artists approach to showcasing their work, but Freako admitted that he thought he came into the Instagram scene a little late.

The publicity from working with an artist like Action Bronson has made Freako wanted more than ever, and not just with the rappers wanting a mixtape cover.

“I’m getting a lot of comedians and clothing brands wanting to do collabs,” Freako said.

“Rappers annoy the hell out of me. They don’t know what they want half the time.”

“I try to stay with rappers who are somewhat humble, cause I’m not trying to work with someone who completely sucks,” Freako said.

“I prefer talking on the phone with them, where they come from is a real big thing for me too.”

If a vision is there though, Freako said he can bang out projects in less than three hours.

“I’m a really visual artist so if I have it in my head I can knock it out real quick. All the ones I did for Bronson though took a long time, honestly. Cause it was going back and forth, it was my idea, his idea,” Freako said.

Freako’s style is real, blending cartoons with real life situations and bringing them to life.

Sometimes however, his art will make you think twice before asking him to draw something for you, like he said happened with a local magazine in Atlanta when he drew his infamous Lil Wayne and Birdman Drawing that depicted the two engaging in sexual acts. “I don’t think they knew I was actually gonna go in on it like that,” Freako said laughing.

disruptive ingenuity ARTICLE BY MATT BROWN Imagine all of your favorite 90's cartoon characters that bring a sense of nostalgia that sets your mind back to a time where cereal and Saturday morning cartoons was nearly a religion in itself. Now imagine those same characters taking on monstrous personalities or exploding into a pile of chaos. Those are the images that artist Matt Gondek has employed throughout his extensive portfolio.

Gondek's start in the illustration world did not come by way of being discovered in a gallery or submitting pieces for an internet competition. Instead, the Pittsburgh native credits his start to two specific events: a failed relationship, and some rather unlikely houseguests.

"I broke up with this girl and was all depressed so I started and painting and drawing a lot more," Gondek said. "I just couldn't live with her anymore so I went to go move in with these two guys."

It was during that time that Gondek and his roommates went to New Jersey for a music festival and ended up getting more than they bargained for. "My roommate talked to some guys from one of the bands and told them if they ever played in Pittsburgh and needed a place to stay, they could come crash at our house," Gondek said laughingly. Surprisingly, that same band, The Devil Wears Prada, took the three guys up on their offer just two years later.

"We were just sitting in the living room watching TV and the lead singer Mike noticed the some of my drawing lying around and asked if I ever did t-shirts for bands or anything." Though he had no prior experience doing such, the band gave him the nod. That same opportunity turned into a huge break for Gondek as the band would later sign to a major deal, landing those same t-shirts in stores around the country. From there, he received a rush of contacts for his work to the point where he was able to turn his talent into a full-time career.

One of Gondek's most notable pieces that

garnered him wide-spread attention came during a 2014 art show where he painted a mural depicting an exploding Homer Simpson. The mural led to even more opportunities, including an upcoming collaboration with rapper Trinidad James.

Gondek's overall style takes on bold and bright colors paired with a clean and precise feel. Incorporating recognizable characters and pop culture icons into art was an idea he had to look elsewhere for to discover. "When I lived in Pittsburgh there wasn’t a lot of character-based graffiti so I got what I do now from looking through magazines."

The exploding character idea is one that Gondek regularly shows off in his art. "I started doing those types of pieces about a year and a half ago when I did two Mickey Mouse pieces; one with his head exploding and the other drinking poison and melting," Gondek said as he explained his inspiration for the idea. "Everyone knows these characters; they are engrained in our heads forever," he said. "I kind of just want to take them and put my own spin on them and destroy them more or less."

Since his personal brand has taken off, Gondek has been in Los Angeles and is looking to transition from doing projects for others to primarily doing his own projects and push his style. "If you walk down a street with 50,000 pieces, I want people to be able see mine and say 'oh yeah Matt did that.'" Gondek also expressed his interest in one day using his bright and explosive style to design his own shoe and take on other bigger dream projects.

For up and coming artists who are in the same position Gondek was in when he started out six years ago, his simple piece of advice is to never give up or be deterred from the seemingly common starving artist moniker many take on when they start.

Currently, Gondek is preparing for his upcoming solo art show in Los Angeles as well as a show he will be doing in Paris.

ingenious concepts ARTICLE BY MATT BROWN | PHOTO BY CHRISTOPHER CARGILL

Bold, bright colors, overlapping faces, and lyrically-inspired images all blended together have given artist Olivia Odiwe her stamp in the creative world. A product of the United Kingdom, Odiwe took a talent she recognized from a very young age and went on to build a highly recognizable brand.

“I've always drawn, ever since I was young,” Odiwe said as she reflected on her artistic roots. “My older brother was always amazing at drawing and I really looked up to him and copied everything he did so I was always trying to get better and better.”

Though she always had the creative niche and drive to continue to hone her skills, Odiwe did not look at art as a realistic career move until she eventually built an online presence. After garnering a positive reaction from viewers, she took full advantage of opportunities that would start pouring in.

Odiwe has been commissioned to design a variety of pieces for many different clients and purposes. One avenue she has found recent success in is designing for hip-hop artists.

“The thing I love about working with different artists is the collaboration between myself and that person, working through different ideas and concepts to fully realize the idea that’s in their head,” Odiwe said.

One lure that keeps Odiwe on her toes when designing for hip-hop artists is the challenge that comes with cultivating ideas that were previously unfamiliar to her previous work.

She recently collaborated with New York-based hip-hop artist Taro to design the cover for his EP First Born Son, and used the opportunity to stretch her imagination.

“He wanted to convey a New York street scene with a dark feel to it,” she said. “As we were working on it we switched up some of the ideas he initially had and it allowed us to create something better, it's all about that collaboration of ideas which normally sparks off more concepts to try out.”

In her own work, Odiwe’s use of experimentation led her to create some original pieces that would strongly define her style. Her “JayKay” piece not only employs bold colors with a sketch feel, but also includes images of JAY Z and Kanye West’s faces overlapping each other, creating a unique visual experience. Since then, she has created other like pieces featuring many different icons across urban and pop culture.

Odiwe cites other artists as sources for inspiration including Takashi Murakami, KAWS, Kehinde Wiley, Naturel, and Hayao Miyazaki. In addition, she also looks at the art of animation to help give her ideas, and wants to learn more about animation herself later in her career.

Outside of art, Odiwe spends her time either watching films or just being surrounded by family and friends, many of whom are artists themselves. ” My best friend is a dope fashion blogger and she recently just started her own YouTube channel (The Messy Wardrobe) which is doing amazingly well and she asked me to draw her a backdrop for it which was awesome,” she said.

“Me and my friend Paige D; another amazing singer, have been making some cool videos to put on her Instagram account recently, where we recorded her singing on one phone, then replayed it while she harmonized on top and we recorded it,” she added. Spur of the moment projects with close friends constantly inspire Odiwe in and out of the art world.

Odiwe’s advice to other up and coming artists is to constantly put their work out in the world and practice their craft. She uses this same advice as a means of motivation to keep chasing her own goals, including one day hosting her own solo exhibition, designing clothing and accessories, and designing album covers for artists like Kanye West.

Odiwe looks to continue on her path as a renowned artist and bring every reflection of her own eyes to life.

SEAN BEAUFORD INTERVIEW BY THOMAS AGNEW | PHOTO BY JMY JAM

The term comes up more consistently these days but what does it truly mean in your own words to be a curator?

I’d say a curator is someone that organizes and arranges content. That’s the simplest way I’d put it. It comes up a lot because it’s applicable to so many different things. There are website curators, gallery curators, Instagram curators, boutique curators. It’s just the organization of certain content.

For me I’ve been curating art for a little bit.

When I do a project and there’s art incorporated, I curate the art and curate the atmosphere. We did an installation at the airport so I conceptualized the idea for the artwork and also picked the things that accompanied the artwork like the musicians that we had.

Working with Studio AM is not your 1st curating opportunity. What were other early circumstances where you utilized your skills?

It’s kind of crazy I’ve done a lot of random stuff, some one off events. Before I was with Studio AM, I curated some art shows but that went beyond the art because it was the whole atmosphere. I curated a good environment for people to want to hang out in a gallery.

I’ve curated music showcases, picking the venue, picking how the vibe of the space for the performer to work. I helped curate a mixtape with a friend of mine, Neako where I helped curate the beats, the subject matter, and the content.

Which of your past works has prepared you the most for the current work that you are doing?

It changes every time I do something. It usually grows into something different.

Usually my last thing prepares me for what I have coming up next. When I have a show it usually spirals into something else I’m going to do. Like I said, I was doing stuff with music which led to art and what I was doing with art led to me doing more work with art.

You’re a part of the changing art landscape in Pittsburgh. What has been your aim in contributing to it and do you like the changes you’ve seen?

My aim has always been to unite different cultures and advance culture for the city as a whole. My aim has always been to always either introduce a different demographic to a different venue or a style of art or vice versa.

Just make things less segregated. And I’ve like what I’ve seen so far, there’s still a lot more work to be done, just getting people to be more open minded and experience something new. Something they might have not done otherwise if it wasn’t for art.

Do you ever worry about the outcome or really just worry about getting your ideas out and continue to the next thing?

It’s a bit of both. I don’t worry about how many people come out. I worry about if the people have a good time and what they say when they leave. Sometimes you can’t control how many people come out. If there are one or two events or something that’s more important to a person or they have a loyalty to their friend that’s doing something, you can’t control that. If the people that do come out say they had a good time then they can always bring friends back to the next thing I do.

Sometimes it’s not about the crowd that comes out. Like with the airport exhibit we didn’t expect everyone to just come out for that but we wanted to engage on social media. We did a live stream so people could watch the work so people could still be a part of it. That was more of getting an idea off and then just interacting with people and having a lasting effect, less about people coming out to it.

IN T ER V IEW B Y T H OMA S AG N EW P H OT OS B Y G R EG OR Y N EIS ER

THE GIFT OF

CREATIVITY

Being a creative is so much feeling and business can’t be like that.

- baron Baron Batch is a hard working entrepreneur who pays attention to detail. He has this attitude not just because he’s an artist and that’s part of his skillset, but because he knows his work and his business holds a great amount of value. In reality, it’s something most artist have a problem with; being a fully functioning creative and being able to capitalize on business opportunities at the same time.

About how he’s feels he’s changing the art landscape/community for the better…

I think the most important thing that art brings; it’s not the visual appeal as much as it is the philosophical. When you get a place that’s surging artistically, it’s a place that’s very open-minded and supportive of the fact that you can do that. That’s why I think Pittsburgh is a very special place right now cause you see these artist that are able to set up roots in certain communities. At the end of the day, art is a philosophy; it’s the idea that a person can use their time and their skills to make a physical thing that is valued, sell that, and sustain their selves. That’s a beautiful concept when you think about it. It’s the ultimate pursuit of freedom it that way that you want to feel and express has enough value for that to sustain you. That’s an important message to get across to the youth and anybody.

It’s so replicated these days most people don’t own a thing that they make. Most people don’t have a single thing that they made.

When people have the ability to write to do all these things, they don’t have anything to show for that. I think it’s important to expose people to that process, and when they are exposed to the process, it’s easy to see the philosophical benefits of that because it’s evident how art changes the landscape.

About how handling art as a business need to become as important as just creating the pieces…

There’s a certain level of artistic process in everything you do with meaning. For me, I feel like one of the most beautiful art forms is business; the art of making a deal that’s fair that benefits both parties where it makes sense

to collaborate. I really love doing that. I love knowing I can walk in a room with big time corporate CEOs for huge companies and I walk in with paint on my jeans and sit down and it doesn’t matter how they see me or like me. It doesn’t matter because I’m going to be able to put something on the table that benefits both parties and you have to respect that. If you don’t, we don’t have to work together. It’s that simple.

I think that’s the hardest thing where artist get caught up. Being a creative is so much feeling and business can’t be like that. It’s like the complete opposite side of the prism. If you get to the point where you can take the feelings out of business and just look at it for what it is, you can see the art form in that. In how you need to move, jockey for position, make sure you’re always ok on your own. I think that’s important as an artist that’s approaching business you can never be lured into the trap of soliciting yourself to someone and they own you because they’re the ones distributing your product. It’s knowing your value and standing by that.

About how he feels when media/press portrays only certain parts of Pittsburgh…

From a business standpoint, I try not to feel anything. I try to just do what needs to be done. The reality is what I’m doing here at Studio AM and what you guys are doing [at BOOM Concepts] it’s making an impact and it’s changing the landscape. That’s the reality of it. Reality doesn’t go away if you don’t look at it. If I closed my eyes right now and I swung, I’d still hit you. Just cause you don’t want to look at something doesn’t mean it’s not there.

For me, it’s almost an advantage. I see it as an advantage because I have people that come from New York, LA, other places and they’re like “This is one of the dopest places that I’ve ever been. That I’ve ever come to in my life that I’ve seen.” That’s what’s real. I’ll never let someone else be able to dictate that. Hard work and results dictate that. It will change as there is more national attention highlighted on Pittsburgh.

I think it’s a good thing that all of these publications are coming in because the other ones will start to come in too and when they do they’ll start to ask about what’s going on around Pittsburgh. I understand marketing and I understand PR. I get it, I respect it. Do I agree with it? Doesn’t matter, that’s how it is.

Every person that walks through here that meets me or comes to brunch, they leave and they’re going to tell everyone about it. That’s how you judge what’s real or not. Not what someone can write or can read and maybe they’ve never experienced it. That’s just a false sense of perception that and I don’t deal in that realm. I do real shit.

About how he feels about the diminishing art programs in school systems…

About how his art is inspiring people to continue to research, learn, and create on their own...

I think it’s sad that there are a lot of kids that falls through the cracks that who knows what they could be. What type of creatives, what type of artist, what type of life they could have that they’re not afforded that liberty that I feel like should be a liberty. I’m just trying to do what I can to help; that’s why I work with kids, why I work with schools so that they can come in and see that it’s being done and being able to explain the amount of work to do it. For someone who’s not an artist they just can’t understand art and artist don’t run the schools so it makes sense that you see what’s happening.

One of the craziest things I’ve experienced as an artist, Sean and I went to the Western Pennsylvania School For The Deaf and we did a visit and they were teaching my style of art in their curriculum. It was crazy to see them having my work pulled up and drawing from that to make their own. That was when it really hit me that I am really doing something special here. You never really know; at the end of the day the hardest thing for a creative to get over is self-doubt.

It’s a very difficult thing because it comes easy to you. Creativity is a gift. You can practice getting good at it, but it’s still a gift.

It needs to be cultivated and grown but it still does come easy. When I saw that I was like OK whether I have self-doubt it doesn’t matter if that’s what’s happening. I’ve transcended a generation which is my time to a generation that will be. It’s cool to know that in Pittsburgh that’s what happening and quickly.

It’s only going to keep going so for me it’s get rid of self-doubt, keep my head down, and keep working. Playing football helped me get rid of self-doubt for me before I became an artist, so I was able to approach art a different way and skip decades ahead of most artist because most artist spend a lot of time trying to get comfortable with being able to say I’m an artist. Being able to become a good creative is being able to introduce yourself confidently as what you do, how you do it, and selling yourself.

Ultimately if you just want to be real about what it is, art goes against how society is set up. Someone at some point decided how school should be. Now do you think it was artist that did that? No, of course not. It’s not surprising. The thing about art is that you can’t get rid of it. You can try and it will manifest itself in different ways, different forms of expression and that’s what art has always done. It’s going to recreate itself; it’s a form of human expression and you can’t stifle that.

Places like Pittsburgh and Detroit are surging because of art. Should more people respect how important it is?

Good art demands respect and it demands being embraced. I think there needs to be more artists making better art. I’m not the type of person to ask for anything unless is asking someone that knows me and knows that what I need is something that I can’t get on my own.

Outside of that, I’ll get what I need, and for me that’s my approach. Good art it’s evident, it stands out, and that’s one reason why I started doing street art. It’s just putting it out there.

Now people know it’s mine because it’s been branded as such and they recognize it. When I first started doing it I didn’t put my name on it, I didn’t sign it. I literally just put it out there and put “FREE” and it said The Artist. Now it’s cool because it’s tied to me is people know me as FREE and The Artist which is more dope than them knowing my name. Names are cool but for me I’d rather have a title.