Art and cannabis go hand in hand.

from The Chronic Magazine - September 2021

by The Chronic Magazine

Stoner's Delight Salad

**www.SheiPhan.com and follow her on Instagram and Snapchat @shei _p !**

Art and cannabis go hand in hand. In fact, one of the first articles I ever had the chance to write for Chronic was over how cannabis and art intersect.

A C H R O N I C I N T E R V I E W W I T H Shei Phan

Art in itself can be many things, a single painting can mean two vastly different things to two different people. The impact of art is truly something to admire.

Also,before we dive in, cannabis art isn’ t just making an aesthetically pleasing bowl, a stoned Mickey Mouse, or rose wrapped joints, okay? Cannabis art can be trippy looking spaces, introspective looks on the world, and so much more. This month I had the amazing opportunity to speak with artist Shei Phan, some of you may not know it but you’ ve likely seen some of her art before if you shop in Oklahoma City.

Phan is an amazing person, she is creative with not only a stunning personality but a beautiful way to look at the world around us and into ourselves.

She has completed what some would never have the guts to do and since she is so young, the future is very bright for her. I can’ t wait to see what she does with the future.

Shei does consider herself to be an advocate for cannabis, she believes in the medicinal properties that are brought on through the plant. Not only is cannabis good for physical health but mental health as well. For her cannabis is a way to medicate while stimulating her creativity. Additionally, Shei feels that she is “very blessed to create for dispensaries because they're such fun environments. ”

“very blessed to create for dispensaries because they're such fun environments. ”

And she can meet such amazing people and learning more about the cannabis plant and all the other things that they're, that they're able to make out of it is really cool.

Shei was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma and although she moved around a lot in her childhood, her family eventually settled back into Ardmore when she was in high school. During her high school years, she did a couple of years of modeling school. (Do you guys remember Barbizon? That’ s what Shei was a part of, she said it didn’ t really go anywhere at that time and she left modeling alone. More on this later...) Once she graduated from Plainview High School and moved onto college, during her junior year she set off to move to the biggest city in the United States, New York City.

I don’ t know many people who would be willing to move from a town with 24,800 people to a city with nearly 8.5 million people. That’ s twice the total population of the state of Oklahoma! But, if you want something enough, you have to go for it no matter how scary that something maybe.

Once she was in New York, she lived there for around three years. Shei then moved around from Miami to Los Angeles for about a year and a half, then back to New York for another three years.

As she currently is living in Oklahoma City, I asked her where she liked living the best. Shei said, “I love New York. I feel like New York is honestly where my soul was meant to be just as creative and the diversity that is New York, has a different energy that's there. I’m in Oklahoma now and I have enjoyed being back, especially since cannabis has been legalized. So I feel like that has definitely opened a lot more doors for Oklahomans and it has expanded some minds to where they're a little more open, you know, stuff like that. It used to be so conservative here and I felt like I didn't fit in. Now coming back, I definitely feel like there is more of a place for me here since cannabis is so welcomed here. ”

During Shei’s time-traveling, when Shei was 19 she had gotten back into modeling. She explained, “Back then [high school], just being tall and skinny, everyone said, ’You should model! You should model!, ’at the time I was reluctant since it wasn’t something I really saw myself doing. ”

But since she was older, she decided on her own that modeling could be something fun and expressive to work on. When she went back and visit Oklahoma, one of her friends was a belly dancer and asked if Shei wanted to be in a Baby Bash music video. Shei said, “Sure, I love Baby Bash! So I went and did this music video and my friend’ s agent was there and she liked how I looked. She ended up setting me up with a photographer to get some photos and see where we can go from there. ”

Shei ended up meeting with a local photographer who has since moved to Los Angeles, Kenn Perry. Perry does a lot of swimsuit photography and applied nudes, a very classic style photographer. Shei explained,

“I pretty much did modeling boot camp with him for, I don't know, about four or five months. He literally taught me everything I needed to know about modeling when it comes to posing glamor, editorial, nudes, swimsuits, action shots, runway shots, you know, smiley commercial shots. We built my portfolio because I would go to the studio after classes, in between classes before work, after work. Then after all that hard work, I ended up getting a contract in New York. I ended up staying there for a long time. ”

Unfortunately, the agency didn't seem to know where to place Shei as she is a mixed-race woman, half white and half Asian.

Some gigs she would get she would be told she looked too much of one race and not enough of the other. Her story is not unlike other mixedrace models, sometimes when people do not know how to place you, you get no place at all. It’ s a gross reality for many mixed-race peoples. So Shei did what she wanted and what she needed to do to grow in her own way through modeling. By doing so, she made it on America’ s Next Top Model. Yep, that show! (Shei was in Cycle 21 if you were curious.)

Shei explained, “After Top Model, everything was kind of put in perspective for me. Modeling really isn't what I'm meant to do. It became a part of my life because it was another aspect of art. It helped me learn more about my body, lighting, composition, and how to be in front of and behind the camera. It also taught me that, when I got back into painting realism, I knew the body better and ended up doing a lot of paintings just from my own nudes, It just kind of made sense. After Top Model, I kinda lost me, I guess, passion for modeling in a way because to be an artist and to be a model is a different world. They only see you as a model because you're a pretty face. So when you're on set, you have no creative say in anything. And to me, I felt that I wanted to give input, but I can't. Because I'm just a model. I don't really have a name either. I'm just a model. ”

She continued,

“That's when I started getting back into doing art. Moving back to New York, I got back into doing street art, doing graffiti and just finding the artist community in Brooklyn. I felt like my voice was getting heard a lot more and I was able to create the way I wanted to create. Even with photo shoots that I would book, I was able to put in a creative perspective in a way that still benefited me as an artist. ”

Although Top Model wasn't what Shei was waiting for a career, it definitely gave her a lot more positives than it did negatives.

From being on Top Model, Shei was able to quickly build a social media following that could be based around her rather than simply her modeling.

She loves that she is able to connect to other creatives She says, through social media, she calls the people who interact and follow her Pandas.

A lot of them may have started out as fans but she feels they have become a family of insanely creative people. The fans who came from Top Model got to see that not only is Shei a beautiful model but is a talented artist as well, what a win!

She says, "I feel like it all happened for a reason. I did modeling and I loved it and I enjoyed it, and it also helped me grow more as an artist."

Shei does still do modeling from time to time now though.

She says she is a little more picky about what she does now, it must be something that can benefit her as an artist. However, she will still do shoots if her friends ask to model some of their clothing or other things like that.

In some of her art today, her modeling skills make her art more unique.

“I don't shoot as much as I used to. But I do shoot nudes and a lot of the nudes I shoot, I ended up painting. The series of mine called Forget Me Not are all self nudes. Most of them, my face is not shown. It's a nude body with a unicorn head and it pretty much represents how in today's society, everyone sees women just for their bodies. It's like, yes, you can have my body, but you can't have my soul. This is why the head is not mine since, you know, the eyes are the windows to the soul. I use a unicorn because unicorns are powerful, very fierce, and unattainable creatures. I feel like they embody what women really are. ”

The Forget Me Not series is truly something to behold. On Shei Phan’ s website under the Gallery tab, you can find these paintings. Before speaking to Shei I was already drawn to this series, they are impactful, graceful, and powerful. As you look through the series you can feel the story Shei was telling.

Each piece has its own heart and it’ s own soul that seeps off the canvas. If you have a chance, I highly recommend taking a look especially if you like art that you can relate to. On top of doing canvas work, graffiti and street art are also a big part of Shei’ s art style. It was Brookly where Shei found the art scene she was looking for. Since this was directly after Top Model, Shei knew it was the time to make a name for herself. She wanted to be known as herself and not just a model.

“So I started following all these artists on Instagram and like street art is huge in New York. There are murals everywhere. There are stickers everywhere. There's graffiti everywhere. So, honestly, I just printed out some pandas of mine and some unicorns of mine and just walked. I walked, I don't know, like 50 to 100 blocks. I had some spray adhesive and put them up... that's how it started. ”

From then Shei got together with other graffiti artists in Brooklyn and began to learn what it took to be a street artist, like how to properly use a can of spray paint.

She remembers how the community was so open and welcoming. The people she was around even helped her get some walls to do her own work and connected her with other artists.

During all this Shei was doing her own reaching out on Instagram by searching #newyorkstreetartist and following and DM-ing people. Social media is quite the amazing thing if you know how to use it correctly.

Doing street art and doing murals aren't too different but Shei’s murals are a huge part of her career now. She has created murals for multiple different dispensaries around Oklahoma.

For Shei doing the art for dispensaries is a fun task, it may be hard but she can express herself so much when creating a piece the size of a wall.One of her favorite murals that she has done was for a dispensary called Gas Monkey.

“I did four portraits on a huge wall, probably a 10 by 15 feet wall. I did Steve Jobs, I did Nipsey, I did one of the owner's close friends and I did Mike Tyson and the owner owns a monkey. So I painted the monkey as well. All of it is in black and white, then I came in with highlights of just all sorts of different colors. So it looks like the light that hits them is a neon green or a neon orange or neon pink. It really brightens it up. ”

She explained that the fun thing about this mural was it was the first time she ended up using plaster to add texture to the picture. With the plaster, she basically built up the wall and made some of the elements look three-dimensional. Shei explained that she “built up the built-up the weed bag, the nugs that are in the weed bag, built up the chain and made it protrude from the wall. So it kind of really gave it a 3D aspect. That was a lot of fun. And while I was doing it, I got to hang out with the monkey!” She continued and said that the owner was a great client whom she ended up doing about four other big pieces. She said she felt like the artist he would go to for anything and it was very special to experience someone enjoying her art enough to keep her busy.

As for all of the series Shei has done, she says she doesn’ t have a favorite. “Each series is just like a different part of me. It's a different personality because they all bring their own kind of story to them and they, I feel like, connect to different types of audiences. I don't know if I have a favorite one because they're all fun. And when I do the interactive shows with them, they all kind of create their own world. They're all so different. Like one that I’ ve done called The SMALL Things, that's based around keeping your inner child alive. So that world is like, you're immersed like within the jungle, but it's filled with all of these childhood things, you know, like the castle is building blocks. There are like giant flowers that protect the lands. There are giant ladybugs that manage the poppy flower medicine field. There are paper airplanes, you know, there are these big flowers that have eyes. It's kind of really about these childhood things and childhood memories and keeping that alive. ”

Shei has another series called PANDANATION. She describes it as a futuristic industrial city that combines a lot of different types of cultures within it. Her pandas may not be the typical pandas you’ d see that are fluffy, fat and smiley. Shei’ s pandas are skeletons or skeleton-like, they may be different looking but they are meant to show a good message. She said they “threaten you with a good message” and she is right. The panda is a universally loved cerature so designing them with a different look will draw attention for any reason, good or bad. They are also featured on her Gallery page on her website, super cute yet riveting. I would absolutely have a couple of those stickers on my computer!

For Shei art is an expression of herself and what she feels inside her heart. I had asked her what she liked doing most and she didn’ t have a solid answer because she loves doing any type of art. Whether the piece is going to be a canvas or a sticker or a giant mural, each moment she is creating art she feels she is able to be who she is.

Canvas’are able to move and be taken places while murals are stationary and will be stationary forever. There is a different type of love that goes into each piece Shei does and that’ s what makes her art so amazing to behold.

For those of you who haven’t seen her art, Shei describes it as “controlled chaos. ” She is truly a talented artist, I wouldn't be surprised if she becomes a household name. So what's next for Shei Phan? “I plan on leaving my mark! My future plans are definitely to just expand my artwork and continue to build my skill set and what I'm good at and just get back to focusing on my own series and creating that. ” I don’t know about y’ all but as someone who can now say she is a part of the #PandaNation, getting to watch Shei grow in her art will be a real blessing. Be sure to check out www.SheiPhan.com and follow her on Instagram and Snapchat @shei _p !

Art and cannabis go hand in hand.

Next Article

Stoner's Delight Salad

Art and cannabis go hand in hand. In fact, one of the first articles I ever had the chance to write for Chronic was over how cannabis and art intersect.

More articles from this publication:

Stoner's Delight Salad

Cannabis Photography

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Cannabis and Music

The Reason Cannabis and Art Blend Together

Cannabis Survivor

Monthly Cannabis Review

Where to Smoke in Oklahoma

The World of Cannabinoids and Terpenes

This article is from:

The Chronic Magazine - September 2021