thundrgrnd

[thundrgrnd]

Shalom

whats ur sun,moon,rising, mercury, venus, and north node?

cancer sun, scorpio moon, aries rising, gemini mercury & venus, and north node in virgo.

where are you currently based out of?

fairfax, va.

what is the culture of your family?

interdependent in deed even not in word. im a middle child of five kids. we believe in community and being there for each other however we can be.

describe the impact that your heritege has had on your mediums?

living as a third culture kid who was born in the us to nigerian parents, moved to South Africa, raised there, and then moved back to the US has done a number on my brain, but for the most part it has opened my mind to the different ways everything comes back to community - its all about love, honesty, vulnerability. i try to be as transparent as possible in my work and really say what i mean.

list all of your creative disciplines?

all?????

writing, singing & songwriting, bass guitar, crochet.

how long have you practiced each?

forever, since i was a child, since 2020, started crochet as a child but picked it up again when i was in the psych ward.

what drives you?

impacting others. sharing the human experience.

what are you passionate about?

is it lame if this is also impacting others and sharing the human experience?

who in your personal life and the artistic world has had a profound influence on your work?

my mom: she is honest and true, a golden human. we’re honest in different ways about different things, but she inspires me to come as i am and ease off the pressure i put on myself.

florence and the machine: the first cd i ever bought and loved was between two lungs (deluxe) in 2010. the writing, the imagery, the vocals, the delivery altogether inspires me the same way it did when i was 12. i still listen to that album, although i have it on vinyl now.

lcd sound system: making noise and saying shit and being like “ok, this rocks” is basically how i would like my music making experience to go, they make it seem possible.

what is your greatest accomplishment thus far?

playing my first show in new york where we finished the set and got asked for an encore. i was like, “we have no more songs!” and they were like “play concrete again!” and everyone was chanting my name at the end. brain melting. never forgetting that one. idk if that counts as greatest accomplishment, though - i think surviving 2023 takes the top spot.

current profession?

i am a musician and marketing and communications coordinator at a health equity nonprofit.

where do you see yourself in the foreseeable future of 5 and then 10 years?

5 years: hopefully debt free, maybe having released a couple more albums, hair long.

10 years: i can’t think this far out man. i thought i wouldn’t make it past 17 for a long time so now thinking about the future is kinda mind melting.

who would you like to collaborate with?

people who love me back and mean it. anyone who’s willing to hear me out. anyone who believes in the collective and community as the answer to capitalism. basically, if we’re on the same frequency, let’s make shit.

what does creative expression mean to you?

recently it’s been trying to be nonjudgmental in how my artistic practice takes shape. just appreciating myself as an artist and recognizing my attempts at making good art are still shows of me making art, period. showing up as myself and letting whatever comes out come out.

what does it mean to be a woman or non binary earthling of color in america?

to fight some system every day.

what does it mean to be a femme or non binary artist of color in america?

to fight a different kind of system every day.

how has this created a barrier in your life and career?

being new to music i was definitely swept off my feet by a record label who ended up withholding money from me and refused to help me during a desperate period of time. i strongly believe that i would not have been treated the way i was if i was not a black woman.

what does creating revolutionary change in the word through art mean to you?

showing up as myself and committing to doing it every day. it’s one thing at a time. loving harder despite it all.

where should we start in dismantling the mechanisms of oppression across the globe?

with your friends. if they aren’t with it, find new ones.

what do you want to see in the creative world now, and in future generations?

more people finding their voice, more people leaning into the fact that art existed for tens of thousands of years before agriculture. we thought it was more important to paint than it was to feed ourselves efficiently, and i’m not saying we need to forget to eat but sustaining ourselves off art, returning to a life of practice… i’d love to see it.

what communitiy do you most resonate with currently?

those who identify themselves to be both lovers and fighters.

bisexual. bi as in one and another, instead of one of two. all genders are welcome at this party.

where can we find your work?

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Smeza at Jason Vass.

Los Angeles, CA

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Smeza, Performance Artist

Trpiteca August, 2018

iO Theatre March, 2018

Los Angeles, CA

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The ever so talented Smeza.

🇲🇽 🇲🇽 🇪🇨 🇪🇨

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Smeza

What’s your star sign?

Scorpio

Where are you based out of?

LA/Chicago

What is the culture of your family?

Primarily Ecuadorian and Mexican.

How has your culture affected your mediums?

I feel like the more I understand my heritage the more I push myself to create. To push myself, understand who I am through art, and expressing it in a world that needs more diverse voices.

List all of your mediums?

Performance Art, Theatre, Comedy, Found Art, and Film.

How long have you practiced each?

I started in fine arts, painting, and film when I was really young but for the last almost 7 years I’ve been grinding at performance.

What drives you?

Making meaningful art.

What are you passionate about?

Queer/POC/Trans representation! Community, and love!

Greatest accomplishment thus far?

Bring alive, and sane in 2018.

Current job?

Artist, and hosting/service industry.

Where do you see yourself in 5 and then 10 years?

Living, and working within Art with my partner Keegan.

Who do you want to work with?

My Queer, and POC peers! Directors that respect us as people, and value our voice not just our numbers in diversity.

What does creative expression mean to you?

It means putting out what’s inside you for other people to see, and relate to.

What does it mean to be a Woman of Color in America?

It means we got to try harder to have our stories heard. It means not letting people bring you down or use you.

What does it mean to be a Female artist of color in America?

It means you got to try harder than ever to get yourself out there.

Has this ever created a barrier in your career?

Oh definitely, and still does. Just got to push through the bullshit, and fakeness.

What does creating change in the world through art mean to you?

It means creating a community of people that know how you feel, and want to make the world a better place through their craft.

What do you wanna see in the artist world now, and for the future?

I want to see more people pushing boundaries and sticking together. For queer spaces to think past egos, and make amazing art.

Orientation: queer :)

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The Underground week 2

The beautiful Vasoqu

🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪🇰🇪

📸 Ra_kib

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Vasoqu

What’s your star sign?

* Pisces

Where are you based out of?

* Columbus Ohio

What is the culture of your family?

* East African> Kenyan

How has your culture affected your mediums?

* I get a lot of influence from my home country since that’s where I spent majority of my formation years. A lot of everything else around the world takes its influence from the west so it’s nice to be able to have your own influence to share here.

List all of your mediums?

* Music composition

* Singing

* Paintiang

* Piano

* Event hosting

* Talent scout

How long have you’ve been doing each?

* I started singing in school. I was about 9-10 and I had joined my school choir. Always participated in my school’s talent events and I’d play piano and play some bars. Always had an intense anxiety attack before hand.

*I’ve been playing piano for 8 years. Self-taught at 12 and started turning my poems into songs.

*Painting is something I’ve always done and is a very personal experience for me.

*Talent scouting I started doing in Atlanta, GA when I was still in high school. I used to help find girls for a hookah bar my friend was opening and models for a former photographer I used to work with. I’m hoping to do that In Columbus with underground artists of colour.

*I throw a dance event here in Columbus with my partner (@Kameryn.chill) called “QULTURÉ” to promote artists of colour with lack of exposure and to celebrate the Oldschool, black, and Afro Caribbean culture with food, drinks and dancing all night til the mawwwnin. I think it’s important for there to be a platform for start up artists and there’s a lot of good music bubbling at the edge cbus that just needs to be heard. Columbus is on the brink of a waaaaaave baby.

What drives you?

*What drives me is literally having a good time living life. I want to do shit I enjoy and I want to see people enjoying themselves. QULTURÉ is my big project right now and I want to be able to provide an unforgettable positive experience. You never forget a good party;)

What are you passionate about?

* God first and foremost

* Art of any and all kinds, especially the ones I’m involved

* People

Greatest accomplishment thus far?

* Getting out of this new-agey spirituality bs and finding God again. It’s completely changed my life.

Current job?

* I work for myself

Where do you see yourself in 5 and then 10 years?

* I hate this question. Like it’s hopeful and all but life can switch up on you real quick, one blink. I really don’t know. I’m just gunna keep going with the flow, ya feel meh?

Who do you want to work with?

* I don’t have anyone in particular I’m trying to work with right now but maybe that mindset will change in the future.

What does creative expression mean to you?

* Creative expression is another outlet. It’s freedom in itself. There’s literally no boundary you can’t cross in art. It’s entirely relative, there’s so many ways to “art” and it’s open to interpretation. You can do whatever the literal fuck you want.

What does it mean to be a Woman of Color in America?

* To be strength.

Explain your life as a Female artist of color in America.

* I don’t believe my artistry and the colour of my skin necessarily need to go hand in hand. I think as a woman of colour in the US, I understand the challenges being faced but I don’t put a lot of time into the concept of race so I be chillin.

Has this ever created a barrier in your career?

*nah

What does creating change in the world through art mean to you?

* Art with value or art with a message of value is enough to change the world. We see art with a message all the time through media television, only the messages being sent are subliminal and corrupt rendering the audience numb and dumb.

What do you want to see in the artist world now and for the future?

* I’m not sure. I just want people to do whatever they’re doing so long as it’s not destructive.

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The INCREDIBLE Melia Martin.

🇲🇾🇲🇾🇲🇾🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪

📸@portraitmami @sarahannewu

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Melia Martin

What’s your sign? I’m a Cancer.

Where are you based out of? I’m based outta Chicago.

What is the Culture of your family? My mom immigrated from Malaysia, so I’m half Malay and part American and Slovakian from my dad’s side.

How has your culture affected your mediums? I wouldn’t say that my culture has had a huge impact on how I make art, but rather my identity, beliefs, and experiences being the core to my practices.

List all of your mediums. My work and the mediums I use are pretty interdisciplinary. I would say my core medium is oil paint, and so then I like to combine a bunch of other stuff with it. I’m currently working with neon to incorporate into my work. But I also work with video and installation. Oh! I also hand poke tattoos and curate exhibitions. I do a lot.

How long have you been doing each? I’ve been painting and drawing since I was in elementary school, but I just started exploring other mediums two years ago or so.

What drives you? To be honest I don’t know 100% what drives me to make work, probably a mix of always pushing myself to produce the best work I can make and always being inspired by those around me.

What are you passionate about? I’m passionate about all the things that I do: art, tattooing, working my day job, modeling, maintaining relationships with important beautiful people. It’s hard too though. I feel like I’m always focusing on a million things and I have to be perfect at everything, so I have to try to remind myself to focus on myself sometimes.

Greatest accomplishment this far? Hmmmmm, this is kinda hard to answer since I’m always so hard on myself and I don’t see myself as accomplished. The main thing that comes to mind is being so independent at my age and working so hard for everything I have. It kinda sounds like a dumb answer, but it’s what I got haha.

Current job? I currently work at a vintage store in Pilsen, it’s called Very Best Vintage, and I love it!

Where do you see yourself in 5, and then 10 years? This is another hard question. I have no idea what I want to do once I’m out of school. In 5 years maybe I’ll get a curatorial position at a gallery space, but I also want to travel everywhere. Who knows. 10 years is too far away, I can’t answer that haha. It would be cool if I could make a lot of money somehow and just create what I want to create for the rest of my life, but I know that that’s not reality.

Who do you want to work with? No one comes to mind, I like working independently.

What does creative expression mean to you? Creative expression means just that, to be able to express whatever you’re thinking or feeling through a creative outlet, whatever that may be without any censorship or restrictions. People who know me know that I HATE censorship, especially when it’s applied to the female body, anything sexual, or anything artistic.

What does it mean to be a person of color in America? Being a person of color in America has been somewhat hard for me, especially growing up. I grew up in a predominantly white predominantly conservative suburb in Ohio called Upper Arlington. As a kid I constantly had to deal with microaggression from kids I went to school with. I wasn’t white enough for the white kids and I wasn’t asian enough for the asian kids. The microaggression and bullying kinda melded together and it came to a point where it was hard to go to school, especially in middle school. Now I just kinda deal with ignorant people who are confused when they see me for the first time. Common questions are: “what’s your ethnicity” or “where are you from, you look exotic”. Being mixed races as helped me create beautiful art and in that has helped me become more comfortable in my skin.

Explain what it means to be an artist of color in America? Going off of that, being a non binary person of color, people are even more confused than ever haha. No but seriously, I have a shaved head and an androgynous look, people are trying their hardest to figure me out I feel like. I get so many stares from cis people, disgusting looks and comments from conservative people, cat calls everyday, in person and online, from men just trying to get in my pants. I mostly ignore it, but it gets tiring sometimes and can be straining on my mental health because I’ve worked so hard to love myself for who I am. I know though at the end of the day that I am comfortable with my identity and nothing that anyone says or thinks can change that.

Has this ever created a barrier in your career? I don’t think my identity has created a barrier for me or has stopped me from doing anything, I go to a pretty progressive school and surround myself with supportive people so I’d be surprised if someone tried to stop me from doing something due to my identity.

What does it mean to create change though art mean to you? I guess it means that art can be a very strong and powerful outlet for people to speak up about issues and people should use that to their advantage.

What do you want to see in the creative world now and for the future? Probably no censorship whatsoever and I would want art to become less commercial.

What’s your orientation? If we’re talking sexual orientation, I don’t really like to put a label on anything but if anything I consider myself pansexual cause I don’t see gender and I like whoever I like.

What are your pronouns? My pronouns are they/them, because I’m non binary, I don’t see myself as a boy or a girl, I’m just Melia.

Do you express your identity through your mediums? Definity, a lot of my work is about my identity.

Have you ‘come out’? If So, when? Yeah I guess, I came out to my dad and the world as bisexual when I was like a junior or sometime around then in high school, but that has since changed as I said earlier I consider myself pan. Most people know I’m non binary just from meeting me or from Instagram, but I haven’t told my family yet, I don’t think my close family members would care, but my extended family would definitely not understand, they all voted for Trump too so…

How has your work assisted in your self discovery? My work never really helped me discover who I am, I did most of that myself.

Who are the artist(s) that give you strength and inspiration? So many! First person that comes to mind in Jordyn Belli (@sleepykiwis on Insta). They’re an amazing artist and person who just shot me and my partner and it made me feel beautiful because it was so raw. Also Kate Sweeney (@kate_sweeney) who is another amazing and powerful artist. Also just in general, my friends, family, and boyfriend are all amazing and so supportive of me and we all kinda help eachother out. Omg also I forgot to mention, Betsy Johnson (not the designer, @betsyjohnson_) is one of my biggest inspirations eva!

How has being a person of color in the LGBTQ+ family affected your mediums? smIt’s just made it easier to express myself I guess

What does LGBTQ+ support look like? I know how it feels, and it’s the happiest thing you could ever feel.

What do you want to see for the LGBTQ+ family? I would hope that issues in the LGBTQ+ community could be fixed, like acceptance within the community itself. And I also hope that our portrayal in media changes and is from an accurate point of view and isn’t always about sadness, queer people in movies always die or have to break up or something like common.

How can we all get there as a collective? Vote! Being political in this day an age is so so so important! Oh and also just be nice to people and hold judgment.

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Kith x Adidas Collection

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Kith x Versace S/S 2019 Runway Details

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Kith x Adidas Soccer Collection

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milk makeup @ sephora

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Best female Vocalist in the Game RN.