“AS ABOVE, SO BELOW” (Copy)

“As Above, So Below”

Acrylic leather paint on leather jacket

2024

Tad Michael and I met through mutual artist friends some time in 2022. When I put out a form to submit artwork for my 2023 gallery events, he was one of the first to submit. That was the first time outside of mutuals that we collaborated, and he was able to see the way that I work and my eye for aesthetics.

Later that year after all of the events were done and over with, he shot me a project proposal that seemed like a fun change of pace.

I got the jacket and spent some free time here and there playing with potential ideas for its design. After a while, it ended up in my closet. There wasn’t any timeline on it, and I had a few large scale projects that were bubbling up for the upcoming year.

The whole “out of sight, out of mind” thing won big time, and I didn’t put a grain of thought into the jacket for months. There were moments where I saw it and felt guilty, and then did nothing about it. Classic!

Life got wild in 2023. I lost a close friend, left my relationship, left my job, fell short of goals, had to abandon my event series, and overall experienced a RESET. I had to move to my mom’s house, cause the house that my dad and I lived in got shot at, with bullets flying right over my head, peppering my bedroom with drywall and instability.

Sob sob excuse excuse fast forward to November, and I got a text from Tad

I was in a spot where I was sick of my tendency to start something and not just close the fucking project. So many half finished ideas filled my world, and left me feeling like a piece of shit. I saw that he really wanted it and shot for a rally. He trusted me still, even after having his jacket for almost a year, and I got to work soon after.

Fun fact: The whole time I had the thing, I never had the right paints, so even if inspiration did strike, I wouldn’t have a way to do anything about it. I got some paints, and guess what… I painted.

I had been playing with this style throughout the previous year and a half or so, and specifically got feedback from Tad on an instagram post that he loved the first one (white on black with the faces within the large face), so I took that as the first step in painting the jacket. Once the face shape was down, I was able to feel what I wanted to do. A line would come from above the figure, flow through the mind in a curly line, shaping a brain, then going down below the figure (representing heart or ground), bouncing around down there in an angular style, then coming back up and out through the mouth as a heartbeat. You might be thinking, “there is no way that just popped into your head,” and that is a valid thought. With that being said when I get rolling on an idea, I just let the creative spirit do its thing. I have learned through many projects and ideas to trust it fully, and to play with my tools with childlike liberty. Art comes from the space in between our body and mind. We can’t directly manipulate this space, but it moves us. If you trust it, you will find amazing things coming from your own hands.

As you can see, at this point there were still pencil marks and jagged lines, but the concept is down and I was loving it.

While I was in the process of painting this, I was also reading The Stranger by Albert Camus with my friends in our book club. Camus’ writing is layered with complex themes, motifs, and plot points that weave together into some kind of commentary or observation of human nature. One of the talking points after the first half of the book was this idea of “As above, so below”. The little motifs that repeat, and narrative patterns that thread through the story also cast over the entirety of the story. For example, there is a part where a group is walking down a long path, and one character keeps going off of the path into the grass. This character was much slower than the rest of the group, but would end up appearing back ahead of everyone else, before doing the same thing again. Falling behind, going off the path, ending up ahead. This tells us that the path everyone else is following is winding back and forth, and the shortcuts are more of a straight line to the destination. What I saw in my head was a sin wave being intersected by a line. We discussed that this shape existed elsewhere in the story. Not physically, but shown in relationships between characters. They would attract each other then push away in a cycle. Meursault, the main character, acted as the straight line, while his mom, or his partner, or his neighbor acted as the sin wave. Eventually this push pull breaks away, and the lines depart for good, which is also seen in the walking path scene. This shape or idea projects onto other aspects of the story. As above, so below.

This concept was presented by my friend Rosbel, who is a grad student studying migration policy. He speaks often about how systems and their form that structure a society reflects on the people within it, and the people in a society shape the systems. This concept has broad applications and I like the thought spaces that it takes me to.

In the artwork on the jacket, the line that comes down into the head curves counterclockwise, and the same is the case below. You can read into that idea as it reflects on the jacket for yourself. I have a couple of interpretations, and every element was intentional, but I’m sure others will find their own ideas and stories.

After getting it all finished, I dropped it off to Tad and his reaction was priceless. It was somehow worth the year long wait, and that feeling of closing a project was topped off with a big smile from a very satisfied customer!