A few years ago, I adopted a simple mantra in my studio:
Keep playing and see what happens.
Not because it sounds like I’m about to get in trouble from my mother. But because I need the reminder, that my best work doesn’t come from doing it “right,” but it comes from experimenting with the unknown.
Play creates genius.
Film by Andrew Cebulka courtesy of Untitled Nashville Hotel at Banker’s Alley
All my life I’ve been taught to seek certainty. I want guarantees before I begin. I want proof that my idea will work before I invest my time and materials in it. I want to know the ending before I write the first sentence.
But the kind of creativity that wows me, doesn’t work that way.
That kind of creativity asks for invention. Abstraction. Broken rules.
It asks us to take a step without knowing where the path leads.
The installation I recently did for Untitled Nashville Hotel began with the idea that I was going to do what I always did. Big fancy portraits. But then, I decided to play.
I threw out my master playbook.
It started doing something I’ve done since i was a pitney: Scribble. I was just trying to see an idea really quickly in my sketchbook - quickly. To get it out of my head and onto a page. It was the kind of thing that painters make every day and often throw away without a second thought.
But this time, I saw it just as it was.
It wasn’t that I’d never scribbled before. Its that I’d never trusted that before.
So it never made it out of my sketchbook.
I just kept going till it made sense. Something about these felt different.
The figures felt alive.
The lines felt free. And I loved how i felt when i did it. I felt like a kid again. I’ve never had so much fun painting anything.
This style, that eventually hung on the walls of the Untitled Nashville Hotel, my largest installation to date, wasn’t born from studentry. It was born from curiosity and confidence and maybe a little stupidity.
I didn’t know if it would work. But i just kept going.
What’s the worst that can happen if you just play?
You Can Always Start Over.
Those words aren’t really about failure.
They’re about freedom.
Every abandoned idea can become the beginning of something unexpected.
The beautiful thing about starting over is that it gives us permission to take risks.
If you can always start over, then you can experiment.
If you can always start over, then you can make a mess.
If you can always start over, then you can follow an idea simply because..
It’s serendipitous, that the mantra of Untitled Nashville Hotel is Write Your Own Story.
It’s almost as if the universe planned this.
I’ve been thinking about how closely that idea mirrors my the practice that i aspire to.
You can’t write your own story if you’re busy following someone else’s.
You can’t discover something new if you’re afraid of getting lost.
You can’t create a life that feels like your own if every decision is filtered through the question, What if this doesn’t work?
The people I admire most. Artists, activists, entrepreneurs, parents, teachers. They all seem to share a willingness to begin again.
I have to refuse to believe that a single decision has the power to permanently define me.
Play is the courage to remain open. The courage to stay curious.
The film courtesy of Untitled Nashville Hotel i’ve placed here captures the making of this project, but it also captures something larger.
A reminder I constantly need.
Keep playing.
See what happens.
And if it doesn’t work?
Begin again.
Thanks to all the people at Untitled Nashville Hotel, Hilton, RLJ, Banker’s Alley and the hard working artists, creators, makers and lovers of art in Nashville.
Love,
❤️ Shabazz
PS. Big Shout to Anna Mckeown and Meridith Zimmerman for working tirelessly to champion the artists in Nashville.
What did you paint today?