In case you missed the huge banner on the home page, check out the link below for the Back to Cool Sneak peek for a preview of what will be on display on Tuesday!

Back to Cool Sneak Peek

I’m sure I’ve said this before but it’s nothing like opening up a new box of AOI goodies. (all we will be giving away of course). So as Matt and I returned from our weekend trip to Massanutten, VA (highly recommended vacation spot by the way), we were greeted by a box of stickers and new business cards. I know, I know, it’s only business cards, BUT, these actually have our name and personal emails on them!

So after an hour or two brainstorming session, we hit the DC streets and stumbled across this cool robot at the thrift store that even holds business cards. Looks like he’ll make a great addition to the AOI display on Tuesday. Small, cheap, and a little dusty from the thrift store, but it’s the little things like these that will help people understand our brand the moment they walk into the place. Can’t wait.

Check out the back of the release event flyer. Matt did a great job in my humble opinion.

As you attend the event next week, you will notice several individuals other than ArtOfficial being represented. Although it is the celebration of our Fall release, we like to gather as many indivuals that represent the arts, and support the ArtOfficial lifestyle.  So for part 1 of our Back to Cool preview, we present  Shannon Scates who will be creating a masterpiece LIVE during the event. The pictures below are none other than her own but they are just a sample. There will be even more at the event.

Shannon Scates

I have always been into expressing myself creatively by writing, drawing, designing clothing, and doing various crafts. However, in 2007, painting became my new love. Pure destiny, I made a gift for a friend and had paint leftover so, I decided to pick up some canvases and it was love from there on out.

The majority of my artwork is acrylic paint and I have recently begun to explore using paper in my work. I love using bright, bold colors to bring a new perspective to something old. Most of my influences come from music, nature, urban environments, and anything else that strikes me as intriguing and beautiful. Then, there are also those random, AHA! moments that I can’t really explain. In those cases the story comes after the painting..

It is the freedom and the peace I feel when I create that attracts me to art. It is a way to speak without words. It is a way to share my thoughts with you but, it is completely open to interpretation. I love how people can walk away from the same painting with different feelings and opinions. Don’t let my title or explanation get in the way. It is what you think it is…good or bad. Let’s lean towards the good…just a suggestion:).

In the end, I want my art to inspire just as others have inspired me. As I continue to grow and let my abilities take new twists and turns, I can only hope that you will come along for the ride. I enjoy what I do so much and I can only hope that my pleasure becomes yours!

Biggie

Amazing Grace

Since the countdown to Back to Cool has officially begun, this weeks Throwback of the Week is dedicated to the thing we all hate most about going back to school…. READING!

“You don’t lead by lip service. You lead by example.” –Jim Leyland

Inspired by Clutch Magazine, it came to me to post on what it means to be politically or socially progressive, the contradictions therein, and misperceptions of the stereotypes.

The obvious first example is that of the stereotypical Black voting bloc, fiscally progressive but socially conservative. We might even use as examples those elected to uphold the Constitution but have tough times practicing that. I’m also, however, speaking on when progressivism morphs from the abstract to the personal, the moment you must walk your talk.

So...what do I really do?

For example, one could support her Latino sisters and brothers in the struggle for immigration reform, and in contrast, be pressed to rationalize the influx of Hispanic immigrants looking for opportunity in her hometown.

One could give emphatic lip service to reversing Prop 8, holding that we should be happy love is found anywhere in this sometimes-maddening world, and conversely be uncomfortable with man-to-man or woman-to-woman expressions of affection. (As a friend of mine says, the world is fine with Ricky Martin coming out of the closet, but when will we see him sing love ballads to the objects of his affection?)

Of course, I’m not immune, so I don’t say these things from on high. Folks assume that because I’m a vegetarian, I should be sporting “Save the Whale” T-shirts and such, picketing my local grocer because folks shouldn’t be eating eggs anyway. Au contraire, I will kick a squirrel in a heartbeat if it looks at me too hard. Too, I’m an advocate for the safe use of chemicals in our food and cosmetics, but I ain’t going a week without this (in my defense, it doesn’t contain parabens).

The point is, folks, as I’ve been saying from the start, we’re all walking contradictions. I’d rather be in the surface-level progressive camp with the following in mind, though: that following my lip service I incrementally incorporate these stances into my walk, eventually to be proud and confident that I am not spouting these “for” and “against” notions because they are PC, but because I believe in them and want to work toward a world where they are fully executed.

So we shout the slogan and think on what it means—then we do a little more. Shout and think—and do a little more . . .  till we’re walking revolutions.

The time has finally arrived, and the countdown to the Fall 2010 Release- Back to Cool has began! Saying that’s it’s been a long time is definitely an understatement.

We’ve done three photoshoots, caught flights to LA and back to probe boutique owners for info, woken up with over-sized trash can sized bags under our eyes from the sleep deprivation, and held enough walk through meetings at Policy that the bartender knows our government names and has our favorite drink ready when we arrive.(Vodka Tonic or a Tokyo Tea if it’s been a long day) But it’s good to see everything come together. From conception to today, we’ve come a long way.

The Idea Behind “Back to Cool”

When we first sat down to brainstorm our Fall 2010 Release, the first goal we had in mind was to make smart cool again. Not just nerd glasses and suspenders look kinda cool, but get motivated, grab a Fortune Magazine, or fill out some scholarship applications kinda cool. Sort of like Wale said, “I’d rather you tell me to hit you later because you gotta finish a paper, than to be in my face asking for a Rose’ cup”. Take a step back and look at our generation and you realize that somewhere between home and the school system, being smart was no longer the thing to do.

The challenge for us came in actually making shirts that promoted our ideas, but did so in a cool way. And we think we’ve achieved that. Whether your in school or graduated out in the real world, we’ve got something for you. So Tuesday, August 31st, along with DTNation and Khalila White, we finally unveil our Fall 2010 Release. Hope to see you there!

In case you haven’t seen it… The Promo Video

Event Details

Policy Restaurant and Lounge
1904 14th St. NW
Washington, DC
Time: 6-9pm
Live paintings, $5 food and drink specials, give-a-ways and more!

“Every path has its puddle.” –Proverb

“In seeking the truth you have to get both sides of a story.” I’m sure Walter Cronkite knew stories have more than two sides. At the risk of simplifying history, I thought recently how yesterdays’ fights were simple. There was an identifiable evil from which it was necessary to steer the nation away. Slavery? What about “We hold these truths to be self-evident…”? Genocide? World War II, nations come together. Separate but unequal? Unequivocally unacceptable.

Two Sides to Every Story

Granted, there are still these types of battles to be fought (e.g., Prop 8), but many of our battles—just like our economy and educations—are global or multifaceted. My friend in Thibodaux, Louisiana, who often listens to my environmental justice rants, and I talk about the BP oil spill and the Obama administration’s moratorium on deepwater drilling. He tells me that there is a rig close by that’s already moved to Spain and how just about everyone in his town feeds their families via oil. Even him—he translates for Mexican workers who’ve moved to the city to work the rigs.

There’s always more to consider than our dogma or convenience. We put our trust in bottled water, and leave our local governments with dangerous leeway to relax regulations on our tap water’s cleanliness. No one’s drinking it, so who will put the pressure on to keep it clean?

I’m balancing doing the “right” thing: buying local, buying organic. Researchers keep throwing more bowling pins into my juggling act. My search for a meaningful certified label such as “USDA Organic” in this age of pesticides and genetically modified foods led me to sources stating the label doesn’t have much teeth. Only large-scale farmers can afford the time and money to invest in tracking for certification. Beyond that, certifiers inspect farms just by looking at them, and to get the label requires no soil samples. How do you know what chemicals are present or not with no soil samples?

I think we have enough of this.

Pile that on top of U.S. agricultural policies and subsidies to farmers that push Mexican and Haitian farmers into destitution, and I’ve failed at balancing. At this point, I’m just trying to keep track of just one element. If I buy from conventional farmers, I’m surely not feeling the true cost of that product. If I buy local, there is a good chance—from a political standpoint—I’m feeding a system that favors wealthy older white men who for years have owned land and can afford to farm organically.

It may sound like a lot of rubbish. Many consumer acts, though, have global effects today—and there are many factors to consider.  Lots of times “right” and “wrong” come down to judgment calls in this age. It’s a scary world that begs more proactivity, more citizenship and seeking of information—more brainpower. In the era where what we’re selling is knowledge, I think we’re up to it.

The saddest part about this blog post that you’re currently reading is that even as I type away, I’ve noticed that I’ve altered my “normal” writing style to accommodate our multitasking, short attention spanned generation. My original opening included an introduction paragraph, followed by a brief lead in story, followed by more lead up to my point, blah blah blah. See, I even cut that sentence short because I know your mind began to wonder off somewhere different. And the part that’s even sadder, is that you’ve probably already read a text message, received a phone call or email, or checked Twitter to see if you’ve received any @ replies or RT’s before you even finished reading this paragraph.

So I’ll preface this post by saying I’ll keep it brief…

I’ve had a series of eye opening experiences about our generation as I struggle throughout the day to stay focused on just one thing during any task. I’m sure we’ve all been in a situation where we’ve been eating, while driving, while tweeting about what we’re eating while trying to avoid on coming traffic. I’m guilty of it to… (*raises hand). But I’m not proud of it.

As information becomes more conveniently located on our cell phones, computers, iPods, iPads, etc, this lifestyle becomes the norm and it becomes increasingly hard to lead a regular life without them. I literally almost had a mental break down when going to serve jury duty today, because I got caught trying to sneak my iPod into the courthouse. (Smh, I know, I know) It also seems that every time I go out with friends now, we can only keep each other entertained for about 10 minutes before we pull out our cell phones to get “our fix”. So the question I pose is, if we’re continuously updating everyone on how we’re living our life, when will we actually find time to live it?

I’m not saying that I won’t use my Blackberry with 5 emails linked to them (no, I literally have five email accounts linked), or that I won’t check Facebook once a day to see if I got tagged from any pictures over the weekend. I’m simply suggesting that we do these things in moderation. (I wonder how I parents survived sending letters with stamps. Stamps! I think I forgot what they look like) I’m always amazed at how much I catch up on my life when I hop in the car for a long drive, and turn my phone on silent. So whatever your vice is, music, painting, reading (I’ll tell you my concerns about our generations spelling and reading skills in another post), just find one and try to take some time out of your day to unplug yourself from technology.

(Also, congratulations for finishing this post! It took you 5 RT’s of the link to get you here, but you made it. I tried to put pictures throughout to keep you entertained.)

“It is possible to live a good life, even if it isn’t an easy life.”  –Rachel Naomi Remen

Ponder the following two scenarios:

1) In her memoir, Ayelet Waldman—public defender, writer, and mother—writes that daughters of feminists have been lied to, that her feminist mother never told her how hard life would be. She and her mother assumed, she says, that after the achievements of the feminist movement, “everything else would fall into place.”

Its over...no more struggle!

2) Mid-term elections are near. Obama passed healthcare reform, mandated equal pay for women, and is moving to regulate greenhouse gases via the EPA. But the unemployment rate is almost 10% (15 and 12 percent for blacks and Latinos, respectively), Republicans are frothing, and the president seems timid on social issues. Disgruntled voters are thinking, “Yes we did, right? Why hasn’t the U.S. done a 180 with Obama in office?”

Frederick Douglas said it best

How does Remen’s quote relate to these situations? Why do we expect life to be easy? Why is there the expectation that after one struggle there will not be, or should not be, another? I could speculate—the hype of American Exceptionalism, the immediate gratification of technology, the recent emergence of prosperity gospel telling us that we need only claim good fortune and it will be, the not-unreasonable expectation that soldiering long and hard through a fight (e.g., civil rights in a racial, gender, or sexual orientation context) will lead to a better life.

We sigh and nod our heads: “It’s always something.” Yes, it is. If this were not so, how would we build character?

I’m sure I’ve risked sounding as if I’m advocating endless struggle. I’m not. We can look at the quote positively. Remen states that partly because of the addiction to the pursuit of perfection, her quote is the best kept secret in America, one that we get distracted from by the stories others tell us about ourselves. These stories—“that we are not enough, that we’ll be happy with material things, that material things will make us safe—none of them are true.”

So what if we didn’t have to be perfect, if what made us wasn’t our wealth or our quests to save the world, but changing the world immediately around us? What if all that mattered was constantly embracing the questions and opportunities, not operating from a defeatist perspective? What if we realized that in order to live a good life we would let time do its thing because, as Zora Neale Hurston says, “There are years that ask questions and years that answer”?

YOU aren’t what happened to you sophomore year of college. YOU aren’t the kid whose mom died when he was 15, bringing an onslaught of unfortunate life events. YOU aren’t the heart sliced open with salt poured upon it. But these cumulative elements make you, and as Remen says, “over time, become a strong foundation to live a good life.”

Opportunity.

It’s liberating when you think about it.