The Artistry Corner featuring... Aaron Beitia

Hey y’all! So this week we have our second featured guest/artist here at the Artistry Corner. I am so blessed and so honored to introduce you to an incredible young artist as well as one of my best friends and brothers, Aaron Beitia! 

Check out his work & more about him below…

This Week's Featured Artist...

~Artist~

Aaron Beitia

A Bay Area Native and recent 4^th year at Johnson C. Smith University in North Carolina, Aaron is an amazing artist with an intense love for life and every different type of art you can think of. Ranging from dance to poetry, this young man has a variety of artistic talents and is a full blown artist in his own right. Ambitious, amiable, and strong-willed, Aaron is prepared to take the artistic world by storm with talks of a possible clothing line as well as his most recent endeavor in being a part of a dope poetry organization on his campus, known as the Black Ink Monks. Despite his ever busy life and the various endeavors he finds himself immersed in, he always manages to make time for his art and is hardly without pad and pencil. Please welcome to the Corner, Aaron Beitia…

 Q&A

1. When did you start drawing?

“I started drawing at 9 years old, my inspiration came from my cousin putting on Japanese anime, and from that day on I’ve just been drawing, so I kind of fell in love with it.”

2. What exactly makes you draw?

“Inspiration and whoever I came in contact with. I believe that there’s this chemistry theory that I really feel that when you come in contact with people you take something from everybody. It may not be physically, but you always take a piece of them with you and a piece of you goes with them.”

3. What inspires you to draw?

“Peace and happiness, it’s as simple as that.”

4. How do you come up with your concepts for your pieces?

“I definitely do research based on how I’m feeling. I will definitely just go research art and different types of artists of the year, see, you know, what they do, how they do it, what mediums they use, and then I’ll go ahead and do my own research based off, you know, sketches, or designs I come up with, then I’ll go ahead and do some ‘thumbnailing’ and recreating designs and then making my concepts based off of that.”

5. What is your favorite thing to draw?

A: “Trees” Me: “You talkin’ bout weed?” *LAUGHS* A: “Naw, I’m talkin’ bout real trees, the trees that are outside.”

6. Who inspires you in general?

“My mom’s my biggest inspiration, but just being able to get up every day, knowing that I’ve been blessed to have another day that’s my biggest inspiration and that’s why I feel that I need to create and produce art for the world because every day’s not guaranteed, but what you do have and the time you do have you can definitely use to inspire.”

7. 5 facts about you?

1- I speak a little bit of Japanese

2- I love to travel

3- I love fruit

4- I love everything Japanese

5- I love nature

8. Ways to connect with you?

IG: inexplicably_cali

Twitter: @hellapeezdoe

Check out some of his work and their descriptions below…

The Sight (Beauty)

• The inspiration of this composition derived from the love and care of my mother, the sight of the first woman I ever fell in love with despite her hardships she remained beautiful, peaceful, and humble. The use of cool and warm colors speaks to the emotions felt within our relationship, the sight of her crying never broke me or her spirit which is so beautiful words can't describe.
The medium of this composition is paint, pastel, sharpie, and charcoal.

Design by Nature

• This composition was influenced by the black and white views of how society depicts nature. From spring to fall and I asked myself "what would the world be without sound?" So I created this piece as I thought about my favorite Bob Marley quote, "one good thing about music is when it hits you, you feel no pain." My mediums of choice were collage, sharpie, pastel, flowers, and Styrofoam. 

Revolución de la evolución

• This composition was inspired by the African influence in Latin American countries. My country of choice was Puerto Rico because I am of mixed ethnicities. I used the white lotus to symbolize the fertility of women, and out of the white lotus grew three beautiful flowers, a Puerto Rican woman, an Afro-Puerto Rican woman, and an African woman. Together these three women create the silhouette of the continent of Africa. The reason why the Puerto Rican woman is at the back head of Africa is because that's where the slaves were taken during the time of Atlantic slave trade, next you have the Afro-Puerto Rican woman at the crown of Africa to represent the new generation as well as the heart in the stem to represent the life and mix of cultures. Lastly, we have the African woman to represent the nose and forefront of African because it all started with mother Africa. As you look to the background of the picture you see the Puerto Rican flag the red stripes of the flag play a very significant part because where the Puerto Rican woman is the stripe behind her is the continent of Puerto Rico, and the Afro- Puerto Rican woman has the continents of Africa and Puerto Rico, and finally you have the African woman and the flipped continent of Africa behind her. Finally as you look at the top of the composition you see the star gripped by the revolution hand symbolizing the struggle and fight for rights, morals and citizenship. Both countries are still fighting to be recognized, Puerto Rico because they are a common wealth and have no right to vote and Africa because it's the motherland but it is still a third world country. My medium of choice was sharpie markers.

The Journey

• The inspiration for this piece came from the influence I personally wanted everyone to feel when looking at this composition. Starting from the bottom there is a gate with a black and white lock on it, but the lock is open to symbolize that you’ve always had, the key to your potential. 
Next is the map of the world because you have to take your own journey into the world to find out who you are as a person. This takes us to the mind, where you are your biggest critic and the battle of the minds the only thing stopping your from your success is you (that's why there's two ships fighting amongst each other over the island and that island can be interpreted as the American dream, success, or whatever your heart desires). Lastly, the face well there is no face because this is a representation of every human being who hasn't looked into the mirror yet or hasn’t found out who they truly are. Everything begins with self so look in the mirror. My mediums of choice were sharpie markers.

Heart Surgery

The inspiration behind this composition was very blurry at first because I used stippling or pointism. The use of dots to create a composition is truly amazing and you have to be quite skilled but it is not impossible. The journey of learning this style was very much so heart surgery in and of itself because it requires patience and you cannot rush it or it will not come out how you want it to. I grew as an artist but I learned something about myself.... What's life worth living for if you don't have a passion or love for something? This composition is deeper than what you see and much more than what meets the eye, you have to feel it, think it, and be it. The mediums of choice were sharpie markers.

Hope you enjoy this week's feature, stay tuned for our next artist spot, until next time beautiful people...

Peace & Positivity,

Dij :)