{"id":30844,"date":"2021-11-30T17:45:10","date_gmt":"2021-11-30T17:45:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/blog\/adobe\/how-nikkolas-smith-blends-creativity-and-activism-for-change\/"},"modified":"2021-11-30T17:45:10","modified_gmt":"2021-11-30T17:45:10","slug":"how-nikkolas-smith-blends-creativity-and-activism-for-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/blog\/adobe\/how-nikkolas-smith-blends-creativity-and-activism-for-change\/","title":{"rendered":"How Nikkolas Smith blends creativity and activism for change"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Photograph of digital artist and activist, Nikkolas Smith.<\/p>\n

We can all picture Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial \u2014 fervently pointing to crowds of people surrounding the reflecting pool as he shared his ideas, beliefs, and intentions around equality and freedom. This pivotal moment sowed seeds of hope in the young and old for many generations to come. Today, Dr. King is a transformational, loving symbol of freedom but at the time he was held in contempt by those who fought his ideals of equality for all.<\/p>\n

During his lifetime, Dr. King\u2019s humanity and truth were distorted. It took years \u2014 through photographs of public and private moments, videos of interviews and speeches, and his own writing \u2014 to shine light on the incomparable human and activist he was.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to 45 years after Dr. King\u2019s assassination. The murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin becomes national news. Barack Obama, the first African American President of the United States, personally addresses the nation, saying \u201c\u2026Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.\u201d A burdensome reality that most Black Americans somberly reflect on with each and every new injustice.<\/p>\n

\"Artistic<\/p>\n

Both Dr. King and Trayvon\u2019s images spark emotion and call attention to the legacy of racism that still exists today. Through artivism – a combination of the words \u2018art\u2019 and \u2018activism\u2019 \u2014 like the powerful work by Nikkolas Smith-we can continue to share their stories and carry the torch that will light the way to lasting change.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s go behind the scenes with Nikkolas Smith to understand his artivism journey and how this impactful piece of Dr. King evoking Trayvon Martin came to be.<\/p>\n

Nikkolas, how do you define artivism?<\/h3>\n

I define artivism as using art as a tool to inspire people to make a positive change in the world. It\u2019s like Nina Simone\u2019s quote that it\u2019s an artist\u2019s duty to reflect the times, always pulling from what\u2019s happening in the world and holding up a mirror to ourselves to say: this is what\u2019s going on. It\u2019s about trying to visually capture people\u2019s attention to motivate them to fix what\u2019s wrong.<\/p>\n

Was there a moment that you remember considering yourself an activist?<\/h3>\n

That would probably be the moment seven years ago when I created the Martin Luther King Jr. in the hoodie sketch. At that point, it was just a Photoshop collage that I made. Being on CNN and on live TV, trying to explain the purpose of the message regarding Dr. King\u2019s dream of not wanting anybody to be judged for their outward appearance, being able to have the art right there, and also to be influencing people and hopefully inspiring people \u2014 I think that was probably the moment that I would consider myself an activist or an Artivist.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s walk through the MLK piece. Can you take us through it step by step?<\/h3>\n

I\u2019ll start with the Photoshop version of it, which was just a very simple collage. First, I found a photo of Martin Luther King Jr. that I felt like I could give it a serious tone, and might create the effect that I wanted. It kind of turned into this social experiment where you look at this image of MLK in the hoodie, and the question is: do you see him as more threatening now? Do you see him as a \u2018thug\u2019 now? The expression on his face in the photo that I chose felt like it was perfect.<\/p>\n

Then I found a hoodie that resembled Trayvon\u2019s and mashed the two images together. I wanted it to feel like an older photo from the 1960s, so I weathered it a bit, added some texture on top of it so it gave you the feel that you\u2019re actually standing in front of MLK in real life, and he has a hoodie on. That was pretty much it \u2014 it was one of the most simple pieces that I\u2019ve ever created.<\/p>\n

A few years later, I decided to create my Sunday Sketch painted version of it. So for that, I got into my semi-abstract painter mindset. These are the digital paintings that I create most often, but I wanted it to feel like I was standing in front of the canvas just throwing paint at it.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s pretty bright and expressive, and there\u2019s a lot of different colors: pinks and blues and yellows and greens. It\u2019s just very aggressive and passionate and loud. I used my typical process of speed painting that I do in my class. I\u2019m sure I took a little extra time on this one, but it was just recreating that image of MLK in the hoodie, and adding all these different brush strokes to give it that feel of motion.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt kind of turned into this social experiment where you look at this image of MLK in the hoodie, and the question is: do you see him as more threatening now?\u201d<\/p>\n

What was the response like to the piece?<\/h3>\n

It was one of my most shared art pieces ever. I was just glad that it really helped be that talking point. It was one of those things where you had to stop and take a second look when you saw it. It helped be that conversation starter about what it means to judge a book by its cover.<\/p>\n

How is creativity a unique tool in creating conversations around change?<\/h3>\n

A thing I love about visual art is that it captivates hearts and minds in one single image. People are scrolling so fast and doing so many things and going 100 miles an hour, but there\u2019s something about a striking image that will get people to stop. People will rally around an image, and, especially during times of protest and unrest, it can be something that people gravitate to. I just love that.<\/p>\n

When we see something that is creatively crafted, especially something that speaks to injustice, it seems like it has even more potency and motivates people to make a change or to right a wrong.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the thing that takes artivism beyond just art for fun and entertainment. I encourage artists out there who have dedicated their lives to figuring out how to visually draw people in, to take the next step and use that ability and combine it with a very important issue or something that needs to be fixed. When you do that, you\u2019ll have the opportunity to really connect with people on a deeper level.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s some things I just can\u2019t put into words. You have to experience them or see them. There\u2019s just something with art that in a split second, it can get you to see an issue and understand why it\u2019s so important, and motivate you to change. All in one second.<\/p>\n

Dive deeper into Artivism with Nikkolas<\/h3>\n

Discover how to bring your creative voice to rise to the forefront of revolutionary conversations on community, society, and justice with Nikkolas\u2019s classes on Skillshare. Join Nikkolas and Skillshare on October 26th at 12:30pm PDT at Adobe MAX to explore the world of Artivism in an eye-opening talk on the transformative power of art and driving change from the digital world to the real world.<\/p>\n

This post was originally published as a part of Skillshare\u2019s Creativity with Purpose Toolkit and has been edited for length and clarity.<\/p>\n

This is a sponsored post for Adobe MAX \u2014 by Skillshare<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Source : Adobe<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photograph of digital artist and activist, Nikkolas Smith. We can all picture Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial \u2014 fervently pointing to crowds of people surrounding the reflecting pool as he shared his ideas, beliefs, and intentions around equality and freedom. This pivotal moment sowed seeds of hope in …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30847,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30844"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30844"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30844\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30848,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30844\/revisions\/30848"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thepicpedia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}