A lot of people keep asking, “What is this Inward Arrows thing you are doing?” I keep saying, “Oh, you know, it’s this brand thing I am doing with my art.” And that is as deep as I go into it. However, there is a lot more to the story than “I just felt like starting a clothing brand to get my art out there.” This passage will describe the true ambition and how Inward Arrows came about.
Phase 1: Realizing I can kind of draw
I always doodled on my notebooks and stuff in school, but nobody thought of me as artistic, I didn’t think of myself this way either. In college, I needed to take an elective and I happened to choose design 102. I quickly realized that I spent hours on each design project and completely stopped doing any studying for any other class. In other words, I was hooked.
I took a few more art classes and added it as my minor in college. I then had an excellent professor who told me I was capable of doing it for a living. Hence, this writing.
Phase 2: Indian Spirit
My art, besides a few outliers, is almost entirely western and Native American based. Growing up, my mom would always bring up the “Indian Spirit”. She would say this when we would have a strong connection with nature like if a deer came right up to her, or a moment of athletic determination I would have in sports, or even times like when just as you are thinking about a person, they call you out of the blue. In other words, strange times when there is some kind of spiritual thing happening. She would always mention this because she has a strong connection with this part of her blood, as my grandfather was Chippewa and a member of the White Earth Ojibwe Reservation. Hence, a portfolio of mostly Native American art.
Phase 3: Failure
At some point, I decided I would get my masters in art. I needed the status. I needed to feel legitimate and accredited academically. Nobody would take me serious if I didn’t get my masters in art. This would bring me confidence and satisfaction as an artist.
Update: I was rejected from art school.
It was highly competitive, but for some unexplainable reason, I was 100% confident that I would get in. There are great artists that have gone through programs like this, but in my head, I had already surpassed many of them both technically and conceptually. This makes no sense! How could I have been rejected?
This feeling of disappointment was tough, but it lasted only about 15 minutes.
Phase 4: Realization
Driving down the 110 freeway. Mind is racing. What do I do? …
In a moment of sheer luck, fate, coincidence, or Gods will, I had come to a monumental realization; That I do not belong in the Art World.
This realization only compares to when I was a child and finally connected the dots that the letter W is just Double U. Life changing.
I simply am not an “art person”. I have zero interest in going along with the idea that Jackson Pollock isn’t the shittiest painter of all time. He absolutely is the shittiest painter of all time. I know they try to tell you that “the context and intent adds to his abstract expressionism”. Absurdity. It did not have intention. It was good method of washing money for the buyer, but that is all I will give it credit for.
Anyway, as I realized that Jackson Pollock sucks and I do not belong in the art world, this didn’t mean that I should stop making art. I simply will make my art, and not partake in the art world.
Phase 5: Inward Arrows
Post realization, I had to come up with a viable way to be an artist with out being in the art world. I remembered an idea I had a few years ago to put my art on clothing and maybe some of my friends would wear it. Boom that’s it. I’m not reinventing the wheel, but it is plausible. Although, I can’t just stick a picture of my paintings on a shirt and be proud of that.
I needed to develop a brand with an actual ethos behind it. After about 30 seconds of rapid panic thinking, I remembered that I have a tattoo on my arm of a small Indian with a spear and below him a circle with two arrows facing it. I found this symbol while researching stuff for my paintings and thought it made perfect sense to have as a tattoo. Inward Arrows are a symbol of protection and warding off evil. It only makes sense to permanently put that on your body just in case right?
Perfect.
Now I have the name and message. Inward Arrows, Protecting Body and Spirit. If people are unwilling to permanently tattoo this on their bodies (which also makes sense), perhaps people would get behind wearing it.