Today we’d like to introduce you to Janae Conscious Citizen.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Janae. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Life has been a constant swirl of chaos for me as far back as I can remember. That is why I create so passionately today. I aim to paint the moods I experience through situations and present a tone of an understanding perspective within the stories in my paintings.
As a kid, I won numerous awards for art and storybook contests within my district. One piece placed in a really nice Chicago bound exhibit. I remember being excited and seeing it! I was always humble and I never took anything too seriously. I saw the competitions as nothing more than doing fun things at school. I am from Indiana, a conservative state that holds family and tradition closely overall. I grew up with young parents and had a very independent upbringing. It taught me to always follow my intuition and do what I felt was best for me. I have always been creative and super observant. I realized how most people grow up in the herd being “sheeple”, agreeing for acceptance, etc., never truly doing what they want and complaining about what they have.
I went to Purdue University for a year or so. Rushed a Sorority. Decided school was for sheeple and doctors. Dropped out, moved to Philadelphia for one year. I have family there, and it was closer to my goal of moving to NYC.
I moved into the worst building at the end of East Flatbush in the only one bedroom I could get approved for at the time. I’d secured an internship at a fashion showroom in Chelsea and got scammed for my deposit on my initial plan to move into a place in Williamsburg. Welcome to the big apple right? haha. I lived in NY for 3.5 years total. I moved out of Flatbush after one summer to West Harlem. I met some really amazing people, partied some amazing parties, and really lived the best life that I could off my cashier’s checks from a burger place, at a food court, in hell’s kitchen.
I had started to experiment with different hair colors and sewing clothes, art, modeling and acting, but I was really struggling to define myself at the time. I’d met a friend from Canada who was a part of a creative young, edgy, nonbinary, Los Angeles based art collective that was growing teams and branching out to different cities. I participated in a group show with them and sold these super emotional prints haha. They were collages from teen vogue magazines and watercolor drawings that looked like little cryptic stories. I had written poems in permanent marker on the backs of some of them. The experience was so cathartic and refreshing! I’d made no more than 15$ but It was then that I remembered to tap into these skills at my true potential.
The city became exhausting. I moved to Miami, where my father lives. I had a condo on north beach and a job in brand consulting. I spent most of my leisure time at the beach and spa and working on enhancing my crafts. Art and fashion. I was growing and being inspired more every day from the colorful vibes of Miami Beach but I knew that LA would be the ultimate goal and path to success that I needed.
I stayed in Colorado with family for a short time. Beautiful Beautiful Amazing Place full of Beauty in the clouds. “Should this be an ad for a travel brochure or nah?” lol.
Los Angeles 🙂 June 2018 **********
I’ll sum this most important part up quickly as I do. I lived with friends and couch surfed for about eight months. I had my first art show in March 2019. Moved to a studio apartment. Since then, I’ve had seven more shows. Five group and two private. I get eviction notices almost every month, and then I sell a painting or a custom denim piece or jacket and figure it out.
Ultimately, I just started my endeavors and I aim to go a lot further into fulfilling my life purpose.
Has it been a smooth road?
The road has balance. I’d be lying if I said every day in my life is a struggle. I have so much gratitude for the experiences I have and people I meet and get to know and love. I remind myself daily that life is a blessing and also it is exactly what you envision it to be. If you want to be happy, smile, laugh, be happy. And when you’re grateful for that happiness the joy multiplies inevitably…
I’ve learned to think more optimistically but also to be more active and aim for what I want in life. Through observing choices of others growing up, I chose to see behavior patterns as a guide of what to do or not do though there has been so much, like countless amounts of trial and error along the way, I continue to strive and grow each year.
The biggest struggles I have faced are oppression and lack of resources.
I come from a single-parent home, with a little brother, and a young mother who had much debt and school loans of her own. I’ve always bought most things for myself and some things for my brother. Since I’ve left home, I’ve worked multiple min wage jobs but I get fired every time tbh. I would call that a struggle in a sense but also a blessing that I don’t have the option really of being min wage. “Shoutout indeed @ all creatives because I’m looking for a curator position” the smooth way lol.
I have always faced oppression and it can be very crippling at times.
I really wish for the world to be compassionate and understanding to all. All women and all oppressed. It is a serious struggle to come back from things like assault and harassment, verbal and physical of any kind. Everyone’s feelings and struggles are valid, and everyone deserves to feel heard and be loved.
Recently, and in the past I’d been sexually assaulted. I am so thankful for my strength to overcome. I feel that I am no longer a victim but a survivor. And it is a part of my life’s purpose to let people know that they need to speak out. If someone hurts you, you have to talk about it and get that pain out of your body so that you can begin to heal. The more you speak the better you will feel and the better chance you will have at surviving and inspiring others. I overheard a woman say the other day that “women are beginning to speak out more about their thoughts and feelings and men are beginning to open up more about their sensitive sides. “Surely, I do believe this and it gives me a lot of hope for universal love and peace for the future in general.
A struggle I’ve faced with branding before had been getting people to understand that sort of a universal concept. Its been popular to wear clothes displaying toxicity and watch violence and sex, but why not whats loving and good for you and nurturing for your spirit? Why not a balance at least you know, like why do people enjoy and glamorize negativity but find conscious level thoughts, somewhat boring?
A consciouscitizen.online the brand and the artist are about being aware and open to your surroundings and embracing your experiences with humility.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the ConsciousCitizen story. Tell us more about the business.
Currently, I am a one-woman startup business. My plan is to generate wealth through Art. Selling to galleries and collectors is a constant goal of mine. I would love to be a museum curator and/ or colorist as well. I am a creative conduit overall. I enjoy many forms of expression sometimes simultaneously. I think that is what separates each thing I complete from another.
The conscious citizen art and exhibitions, portray illusive stories shown through different creative techniques, with little style traits from “the greats” scattered throughout. I like to blend a mixed media variety of paints. Spray paint, acrylic, watercolor, oil is usually the order I choose. Sometimes I’ll do oil and spray first for texture. I enjoy detailed textures and working around them to create a picture into something you didn’t know it would be. The most rewarding part is completing a piece for a good show, like a very well creatively beautiful and evolved show. Those make me super proud and excited to see how far I can reach as I grow into doing more installations etc.
Something that sets me apart from others is my tenacity and desire to create goodness. I am very passionate about things I believe in and having my voice heard on topics I feel are important. I have come a long way so far and have learned to be nice and loving to myself and patient with my progress.
Everything I create is done out of good intention and to create more mindfulness in the world. Once I generate enough profit, I will release more destructed vintage and organic fabric clothing.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
I hope to see much progress in the arts and in the fashion industry. I feel that larger museums and corporations will begin to allocate more funding to art programs in schools and towards creative venues. I would like to see art used as a form of therapy for trauma rather than prescription drugs. I feel the fashion industry will slow a bit eventually. I think the consciousness level of our generation is rising and that it could be quite necessarily crushing for fast fashion businesses. We will soon be forced to live modestly and within our needs in order to create a balance towards how gluttonous consumerism has become. Conscious Citizen Clothing aims to reuse and combine pieces to make different pieces.
Pricing:
- Hot head | gyclee canvas prints | ( 3 available | 250$ each )
- Clean woman | 24 x 36 | 1,455$
- Cctzn denim collision pant | 285$
- Cctzn everywhere tanks | 55$
Contact Info:
- Website: consciouscitizen.online
- Phone: 305-992-5595
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: consciouscitizen.online
- Other: consciouscitizen.online/catalog
Image Credit:
Ronra, Kaitlyn Kimble, Janae Doe
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