Brooklyn, I'm Trying https://www.brooklynimtrying.com an urban lifestyle + travel blog by liz norment. Thu, 03 Sep 2020 18:25:19 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9 https://i0.wp.com/www.brooklynimtrying.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/cropped-bk.jpg?fit=32%2C32&ssl=1 Brooklyn, I'm Trying https://www.brooklynimtrying.com 32 32 109043934 Profile of a Hustler | Claudia Colón-Amil with Bajamar https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-claudia-colon-amil-with-bajamar/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=profile-of-a-hustler-claudia-colon-amil-with-bajamar https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-claudia-colon-amil-with-bajamar/#respond Thu, 03 Sep 2020 17:02:44 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=9239 2020 has thrown a lot at us. And while we’re sitting here wondering just how much more we can take, there are some positives that have come about from so much hardship. We’ve become more active politically. We are way]]>

2020 has thrown a lot at us. And while we’re sitting here wondering just how much more we can take, there are some positives that have come about from so much hardship.

We’ve become more active politically. We are way more aware of germs. We have had the chance to step back and take a closer look at our lives, at our mentality, at what we’ve been taught. We are shopping smarter, and we have realized that often the strongest impression we can make is with the money we spend. 

I think that we’ve become a lot more weary of our conditioned need for instant-gratification and next-day delivery, and that too often the immediacy of purchases leads to a lack of consciousness about what we’re buying, why we’re buying it, and what it actually means for our lives and the world around us.

I want to know that the clothes and products that I’m spending my money on are doing more to help and less to hurt.

It was along this line of thinking that I happened to come across Claudia, the wonderful spirit behind Bajamar jewels. 

Claudia is from Puerto Rico but has made NYC her home for 10 years now. Through a decade-long experience in the fashion industry, she’s been proud to make a career out of helping to source different materials and textiles and truly getting to the core of what our clothing and accessories are made from.

And then the pandemic hit.

Furloughed from her job but also taking time to recognize her own frustration with the corporate world, Claudia began to think of what she would do if she had the time and the ability to start her own company, now that suddenly, she did.

As her heart is never too far from her seaside community in Puerto Rico, she was also devastated to see a country that has been suffering so much recently taking yet another hit financially from the pandemic- and all of this still ahead of hurricane season.

She began to brainstorm a company that would create sustainable jewelry and accessories that could also help to rebuild the ocean environment like those she’d seen destroyed in Puerto Rico. She imagined pieces inspired by the sea, made from materials that were ethically sourced.

And after many long nights of researching and learning, planning and designing, and more than a little hair-pulling, Bajamar was born.

Liz decked out in Bajamar jewels

I first met Claudia at a restaurant in North Greenpoint. Her brightness was a breath of fresh air amid a city hidden behind face masks and now ever-more hesitant interactions, and she was noticeably perfectly accessorized. 

After that initial meeting, I had a chance to sit down with her recently to learn more about how she was able to pivot her lifestyle from a career in fashion product development into an environmentally-conscious entrepreneur, what it has taken for her to build this side-hustle into a burgeoning business, and what she cares about most as the lead designer. 

Dive into the interview below.

Flawless stacking via @bajamarstudio/

Brooklyn, I’m Trying: When did you move to New York and what brought you to the city?

Bajamar: I moved here from Puerto Rico right after High School, which was almost 10 years ago. I moved here to go to college and went to FIT to study Fashion Merchandising, with a minor in Apparel Product Development. From there I was able to work for a huge manufacturer out of Asia, helping source materials for licensed goods for Victoria Secret, Reebok, Adidas, lots of large companies… until I was placed on furlough in March.

BIT: That probably wasn’t part of the plan, just like all of us.

BM: Yeah this whole year has been a surprise.

BIT: When you first moved here, what did you think you’d find here, and what did you actually find?

A collection inspired by the sea. Photo from @bajamarstudio

BM: That’s a funny question. I’ve always wanted to move to the city. When I was a model when I was 12 and when my Mom brought me here with my agent for the first time, I was blown away by it. It was my first time being in a big metropolitan city. I told my mom, “I’m going to go to college here,” and a few years later, I applied, got into FIT, came here to live and within about 2 hours I realized that I’m not a city girl at all. It was so loud, so dirty, and I missed the kindness and warmth I felt from people in Puerto Rico.

BIT: Do you still feel that way?

BM: I’ve kind of adapted. Now I’m used to it, even though it’s been a switch in the way I wanted to live. It was a whole new world for me. Even now 10 years later, I wouldn’t want to live here forever, but it’s a great place to grow up and get those amazing life experiences that you can’t have anywhere else.

BIT: How has where you live affected that?

BM: Brooklyn is a different story. People greet each other here. The only reason we had an interaction is because you spoke to me and we made a connection. That only happens in a small neighborhood like Greenpoint.

BIT: How do you define “hustle” throughout your career, and into this new venture?

A day in the life of a maker via @bajamarstudio

BM: (laughing) I would say my entire career has been a hustle. I’m sure you can relate, having a background in fashion. I mean, the internship experience was insane, I came from a small university so it’s very competitive to get a job.

Now with Bajamar, every day is a hustle to the point that, to me, it’s exciting and also surprises me every time when I see the outcome. I go in every day with a mindset and with a goal, and sometimes it does happen but unfolds in ways that I didn’t expect it to happen. Things align in ways you never plan to, at the end of the road, you get to the same place but with a different path. It’s exciting, yet frustrating at times creating your own business. It’s a leap of faith and you have to give it your best shot every day.

BIT: Tell me about Bajamar. What is the inspiration behind it?

The birth of an idea and brand via @bajamarstudio

BM: Bajamar came to be after I was furloughed during the pandemic and I found myself sitting on my couch with a feeling of abandonment after putting so many years into the corporate hustle. I realized then that I can put all of that dedication and passion into something of my own making. I asked my boyfriend (quick update from BIT: now fiancee) of all the things I need to improve, what is one quality I should focus on during this time?

His response was one word, “initiative”, but that was all I needed to hear. The next day I started brainstorming like crazy and by the end of the day, I committed to creating a sustainable brand that gives back, by making handcrafted jewelry with hopes of adding clothing products later on – a dream I have always kept on the back burner but was finally resolved to action. In my industry, most brands are not known for being eco-friendly or having those industry standards. And that’s important to me.

BIT: And then Bajamar was born.

The collection via @bajamarstudio

BM: (laughing) yes, something like that.

BIT: Did you have a moment where you realized, “Holy shit, this is actually happening?”

BM: Yes, that point hit me sometime in May. I had worked day and night for a month, which was sometime in April. I had brainstormed the brand, started ordering materials to work on prototypes. I spent 2 months really digging into and studying heavily, really working on how to create a business. By May I was ready to go, I put up the website, and by May 17th I just launched. I started doing sneak peeks on Instagram and sent out prototypes and the feedback was crazy. That same day I was asked about how to order, where can I buy, what are the prices, things like that. And now everything has happened and I have a business- now it’s end of July… somehow everything has happened in just 3 months.

BIT: That must feel amazing.

Necklaces stacked via @bajamarstudio

BM: It’s overwhelming for sure. There is always lot of things to do. I’m a perfectionist so I always think I could have done things a little bit different… but honestly now, I wouldn’t change a thing. It feels great to do build something of your own and to make a product that people can feel good about wearing. 

BIT: Sounds like you went about it the right way.

BM: In my corporate job, my specialty was textile and material innovation. I saw everything in the testing stage. I would find a new fabric, like a plant-based polyester or bamboo that also wicks, is antimicrobial, etc. I used that for my materials but also for my packaging- I wanted to make sure everything was reusable and sustainable. So my professional background really helped me but I still had to do a lot of studying and learning during the first month or so. 

Details to dye for 😉 via @bajamarstudio

BIT: What is one reality about starting your own business that you were surprised to learn?

BM: (laughing) Oh my god, there are so many! That’s a really hard question. I guess just the amount of work and the amount of detail that it takes to start your own business by yourself. In my corporate job, my responsibility was only for the product development process. When managing your own business, it’s everything. Finances, accounting, sourcing materials, meetings, deadlines, the website, photo shoots… it’s everything. I don’t think anybody realizes how much work you have to put into it especially if it’s just yourself. It’s a lot of hard work, a lot of long hours. I’ve learned so much about the business side now that I’m the one handling it. I don’t have an accounting department… So it’s like a huge wave of paperwork and things that you have to know, all with deadlines. It was kind of a big slap in the face to have so many insane responsibilities. It’s a lot of hard work you have to do yourself because nobody else is gonna do it.

BIT: Right, so you can’t cut corners at all.

A Bajamar Pop-Up in the Hamptons, via @bajamarstudio

BM: There is so much to learn. And also, you have to be ready to put in money if you want to do things right… which was a little overwhelming for me. I was thinking, oh my gosh, am I doing this right, should I be investing money in a company so new? You definitely have to do things premeditated and also take educated, measurable risks. You have to decide when to start, how to do it, and then you have to do all of it. Once you dive in, you can’t take your foot out. 

BIT: How do you balance trying to do the whole branding thing? Define Bajamar as a brand.

BM: Bajamar is all about creating pieces that are not just handcrafted and sustainable, but my aim is that when people where them, that they can express that they are a vehicle of change and ecological awareness. We need to be aware of our environment. Everything that I make is sustainable and ethically sourced. Our silk cuffs are fair-trade or recycled. I’ve also been using things that are often thrown in the sea and putting them to good use and making them beautiful to let people know that hey, we have too much waste in our oceans. We have to be conscious of the extraction of pearls and mindful of the affect that has on the environment.

Bajamar starts with beautiful, sustainable materials. Photo borrowed from @bajamarstudio

Now, as far styling and all of that, I try to make it as fashionable as I can. Bajamar pieces are beautiful but also casual and modern. You can wear them to work but also to a bar or out at night. The style should go seamless with your lifestyle, but also express that you are a vehicle for change everywhere you go.

BIT: I know part of the inspiration for your focus on sustainability comes from your Dad. Can you tell me about that?

BM: A percentage of all sales are donated to ocean-dedicated charities. The reason why, and also part of what birthed what Bajamar is today, was seeing my father clean our hometown beach in Puerto Rico, which had become neglected and covered in waste. He cleaned it weekly, all on his own and in his spare time outside of work and now the beach is completely revitalized. Others are able to come enjoy it because of his efforts. Inspired by this, I wanted to do something that covers Bajamar’s footprint and more. Each month we select a new charity in honor of people like my father who are working to save our oceans. 

Claudia’s Dad, Ramon, has been a huge inspiration for building a brand that gives back to the environment.

BIT: How do you maintain energy in your craft and push through periods of frustration? 

BM: Hmmmm… ah that’s a tough one. Well, I guess I always put in a little bit of fun (laughing). I love to laugh but believe it or not, I’m very devoted to my work especially when I’m doing it for me. I do get frustrated, but I tell myself to keep trying, keep trying, until I realize I just need to laugh at myself and just chill a little bit. Relax. Start brand new tomorrow. I tell myself, ‘you’re going down this path and you’re so blessed;  life is not so tough.’ If I need to, I just have a glass of wine and relax.

BIT: Tell us what you are working on now and about your vision for the future.

BM: My vision for the future I would say is to keep growing, but to keep creating a community more than having retailers and stores putting in orders. My goal isn’t just to make Bajamar a hip brand with fashion bloggers, hopefully that will come in time, but for now, Bajamar is really not about making profits but about making a community that will be aware of what you’re buying, where it came from and where it’s going. If I can create a community where our mission is connected to our surroundings and our behavior, then that’s really the main goal I have for the next year. The rest I feel will come with time, but creating a conscious community is really what I’m going for. 

Bajamar jewels on the sunny shores of Virginia Beach

Follow @bajamarstudio to learn more about the brand’s story and see the full collection at bajamar-studio.myshopify.com/

]]> https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-claudia-colon-amil-with-bajamar/feed/ 0 9239 Profile of a Hustler | Aaron McLellan of North End Bag Co. https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-aaron-mclellan-of-north-end-bag-co/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=profile-of-a-hustler-aaron-mclellan-of-north-end-bag-co https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-aaron-mclellan-of-north-end-bag-co/#respond Mon, 12 Nov 2018 19:31:50 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=6180 Starting your own business takes way more than curating an attractive Instagram gallery. It takes being honest with yourself about your skillset. It takes recognizing and answering a calling that likely was beckoning way before you heard it. It takes]]>
Starting your own business takes way more than curating an attractive Instagram gallery. It takes being honest with yourself about your skillset. It takes recognizing and answering a calling that likely was beckoning way before you heard it. It takes practicing your craft so long your fingers bleed or your mind aches or you’re just about ready to pull all of your hair out. It takes failure, rejection, frustration, impenetrable determination, and then every so often, those moments of pure elation.

 

Aaron McLellan of North End Bags has been on a nearly lifelong journey during which he has been met with each one of those things. Born into a family of fighters and craftsman, he has pushed through setbacks and unlikely circumstances that somehow established his and his wife’s brand in Virginia Beach and forged an impact on the community that goes way beyond canvas and leather.

Photo by @hannahelizarmstrong

 

In this iteration of my Profile of a Hustler series, I unpack the riveting tale of the brand, the bags, the movement, and the ViBe happening in Virginia Beach, one that for the most part started with a set of hands, a needle, and a vision.

 

This interview was conducted in their space in the alleyway behind Three Ships Coffee in a mixed-used shop and factory where 6 hands and 4 paws spend their days hammering, sewing, cutting, clutching, and scratching around; their pup Otis (@bag.dog) is an important part of the shop. Please continue reading this piece while imagining the tinking of hammers upon rivets, the intermittent orchestra of sewing machines starting and stopping, the heavy smell of leather, the sighs of machines and workers, the ringing of the dangling bell at the door and greeting of customers and the coo’s at Otis as anyone and everyone entered.

The very picturesque @bag.dog captured by @hannahelizarmstrong

Brooklyn I’m Trying: Let’s start from the beginning of this husband-and-wife operation. How and when did Sarah come into the picture?

 

Aaron McLellan: I was roommates with her little brother in Virginia Beach. He was going to college down here at Virginia Wesleyan, and I had just moved down here from Newport News after graduating from Christopher Newport. I was looking for a roommate and I had a friend tell me, “Hey, my friend, he wants to live at the beach too,” so it just worked out. And then… well then I met his sister.”

 

BiT: Why did you guys decide to start your business here? Was there any discussion to go anywhere else?

 

AM: Actually there was. At the time Sarah was living in Brooklyn and I was doing an internship at a place called Knickerbocker, a brand that makes clothing, a lot of menswear. I was kind of at a point where I had already started doing this, making bags, but it was kind of small. I was making them out of a garage and no one really knew about me at all and at that point I was like, “I think I’m going to move to New York because I want to live in the same place as this girl.” Over time and between visits here and up there, we decided that we were going to get married. So we were trying to plan all of that and still figure out where to live together. I had just started getting involved and selling some bags at the farmers market here, and then somebody had offered for us to put a shop over at this industrial park, then a friend offered us a house to live in and so things just all started to fall into place here instead.

 

BiT: The community kind of accepted you guys before you accepted it.

 

AM: Yeah exactly, I mean I was about to move to Brooklyn and try. I was either going to work at Knickerbocker or I was going to try to do my own thing up there eventually but there were so many questions up in the air, like how am I going to afford to live there and keep up the business, how am I going to find a place to sell my bags, how will I find space to make them, all of that; and everything just seemed to fall into place here within a really short amount of time. So she moved down here and then just one thing led to another.

 

BiT: As they often do.

 

AM: Right. I basically started making a couple bags and selling them at the farmers’ market and I was posting them on Instagram. I started getting a little recognition in the community and it just kept building. It was really crazy. We never took out a loan, and everything we did was just like, ‘Okay, I got $200 for a few sales, I’m going to get this material,’ and then I was able to make $400 with the bags I made out of that. And it just kept growing and growing until we had enough cash flow to buy in bulk. And that’s kind of how it happened.

 

Photo by @hannahelizarmstrong

 

BiT: Do you think that you would have had the success you’ve had at this point if you had started the company in Brooklyn, or is it something in particular about the lifestyle and community here in Virginia Beach?

 

AM: Yeah, I definitely think about that kind of thing. I feel like we do a great thing and I’m really proud of it, but I also think that I kind of fell into this. I’m not some kind of great entrepreneur who was thinking, ‘Oh I’m gonna do this in Virginia Beach because they’re ripe for the pickin,’ but I do think that this place is kind of ripe for the pickin’ for what I wanted to do.

 

BiT: Whereas in New York, the market is already kind of saturated.

 

AM: Yeah, I think that first of all the market up there is a factor, there’s a lot of competition. There’s no one doing this here which is to my benefit. But there’s also something about the community that we have here. Virginia Beach is a big city, but living on the oceanfront, there is a specific community of people who all have this love for the ocean and love for the outdoors. I feel like everyone builds their life around this similar love, and it builds community for some reason. You see the same people walking on the beach every morning. We’ve been surfing a lot the past few days with the hurricane coming, and everyone’s walking by like, did you surf this morning? Did you surf last night? There’s this community which I think is really important and that keeps us all connected. There’s also something about our location, behind Three Ships and Igor (of Igor’s Signs and Stripes) and Pat who does Benevolent Design, we’re all in it together. Some others too like Stock Pot and Commune, we all are fighting for each other instead of against. When one is successful, it just makes us all more successful. If I’m in Coastal Living magazine, it’s great for Igor, because I’m getting more notoriety. And the same with all these guys. We can all stand alone and hold our own at this point, but we are all in it together.

Outside of Igor’s Signs and Stripes with the North End’s 76 St Tote. Photo by @hannahelizarmstrong

BiT: Yeah, here there’s this atmosphere of creative energy instead of it being too competitive the way that it would be in New York, where often people don’t really want to see someone else’s success because that means that their going to be a little bit lower, instead everyone is kind of growing and strengthening together.

 

AM: Exactly.

 

BiT: That’s really awesome. When and how did the ViBe district become what it is now, as this creative, colorful art district?

 

AM: I still think it’s still in its infancy, but I’ve been a part of it for 4ish years, and every year there’s a little more going on. We’re coming up on 3 years in this location, and before that we were just in the farmers market on Saturdays.

 

BiT: It seems like things have moved pretty fast. Was there ever a moment when you were like, “Holy shit, this is actually happening?”

 

AM: [Laughing] Yeah, I remember for a while I was not taking a paycheck so I was painting houses on the side or doing handyman work, anything I could find to get through. To keep going, I would always tell myself, “This is going to be a good ride.” I had this feeling that whether or not it ever takes off, I’m going to put everything I have into it because this will be so much fun. I’d rather go for this unknown than just sit back and be a construction worker, just scraping a living. I felt like, you know what, I may never make money but it’s a living worth scraping for; it’s so worth it just to do this. There was a point, pretty much when we moved into this building, that we realized it was actually happening. Now we’re going onto 3 years of feeling like this is actually working, this is happening. So yeah. It’s been really cool.

Sarah captured adding leather straps to a new line of bags. Photo by @hannahelizarmstrong

 

BiT: I think you’re right about that. If you try and then fail on something that you’re really excited and passionate about, then at least you were able to work in that craft for a little bit and feel it. And if you don’t ever try, where is that excitement? What fun is that?

 

AM: That’s exactly how it felt.

 

BiT: What’s been a really memorable moment or something very touching for you in this process?

 

AM: This isn’t something specific, but I’ve seen our bags in airports. We’ll be like in California and see one of our bags and to me, that’s just unreal.

 

BiT: Wow yeah, it’s like, “My hands have touched that!”

 

AM: Yeah, yeah exactly. It’s so cool. That, and another thing that’s memorable is something someone told me the other day and I thought it was ridiculous. They said, “You know, you have a cult following around here.” Virginia Beach is so passionate and supportive of us. And not just this company, but some of the other companies feed off our energy. They’re like, ‘those people love what they’re doing and are putting their life into it and I’m going to support it.’ We have people that will just send me an email and they’ll start off, “I’ve been using this bag…” Which usually when an email starts out like that you’re thinking, oh crap, what’s wrong with it. But the email will be like, “I’ve been using this bag for 3 years and everything with it is perfect, it’s my favorite bag. Everything is great with it and nothing has ripped or come undone.” They’re so proud of it because it’s their hometown. This came from here, it was made here, where they live. And it makes me so proud of it because I’m like, “Hey I made that! And it really does work well!”

 

BiT: How often are people so excited about a product that they’re moved to actually write an email to the designer and say, “Hey thank you so much! I really like it!” No one ever does that. But it seems this community knows that they’re feedback is going to help give you the confidence to move forward. Everyone can imagine that there are tons of difficulties when you’re starting something like this, especially if you’re a craftsman and not a business owner; you somehow you have to become all of those things. So I’m sure just that little bit of outreach makes a big difference to you.

 

AM: It definitely does.

A bag made for and in the city of Virginia Beach. Photo by @hannahelizarmstrong

 

BiT: What has been the hardest part or the most difficult thing you’ve had to learn over the past few years?
AM: There are a lot of difficult things. I would say that I’m definitely not, was not a business man. I have always been very unorganized, and so just learning how to be honest about that and navigate around it has been hard. But I’ve also learned my strengths I guess, I know what I’m good at now. I know I’m good at running the shop and being production manager and making sure we have all the products we need, designing the products, figuring out who our audience is and who’s going to buy what we make and marketing all of that; those are my strengths. I figured out that finances aren’t my strong point, so very early I hired an accountant.

 

BiT: There are a lot of hats that you have to wear but it’s helpful if there are some that you can say, you know what, it’s just not my thing, I need someone else to do that.

 

AM: Yeah and if you have an expert doing it, it just makes what you’re doing so much better.

 

BiT: Can you walk us through a typical day for you? Are there certain things that you put in place in order to make sure things run smoothly and you’re constantly inspired?

 

AM: Well a typical day in the summertime, the waves are kind of flat around here but these storms start happening in August so we’ll all gather on the beach. If you look at my text threads, they’re out of control when there’s waves. That’s definitely a huge joy and something I love to do in my life, so I make it important and make time for it. Like this morning I got up at first light, went surfing with some buddies, then got here at 8am. We had to do some hurricane prep so we filled up 75 bags with sand and then at the end of the day today we’re probably going to just line them up. It kind of floods in here just with a heavy rain, and it might come all the way up so we need to be prepared. But normally, I’m always in here, I’m still on a machine a lot of the time, but it’s becoming more a regular thing where I just have too many small things that I need to do. There are tons of materials that we need to always make sure we have enough of, so ordering takes a lot of time. And we’re making more products per week and every month and selling more and trying to keep everything in the inventory up and so there’s that. We’re constantly working on photography for Instagram and keeping our content on the website updated. We’re also always trying to refine the process a little bit, so we’ll maybe have a little bit in the budget to buy a new piece of equipment that might mke our life a little easier.  When we first started, we were handcutting everything, every bit of leather. Now we have this big, heavy, 25-ton press, it’s around the corner over there, and we have dyes and so you lay the leather out on the table of the machine and you put the dyes down there like cookie cutters and they just stamp the letter out …

 

BiT: Oh my god, I bet the first time you did that you were like, whoaaaa…

 

AM: [laughing] Yeah, it saves us days.

 

BiT: And a lot of hand strength too. Cutting leather is no joke.

Canvas, leather, patterns and rivets, captured by @hannahelizarmstrong

 

AM: Oh yeah for sure. You know, so that’s pretty much a weekly part of our lives is dedicated to figuring out what can we fix and what can we make run smoother. I talked to a guy Monday who is out in Washington and is a really experienced bag maker, so I’m probably going to go out there and see their process and learn some of the things they do. And that’s the thing- we’re always trying to get better at what we’re doing. When I first starting to do this, I would sew sew sew all day long, then I’d get home and I’d do computer work, whatever I needed to do; I need to tweak this on the website, I need to respond to this email or send these three emails, and there was just a point a year and a half ago where I was like, at 5pm I’m going to head home and not do computer work so I could clear my head. Becoming more organized has become super important. And I’m worth so much more the next day if my mind isn’t fatigued.

 

BiT: I think that’s really important too. Just because you have a process that has kind of been working doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t try something different, just twist it around a little just to see if it works. It can save you a ton of mental energy just by making changes with your schedule.

 

AM: Yeah, for sure.

 

BiT: How is it working with your wife?

 

AM: It’s good. It can be a little challenging because I’m very intense at work and I feel the pressure and the weight of it constantly, always feeling like come on, we gotta get this done right now. I think there’s a personality that you see at home and one at work, and I constantly need to check myself and remind myself, it’s ok, just calm down.

 

BiT: So it seems there’s a balance there, because if she wasn’t here and you didn’t work together, there would be a lot more stress on the table. You have an intensity in the workplace that she kind of counteracts.

 

AM: Exactly. And we also love working together. We just love spending a lot of time with one another so it works great for us. Our dog comes to work with us too which is great.

 

north end bags va beach
Aaron, his wife Sarah, and their first employee and longtime friend Taylor.

 

BiT: I would imagine that regardless, you guys can surf together the next morning and that kind of washes away a lot of the stresses. That’s a bond and connection that helps to keep you focused.

 

AM: Yeah exactly. We live just on 66th Street, so we go to the beach every day pretty much. We get up in the morning, get coffee, and just walk to the beach; it’s really nice.

 

BiT: Where do you see the business in 5 years?

 

AM: That’s a good question because honestly… I’m content. I have a million ideas, but a lot of them have to do with who I don’t want to be as a business. We want to keep selling direct-to-customer. We have a couple of wholesale accounts but they’re very small; it’s more for the partnering of a couple of small businesses helping each other out. These partnerships aren’t like oh I want to move this product and make all this money, it’s like no, we love who these people are and we want to be a part of them. I don’t want to be in department stores. I think overall we’re going to be selling a ton more on our website. I obviously hope to be here still in 5 years, I just don’t want to get too big I feel like it could become too stressful and disconnected.

 

BiT: And maybe take you away from the actual craft.

 

AM: Yeah. We do hope to grow some more and have some more employees. I think we could have something sustainable and successful where people are paid well, people are happy, people want to stay here. Right now there’s only 4 of us, and I could see us being 6 or 8 people and with that we could have a really good product line and we could make a lot of different things. I don’t really want to get any bigger than that.

Aaron’s jovial spirit and meaningful tattoo captured here by @hannahelizarmstrong

 

BiT: What does this tattoo mean?
AM: It says “Pugni Italiani, Oltre Oceano” which means “Fighting Italian, Over The Ocean”. It was the headline of a newspaper article about my great grandpa. He was a professional boxer, and he came over from Italy in 1929 with the Olympic team to do an exhibition-type fight in Boston and he met my great grandmother and ended up staying and marrying her. He was the New England Welter White Champion, and he was the champion of Italy when I was a little kid. We have a lot of family pride for him. I have tons of stuff of his all over the place which I’m still gathering. I have a pair of his leather boxing gloves, and there’s a picture of him up there in that little shelf.
This is him, Werther Arcelli. I kind of joke about it but I think my sisters are like this too- we’re small, he was like 145 pounds, but we’re very feisty; we’re a family of fighters. I take that with me into my business- every day we’re ready to fight, every day is another day to keep going. My grandfather on my dad’s side was a WWII hero and he flew in like 17 missions, and when he got back from the war he went back to school and became a craftsman. He was an awesome woodworker and metalworker too. He made that lamp over there.

Photo by @hannahelizarmstrong

 

BiT: So there’s a lot of family history in the craft.

 

AM: Yeah a lot of my dad’s side of the family were craftsmen. They built houses, they worked with their hands. So even now I have a lot of family support. They’re all wildly excited about this.  And knowing all of this history builds the idea of where I come. It’s never hard to come to work; I always want to, but it’s even easier and I get more excited with this following of family and friends who are like, just keep going.

Photo by @hannahelizarmstrong

Check out the stunning, handcrafted bags that they’ve been making on the North End of Virginia Beach and how the company has evolved over the past 3  years her- North End Bag Co. And pay them (and Otis!) a visit next time you’re in the area. 607 19th St. Unit B, just behind Three Ships Coffee.
]]> https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-aaron-mclellan-of-north-end-bag-co/feed/ 0 6180 Profile of a Hustler | Nackie Karcher of The Karcher Salon https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-nackie-karcher-of-the-karcher-salon/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=profile-of-a-hustler-nackie-karcher-of-the-karcher-salon https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-nackie-karcher-of-the-karcher-salon/#respond Thu, 20 Sep 2018 19:21:28 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=5921 I am not one of those every-six-weeks salon girls. I haven’t curled or straightened my hair in years, and my beauty routine is really not a routine at all- wash every 5-7 days, pump with dry shampoo, brush before bed]]>
I am not one of those every-six-weeks salon girls. I haven’t curled or straightened my hair in years, and my beauty routine is really not a routine at all- wash every 5-7 days, pump with dry shampoo, brush before bed and when I wake up, and mask damage with a few pumps of Oi oil to make it look like I (hair)care. And haircuts? I usually wait for a sign. That sign hit me by my hands and brush hitting the walls of my tiny Brooklyn bathroom as I tried to blow dry it the past few weeks. I realized that my long hair had outgrown my living arrangements. It was time to take action.

 

I contacted Nackie Karcher, the brains, namesake, and creative force behind The Karcher in Greenpoint, for input.

 

I was led to her because Nackie and her salon had become an institution in the neighborhood. The devout testimonials I’d heard over the years made me curious, and her approach to hair and style seemed to match my lifestyle flawlessly. Growing up both in St. Petersburg and Key West Florida, Nackie’s attitude towards hair is reminiscent of her coastal roots; natural and no-fuss, concentrating on styles that balance facial structure and hair type instead of chasing a look that will take hours to tame and tons of products to maintain.

 

When I contacted her, she agreed to meet but made a request. “Trust me to do whatever I want,” she said. “I’m always looking for a muse.”

 

My immediate reaction was obviously, hell no. I’ve always felt that my hair was a signature part of my look. I’d worn it long and wild ever since the one bob I had at the age of 5 when I was mistaken for a boy at Disney World. After that, I instated the hairstyle that would definitively define me for the next 25 years. “Long layers, only cut off enough to make it look healthy,” I’d said to so many stylists in so many hydraulic chairs.

 

When I had time to think it over, I felt the frustration that happens when anyone doesn’t trust an artist enough to do their craft. When someone “edits” a piece that I’ve written so much that all that exists anymore is red rewrites and punctuation, or when a guest extensively looks over the cocktail menu and asks me in detail about the concentration of our herbal infusions and where we source our ice before finally saying, “You know what? I’ll have a vodka soda.”

 

Nothing is more frustrating than feeling deliberately untrusted to execute the craft that you have so passionately devoted yourself to.

 

“I love this idea,” I told her. “Let’s do it.”

 

And then I found myself half-holding on to my tangibly-long brown hair as I biked to The Karcher this past Sunday. I walked up the stairs hesitantly into what I feared could be the end of me, hair-wise, and towards what I hoped would be the best haircut of my life.

 

When I sat down in the non-hydraulic, vintage leather chair in front of Nackie, everything felt different. For one, I wasn’t staring back at my head unnaturally sticking out from a creepy vinyl cape; I was wearing a colorful kimono-esque robe. “You aren’t a mannequin,” she told me. “I need to see your body too when I’m imagining a style for you, not just a floating head.”

 

She began a series of movements, twisting and squeezing and observing the way my hair naturally lays. “I want to totally shag it out,” she said. And the 1970s vibe of the space and her overall demeanor gave me the confidence that this was a good idea. “I won’t cut anything shorter than your cheekbones here, but it will create a shape that has tons of volume and depth,” she told me. I looked in the mirror and at myself and my 20” of dead, heavy hair. It was apparent that I needed a good shag.

 

Then she got to work, washing my hair with Hair Story’s New Wash, a cleansing cream that yields conditioner useless. It’s a detergent-free product that nourishes as it cleans instead of stripping your hair of its natural oils, a no-suds approach to cleansing that replenishes a lifetime’s worth of shampoo damage that you didn’t know you had. It felt like a full hair baptism that I decided relinquished me of most of my other sins as well.

 

When I sat down with her in the chair, she began razoring through my hair in a rather haphazard yet calculated manner, twisting and turning and pulling the hair to see how it would react. I saw her creating a loose frame for my face as she began to paint a picture of her life in the neighborhood I’d now accepted as my home. “I met my husband when we were both living in a converted loft space on Greene Street,” she told me. “We started dating and moved in together. Then we got a dog, then we had to kids, and we still live there now, on the same block.”

 

I let this sink in as she fussed over my hair, this perfect little Greenpoint love story. I realized that this is why we are drawn to Brooklyn; we are pulled here by energy and curiosity but kept here by the feeling of community, of real human connectivity, of creating some sort of sanctuary on a little block in Greenpoint from which so much of our lives will transpire, eventually maybe into new lives.

 

She started to blow dry my hair, using only her fingers to define my natural, yet oft-hidden, waves. She squeezed and twisted and every so often and started to form this perfect 70s-esque shag style that fit right in with the funky interior of the salon – palm tree murals, statement lighting, gold accents and a revived-disco era feel that made me feel cooler just by being there. And now I also looked cooler.

 

She worked more as a sculptor forming clay instead of a stylist taming hair, creating a sustainable look that wasn’t going to disappear once I left the black armchair. She added a bit of Hairstory spray powder to boost my layers and gave my hair a healthy bit of definition that I couldn’t stop playing with. I left realizing how much I had been holding myself and my style back for years with the phrase, “Long layers, only cut off enough to make it look healthy,” instead by changing it to, “I trust you. Do whatever you want.” And also, looking exactly like Stana Katic in For Lovers Only, just two weeks before I leave for Paris.

 

Merci, Nackie!

 

Visit The Karcher for a salon experience that will help you reimagine your “signature look” and develop a style that is definitively yours. No harsh chemicals, no high-tech tools, no feeling that you’ll never recreate that fresh-from-the-salon look; just your hair, looking a hell of a lot better than it ever has before.

 

The Karcher is located at 760 Manhattan Ave. Visit their website here and follow them on Instagram for daily style inspiration and honest hair advice.
Nackie karcher
]]> https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-nackie-karcher-of-the-karcher-salon/feed/ 0 5921 Profile of a Hustler | Leslie Quenneville with Paul Paige https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-leslie-quenneville-with-paul-paige/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=profile-of-a-hustler-leslie-quenneville-with-paul-paige https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-leslie-quenneville-with-paul-paige/#respond Fri, 03 Aug 2018 15:50:44 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=5701 We live in an age of limitless creative freedom. Build your own brand, share your ideas, sell your products, start a movement. Yet how is it that this freedom can also be so profoundly debilitating?  Those first steps to chasing]]>
We live in an age of limitless creative freedom. Build your own brand, share your ideas, sell your products, start a movement. Yet how is it that this freedom can also be so profoundly debilitating? 
Those first steps to chasing your dream are impossible to navigate. The “just do it!” mentality does not translate likes into dollar signs. How do we go about finding our passion and believing in them so steadfastly that we’re willing to spend hours of our own free time on a side hustle”? And then what benchmarks do we meet in order to turn that side hustle into our main hustle; to quit our full-time jobs to chase after this intangible future even without the means to do so? 
To me, the best place to start is to surround yourself with those people who you know are chasing after their passion; those people who have found it or been called by it and have listened and have been pushing through boundaries and often dragged along the bumpy road that becomes living a deliberate life of creativity. Listen to them. Learn from them. Bathe yourself in their energy, and keep them as a guiding light even if you’re on your own creative path. 
I bring you the voices, the energy, and the life behind the brands with my Profile of a Hustler series. This week we talk to Leslie Quenneville, the light and life behind Paul Paige.
Leslie has always been one to light up a room. Her infectious spirit seems to never dim. She’s a relentlessly creative soul with an empathetic heart and unapologetically friendly disposition. She’s one of those people who you are inherently drawn to because she is so definitively herself. 
So when I saw that she had started a lighting company, somehow I wasn’t surprised. 
If you’re finding yourself in a creative or otherwise rut, read on and be inspired by Leslie’s creative journey and the day-to-day grind that brings a very real perspective to the glamour of creation. 
Brooklyn, I’m Trying: When did you first realize you had a thing for lighting? 
Leslie Quenneville: It was after college. I was working as an art director at Royall & Company, now EAB in Richmond, Virginia. They used to throw huge holiday parties and they always asked the art directors to come up with a holiday decoration for each building. My last 2 years we designed installations that both involved light. That probably turned me on to my passion for 3-Dimensional art instead of just print/web design. The last year in particular we not only utilized lighting but also used all recycled materials. We collected over 1300 glass bottles from our fellow employees and built a 13-foot tree. Each bottle was cleaned, de-labeled and hung around a fabricated metal cone. [laughs] Honestly I can’t believe they let me do that!
BiT: What about your professional and creative background led you here?
LQ: I have a creative brain and I’ve always known that. I went to school for graphic design and communication. I do consciously remember choosing Graphic Design because I knew being an “artist” meant struggle and not making money, and Graphic Designers were needed in all realms of corporate and freelance, so it just made more sense. However as an art director at a corporation, I realized that I liked the work but I hated sitting at my desk for 8 hours a day and feeling like I can’t get up and just walk around for 20 minutes every few hours. I work better when I work for a few hours at a time, and I didn’t have that freedom. 
BiT: I’m sure having that freedom fosters more creativity.
LQ: Yes! That’s when I started to realize maybe I am more of an artist than a designer, because instead of just digital work, I like working with my hands. I always felt like artists were way out there and much more creative than myself. I’m definitely motivated by creating things, but also by earning money from them. I knew I wanted to find a way to do what I’m good at but also make a living. 
BiT: How would you describe your work ethic? 
LQ: Put in the work, but get it done with 100% quality and efficiency. 
BiT: Walk us through a day creating for Paul Paige.
LQ: Every day is different. I try and get up around 7 and have my coffee. [laughing] I tend to make a lot of to-do lists because I’ve realized I can’t remember anything now that I wear 7 hats. 
BiT: [laughing] I’m the same way. It definitely helps give my day a little bit of structure and definitely helps me feel more accomplished. 
LQ: Exactly. Then I get my computer work out of the way first; I respond to emails, send emails and spend some time working on the website, then I get to work out in the carport.
BiT: In the carport? 
LQ: Yep that’s my studio. Fortunately in Los Gatos it’s usually not that humid, but it’s toasty; 95 sometimes. I’m still working outside everyday so trust me, I be sweatin’. 
BiT: That definitely creates an added challenge.
LQ: Yeah, I just have to work through it. So let’s say I have a wholesale order for 10 fixtures. I prefer to work in an assembly line because I’ve learned that it’s easier and faster to do the same movement. You’re almost using muscle memory which not only makes the product better, to follow the steps for each one in the same order, but it also alleviates stress for me knowing I’ve done every piece correctly. 
BiT: I’m sure that brings some structure to the craft.
LQ: It helps. I need to and want to have more time to design new things, but for me, again, my daily motivation is I need to be doing things that are actually making me money. Designing is wonderful but for now I have to stick with what I’ve introduced to the public first, and perfect more things for the business like providing great customer service, figuring out how to ship and who to ship with, and how to package stuff and all that jazz. It’s all a reflection of the brand which is a reflection of me. So it’s a lot to manage.
BiT: Right, because owning a business is about so much more than just doing your craft.
LQ: Exactly. I’m working 7 different positions on a daily basis.
BiT: There’s a lot that goes into turning your passion into your profession. How do you define “hustle” and how did you take the leap from making it a side project to your full-time gig?
LQ: I remember selling my very first light that I had purchased and recreated. It was originally an 1800s Turkish brazier that I bought from Class & Trash in Richmond, which is still one of my favorite places. I showed it to a woman who I knew was renovating her house, and she was like, ‘I love that!’ and bought it. And so she was kind of my first professional job. Then I sold a few more lights and I remember using that money to take a trip to the Northwest and I thought, sweet I’m going to get paid for this, this is awesome. Once that happened I started focusing more on it as a side hustle and doing it more often. Another women I know, her boyfriend at the time, was a potter and he was having a show and asked if I wanted to display some of my lights. I said sure, and I went and set up a little section.
That day stuck with me, seeing my own creations. Once I hit my limit sitting at a desk, I went to work for a custom menswear brand that was moving their headquarters from New York to Richmond and needed a creative manager. I was only there for 3 months when one day my friend contacted me and said, “are you still trying to do lighting?” I told him I was, and he said, “I’m doing a website for this salon owner from New York who’s opening a salon in Richmond and he asked me if I  knew any local lighting designers.” I met him that day, talked about what he wanted and shared some ideas that I had, and he said “Yeah, let’s do it.” I went back and quit my job.
BiT: That’s amazing. You just realized that you were being called to do something completely different.
LQ: Trust me I was still nervous. I called my mom before I did it. And I was dating Matt, my now fiance, at this point and I knew how much he thought of my lighting and that what I did was really awesome. There was just a lot of support towards what I was doing as a side hustle, and I thought fuck it, I need to make a move.
BiT: Sometimes those signs are impossible to ignore. How do you maintain energy in your craft and push through periods of frustration between projects? 
LQ: I am bad at reminding myself what I have accomplished, but I have been trying to do that more. I have accomplished a lot. My business has constantly been growing, but the actual activity of what I do, it varies. Normally I take a break because continuing to work through less active periods just aids my frustration. And when it comes to people I struggle, I work alone, I am here at my house all by myself all the time and there are very few people in my life who know and even understand what I’m doing.
BiT: I definitely understand that. Working from home is bittersweet.
LQ: Yeah. Before we moved I started to have monthly meetings with Jason, who used to own a lighting business and is now the production manager at Shades of Light, Doug the welder I was using and Grace who also works for Shades of Light. They could relate to questions and issues I had and were interested in the same topics to talk about. It was a very nice outlet. It’s more difficult now being across the country. 
BiT: Finding ways to surround yourself with the right people makes a huge difference.
LQ: Definitely. I’ve met a lot of people who I’ve found are very similar to me, and I appreciate and respect them a lot. I met one guy at the first Renegade I’d ever done, this guy named Max. He has a passion for light and lighting design and I was so inspired by him. Meanwhile, he’s telling me the same thing which felt great! I never really thought I was a true artist. It took a while to convince myself of that, whereas he’s definitely an artist. Everything he has created are projects for himself. He’s never sold anything and in a way, I admire that. I’m trying to design more mainstream products to put into market but definitely want to keep doing one-of-a-kind installations. Max and I have met a couple times and talked about doing an installation at Burning Man, which would be super awesome. Things to him seem tangible, they don’t seem impossible. To find someone else who shares the same passion as you is not only inspirational and motivating, it makes your ideas feel achievable. 
BiT: From what do you gain inspiration? Any artists or brands in particular? What about makers? 
LQ: I really look at design as a whole. I pay attention to whether or not there are trends amongst many platforms and stores so I know what people are designing and what people are actually buying. I wouldn’t say there’s one particular artist or designer that I really follow closely but I’ve always loved everything vintage. Big Daddy Antiques is a shop in San Francisco and in LA. They source from around the world and have mostly large furniture and lighting that’s very rustic and industrial. I want people to realize it’s better to reuse, repurpose, recycle and fix things that already exist. It doesn’t mean they’re not good quality just because they’re used. There’s so much value and nostalgia in old things.
BiT: Which speaks a lot to your childhood.
LQ: Right. I’m thankful for that.
BiT: I’m sure. Tell us more about the house you grew up in and your parents influence on Paul Paige. 
LQ: My parents bought 6 acres with a “shack” that was literally overgrown with poison ivy and all kinds of crap. It was built in 1796 so it’s really freaking old and crooked; I had to shim up my dresser in my bedroom because things would roll off of it. My parents added on to the original two over two colonial and have continued to make changes and remodel room by room my entire life. There’s definitely a mix of primitive and modern design with it’s vaulted ceilings and bay windows in the bathroom. My dad built a wooden spiral staircase which was always my favorite. Everything was customized but still holds its historic and rustic appeal. Obviously both of my parents are creatives; my mom owned a fabric store for 38 years and is now working with a woman to start a clothing line, Charlottesville Dress Company; my dad has always been good at building things and worked in construction but also has a very detailed brain, so he l likes tedious jobs. He’s the one who taught me how to wire lighting. Growing up in a very non-cookie cutter home led me to look at things very differently and it taught me that anything is possible and things aren’t always as they seem.
BiT: Has there been a moment where you thought, holy shit this is happening? 
LQ: I have that occasionally, normally very short moments, because then I’m like ‘stop you need to stay focused.’ But if and when I ever sell several lights at one time, I get really excited. When I was still living in Richmond, I was introduced to builder Josh Romano; he owns Cobblestone Development. They had a pilot on HGTV called Richmond Rehabbers which didn’t get picked up but he was the first big purchaser. I sold 5 lights to him and once I got back in my car I screamed! I thought, this is great, I’ve made a connection with this guy who is not only buying and flipping houses but he’s doing it a lot! That thought is what gets me extremely giddy. 
BiT: Where do you see Paul Paige in 5 years?
LQ: I see a studio space, not a carport. I do see some employees. And that could be just building a relationship and a community of people who are all working together. I love what I’m doing but I’ve realized quickly that it’s so hard to handle it all on your own. 

Paul Paige

Keep following Leslie’s journey on Instagram and bring her light into your own space on paulpaige.co. 
]]> https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-leslie-quenneville-with-paul-paige/feed/ 0 5701 Profile of a Hustler | Annabelle Lyttle https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-annabelle-lyttle/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=profile-of-a-hustler-annabelle-lyttle https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-annabelle-lyttle/#respond Wed, 25 Apr 2018 17:00:19 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=5165 Let’s face it. We live in a society that is defined by labels, titles, hashtags; things that we can all agree upon and understand. Because if not, how will anything ever start #trending ? And when someone breaks that mold]]>
Let’s face it. We live in a society that is defined by labels, titles, hashtags; things that we can all agree upon and understand. Because if not, how will anything ever start #trending ? And when someone breaks that mold or undermines the decided upon stereotype, it makes us uncomfortable.
If you’re a beautiful woman, you’re a bitch. Why? Because that’s what we’ve decided and it’s simply our deep-rooted, subconscious reaction to beauty so we can better deal with our own insecurities.

 

But that isn’t Annabelle. She shatters any stereotype the moment she speaks to you. Her kindness is almost as overwhelming as her beauty. She’s a fresh face with a warm heart. She might have legs for miles but her heart seems to stretch further. And this stereotype somehow seems to be the easiest one for her to overcome.

 

Trying to fit into that mold of the model/actress, Annabelle works in an industry where stereotypes are seemingly celebrated, where “models” and “influencers” are now expected to be the same thing, when on- or off-camera you are still supposed to represent your brand. How do you break through the stereotypes and outshine the shadows being cast in order to truly be seen?  This societal need for labels, for titles, for definitions we can all agree upon and understand makes it more difficult for those who don’t.

 

A kind, intelligent model.
A gritty, determined actress.
An optimistic, spirited New Yorker.

 

No thanks, can’t you just keep being the pretty girl?

 

Annabelle Lyttle won’t.

 

We sat down with Annabelle while she exposed the grit and grind of this seemingly glamorous industry. We take a look inside the hustle, from castings and auditions to rejections and victories, from disparaging looks and the promising chances from those who choose to see her as more than just a pretty face. In the latest from our Profile of a Hustler series, find out how she is continuing to push through stereotypes, and the frightening way she plans to kickstart her acting career

…………..
BiT: When did you move to New York and what brought you to the city?

 

AL: I moved to NYC in June of 2011. I moved to the city after signing with my very first modeling agency, although I didn’t start modeling right away. I picked up restaurant jobs to help make ends meet. Actually, the very first restaurant I ever worked at in NYC was the Oak Room at the Plaza hotel, right before the restaurant shut down.

 

 

BiT: What did you think you’d find here, and what did you actually find?

 

AL: Everyone has an image of New York in their heads from movies and tv shows, and when I first got here, I was living the life I’d seen in a way. I’d get invited out to huge parties and swanky clubs at night, rub elbows with the occasional celebrity. But the stars faded for me when I realized how difficult it was to make real relationships here. It was very superficial.

 

 

BiT: How do you define “hustle”?

 

AL: My definition of “Hustle” is continuing to pursue your craft no matter how many times you are rejected. I’m in the business of rejection as a model, and I’m starting to segue into the acting world now which is rife with rejection as well, so it’s something that comes with the territory. But I keep trying and I keep showing up because it’s something that I really want to do.”

 

 

BiT: What is one reality about both modeling and acting that people would be surprised to know?

 

AL: One misconception is that models are just there to look pretty. In order to stand out, you have to have a personality and be eloquent and professional, and now there’s so much more of an expectation to be a brand ambassador in addition to a model. Your instagram following is almost more important than experience.

 

 

BiT: How do you balance trying to do the whole branding thing?

 

AL: That’s definitely a sore spot for me. My entire journey getting to New York and to the place where I am right now was from years of doing little things on the side that I thought would elevate me to get to where the people are now that are only quote “models” because of their social media following. It’s very frustrating for those of us who have literally pounded the pavement for years to then get looked over because someone has 20k Instagam followers

 

BiT: Because they know how to play the game, that’s what they concentrate on instead of actually doing the work.

 

AL: Exactly. I’d rather spend more time being a model who shows up on time, is professional on set, takes direction, and gives them what they’re looking for than someone who’s constantly glued to my phone posting the next thing on my Instagram story. I go to castings and before they even ask for your comp card they ask what’s your Instagram handle is, and I already know that I’m not eligible for this because I have barely 2k followers.

 

BiT: That’s so frustrating.

 

AL: I mean, not to discredit it, a lot of good has come from social media. Our definition of beauty has broadened exponentially, and I think it’s amazing because it is a gateway to see different body types, different sizes, different races. I’m totally on board with inviting and being open to many things. Now there’s so much more acceptance of trans culture and there’s a suport system in it and it’s wonderful. That’s what I love about social media. But when it comes to almost being a necessity to brand yourself, I struggle with that. I’m a person, not a brand.

 

Maybe I’m just reminiscent of the past, but the supermodels of the 80s and 90s were huge, and it was a part of their allure that they were mysterious. You didn’t know where they were having dinner or what they were doing all hours of the day. That’s what put them on another level. Now you can pull your phone out of your pocket and see what Bella Hadid is having for breakfast or where she’s traveling, which is cool to think, oh hey, she’s just like us! That’s great, but at the same time, I’m a private person. So the fact that this is a part of the business, I struggle with that. I feel like I could still be just as good as they can without any of that stuff, but for that to be a requirement now, it really sucks.

 

BiT: I completely agree. How do you maintain energy in your craft and push through periods of frustration between projects?

 

AL: For modeling, it helps that it pays the bills. But also I really enjoy it. Most of the jobs that I’m doing at this point in my career is behind-the-scenes stuff, so I’ll do fit modeling or showrooom modeling, but when I do book the rare editorial, I really love it. You’re working with all of these people who have a vision and I’m basically the canvas for all of them. It’s fascinating for them to have it all come to life on my face or with my body movements. That’s why I appreciate it. Modeling is an art, and I respect it in that sense. I think I hold it in a different standard than a lot of models do. Not to undermine anybody else, but that’s how I view it. Rather than the fact that it could be perceived fancy or glamorous, at the end of the day, it is artwork and that’s what keeps me going.

 

 

BiT: What about living in this city in particular helps energize you and keep you going?

 

AL: I used to have moments where I’d take a taxi home after a night out in the city and I’d go over the Williamsburg Bridge, and I know this sounds so cliche but it’s so amazing to look at the skyline and be like, Wow, I’m still here. I’m in this city. I’ve been here for almost 7 years and it hasn’t kicked my ass yet, and that’s energizing I think; to be like, all right, I may not be where I want to be yet, but I’m still here. And I’m still pushing. And knowing what could be… I think that keeps me going.

 

BiT: I think it’s kind of remarkable that we live in a city that simple day to day survival is like, I’m really proud of this!

 

AL: [Laughing] Yeah, I think that’s where the bar is right now. I’m surviving. But I’m surviving in New York City.

 

BiT: …and that’s pretty damn impressive.

 

BiT: Was there a moment in modeling and acting where you thought, hey, this is really happening!

 

AL: Yes. Modeling, I was lucky enough to travel to 2 different international markets, and for me that was like, oh my god, I’m one of those models who’s going somewhere else! It felt very validating to me. It just seemed like, ok I’m doing well in New York, I don’t have to go anywhere else, and at that point in time I had done very little international traveling, so it was so exciting to be in another country and experience a totally different culture and meet new people from other places.

 

BiT: I would imagine there are few benchmarks at that level in a way in New York so that’s definitely a big stride.

 

AL: Exactly, it was a really big deal. And it worked out really well for me. I came back with a brand new portfolio, I signed with an agency down there but I actually had a spread in Glamour Mexico, which, I mean I would never book Glamour in New York. In New York it’s so saturated, and most magazines are given to celebrity models instead of people like me. The fact that I did Glamour there was huge.

 

AL: In terms of acting, I’m still waiting for that moment to happen. I did have an audition with a casting director and he was so impressed with my performance that he took the time to call my agent and say, “Annabelle has got something. She’s way more than just a model. You need to be sending her out and developing her for acting.” And then I actually took a meeting with him to pick his brain a little bit and he told me, “I’ve made that phone call maybe 3 times in my entire career and one of those times was for you. Stick with it, keep doing it, you have it.” For me that was like, ah thank you! Thank you so much.

 

BiT: In some ways that can be better than getting a role.

 

AL: Exactly, I didn’t even get the job but he was compelled to say, she needs to know that she’s good. That was really nice. But yeah I’m just now getting back to acting so I’m still taking it as it comes and celebrating small victories.

 

 

BiT: Tell us what are you working on now.

 

AL: I was just cast in an indie horror film called Reap. It’s kind of like Saw meets the 7th Seal. Which actually I haven’t even seen the 7th Seal [laughing]. Frankly, I can’t even watch scary movies which is why it’s so ironic that I’m about to be acting in one, but yeah it should be a really cool project with really cool people and it will be my first lead role in any film project I’ve worked on. I got really lucky with this because when I initially submitted myself, I submitted to just like a small day-player, not even a supporting role; she had one scene, maybe 3 lines. I submitted myself for that, and the director called and said, “Hey, I loved your look, I watched your reel on your profile page, let me know if you’d like to read for a bigger part.” I was thinking, of course, I’d love to read for a bigger part! I was just thankful for the opportunity to even audition for him. So he had me read for the lead role. I did a self-tape first at home then the auditions, and he told me I was cast as the lead role. I’m super excited.

 

 

BiT: What is the scope of the filming from here?

 

AL: At this point we’re still trying to get our budget together and plan everything out. I think they are going to be shooting 2-3 weekend shoots. We’re having a really good cinematographer come in, a special effects makeup artists come, just a really really great team and good actors!

 

 

BiT: What are you most excited about in terms of seeing the finished product?

 

AL: I guess just seeing myself performing again, because it’s been so long since I’ve done anything professionally other than modeling. I don’t know, it’s just so… I just feel so proud of myself. I have been struggling with my agent on finding roles that are a good fit, so I’ve just been doing it on my own, sending myself out, so I’m really proud of myself… the fact is that I not only got the audition but I got the lead role in this part, it’s just all very exciting for me. So to see the finished product and to say, ok, despite what you may think, I did this.

 

BiT: I imagine to see everyone’s genius come together will be invigorating.
AL: Yeah, exactly.

 

 

BiT: What are the next steps to make it come together?

 

AL: So for funding, we have a Kickstarter. Our deadline ends on May 2nd. We have a $6k budget and it’s exciting for me because it is an opportunity for a lot of people to come together to support independent artists who have a goal and a dream and want to put together their vision and make a really cool movie. I think it’s a really great start for me personally because I’m non-union and independent, and some really big name actors started out doing completely independent films, horror films specifically. So I’m hoping it all comes together.

 

BiT: It’s not often for people to have the chance to hear your story and to then understand what it takes to get there. Kickstarter is a way to monetize what you believe in and support independent artists.

 

AL: And I’m so thankful for all of the support I’ve been given throughout my journey in NYC and my career. That’s definitely helped maintain my hustle, having other people believe in me. If anyone can donate to our Kickstarter, it will be much appreciated!”
…………..

 

Donate to Reap here, and see Annabelle kicking ass in a few months.

 

Keep hustling, Brooklyn. It’s why you’re here.
]]> https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-annabelle-lyttle/feed/ 0 5165 Profile of a Hustler | Alex Stickels https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-hustler-alex-stickels/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=profile-hustler-alex-stickels https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-hustler-alex-stickels/#respond Thu, 22 Feb 2018 17:24:30 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=4833 alex stickels i need the pressureI met Alex Stickels at a shitty nightclub underneath some overdone hotel near Union Square. I was new to the city and was out to find everything the city had to offer me, to suck the life out of whatever]]> alex stickels i need the pressure
I met Alex Stickels at a shitty nightclub underneath some overdone hotel near Union Square. I was new to the city and was out to find everything the city had to offer me, to suck the life out of whatever was available on a Thursday night, to be deliberately unconcerned about my preset alarm clock, and namely, to leave my Tinder date, who I could tell almost immediately was a bad idea. I was introduced to Alex, a friend of said date, and I was drawn to his energy immediately. We both exchanged a look that said, “Nice to meet you. Now let’s get the fuck out of here.” The night devolved into one of those reckless New York adventures that you see as a montage in so many films, running around like kids in a playground of concrete and skyscrapers, singing Jay-Z karaoke at a dingy bar in the Lower East Side, defacing some seasonal sidewalk debris, and playing charades across the subway platform sometime around 5am, to which the last gesture was simply a wave, delivered and received. “See you sometime, I guess.” He was on tour and leaving the city the next day. I got on the train back to Brooklyn thinking, “What the fuck was that?”

 

Seven years later I find myself sitting with him at a bar near the Bedford stop in Williamsburg. Over oysters and some overly fancy cocktails, we discussed his latest project and the amazing journey that’s brought him here, to Brooklyn. His work as a professional drummer has taken him all over the world, and his solo performance skills have evolved quite a bit from that karaoke bar in the LES. He’s just released the first single off his solo album, aptly named I Need The Pressure, and that same energy that initially connected us is palpable through every song, every note, and across the table as I began our interview. Alex is one of the most driven, talented, and incredibly energetic souls that I’ve ever known. Tune into his energy and appreciate his hustle below, then get on his wavelength through I Need The Pressure available on Spotify. Now hear, here. Turn it up loud, and keep reading below.

 

Brooklyn, I’m Trying: Why do you think you’ve always been drawn to playing the drums?

 

Alex Stickels: As a kid who grew up in Rochester, New York, where you’re snowed in 9 months out of the year, you have to find a way to entertain yourself, you have to find a way to not go stir crazy. Mine became playing drums. My mom wouldn’t let me have gaming systems growing up…

 

BiT: Mine either! And look how well we turned.

 

AS: Haha yeah, they knew what they were doing, apparently! I was always finding constructive things to do with my time. I displayed at an early age an interest in drumming and my dad, who grew up loving drumming but never got to do it because of his parents decided to buy me a set. So I’m this 8-year-old kid, snowed in and trying to find ways to be productive, and playing music was the greatest creative escape. You can just lose yourself for hours in that thing, and you can invite friends over to lose themselves with you. it’s this wonderful experience where you’re exploring and creating at the same time you’re honing a skill. You could see all sorts of things and you could go places that didn’t exist in real life and you could bend reality to be what you wanted it to be versus what it was, which was sitting in a bedroom snowed in in a town where nothing happens. And I’ve always been drawn to that, and the more that I was drawn to it, the more other people were drawn to it and came into it with me, and it’s just positive reinforcement. I wanted to do that thing that we all connect to!

 

BiT: So you’ve been playing professionally for nearly 8 years now. In your career so far, was there ever a moment where you said, “Holy shit, I’m actually doing this; I’ve made it,” so to speak?

 

AS: I think it’s really important to recognize those moments, however fleeting they are. I’m in no way satisfied by what I’ve accomplished but you have to somehow appreciate the moment and also try and keep this perspective and excitement, of holy shit, and never be jaded or think that this lifestyle is normal. So yeah, there have been moments… Recycled Percussion played the Latin Grammys.

 

BiT: Damn.

 

AS: Yeah, we played with Carlos Vives and Marc Anthony. They were doing a duet together, so it was us, and this 18-piece latin band with like 4 percussionists, and horn players, and then a whole dance troop with 12-13 dancers, onstage at the MGM arena in Vegas. So it’s 18,000 people, and it’s an awards show and it’s being streamed live on Univision to 9 million people, or however many who are watching. The entire thing started behind this LED screen that lifts up. So you’re standing behind the LED screen, you can’t see anything, but you know the moment’s coming. Then they’re coming from the commercial break, someone is counting down, and you hear them saying 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and then whoever introduces us, and you hear the introduction and then the LED screen starts coming up and you start playing music. To have a screen come up and to have 18,000 people watching you is unreal. You’re just in the moment, you’re overplaying everything and your body is outputting so much energy because it’s so extreme.

 

BiT: Because it’s taking in so much energy too!

 

AS: Yeah it’s incredible. It’s such an addiction.

 

BiT: So in between these insane moments performing, there’s a lot of work. Tell me a little more about your creative process, and how you work through creative ruts.

 

AS: I think that the greatest and coolest thing that I don’t get to talk about a lot is that my dad is a puzzle writer. So I grew up watching my Dad sit at this desk for hours a day, coming up with critical thinking puzzles and ways to stump people and he would totally create mindbending things and spatial-visual things where you have to solve the puzzle, and perspective is not what you think it is. He would come up with puzzles, and at the same time I’m getting into music and drums and being creative, I’m watching him and I’m not even thinking of it as a process, that’s just what he did. Without me knowing, he had publishers and agents and contracts and he was constantly under deadlines. He was like, we can put the football game on but we gotta put it on mute because I gotta write these puzzles. I didn’t even think about it as a process as a kid until I started writing my own songs and I realized I was doing the same thing. I would just be silent at a desk for hours and work it out. and sometimes working it out is staring at a wall for an hour and banging your head against that wall, and sometimes it’s leaving and going for a walk. I love my neighborhood in LA, which is basically in Studio City, which I guess for the purpose of this interview doesn’t really mean anything…

 

BiT: …and for Brooklyn, I’m Trying readers we don’t care about LA. Hahaha.

 

AS: Yeah, yeah. But it’s great to just walk through a neighborhood that you don’t know and just let things come to you. Whatever you’ve been spending the morning working on something or actively trying to break through a wall… sometimes 85-year-old men have it figured out. Just go for an afternoon walk after lunch, you don’t even have to be actively thinking about what you’re working on or what you need to do, just that half hour or hour walk around the block has been the best thing so many times.

 

BiT: Yeah absolutely, sometimes just that movement is incredibly helpful. If you can recognize what isn’t working, just getting up and walking around, or moving even from this seat to that one can help your brain change directions and help all these ideas that you haven’t been perceiving rush in.

 

AS: Exactly. I also have all my legos from a kid. Being the son of a puzzle creator, I still have the board and I bring it out and just start building. That type of mindless creation is helpful. I’m still putting things together and connecting dots, which is great for creativity. Putting your concentration on something else that’s not getting on Facebook or Instagram and getting other ideas in your head.

 

BiT: Agreed. Because that’s inevitably taking your thoughts away.

 

AS: Exactly. so it’s finding those things and what works for you as a person. I just happen to be a lego kid.

 

BiT: Nothing wrong with that.

 

BiT: So after spending so much time playing in bands and performing on stage, how did you gain the confidence to create something on your own?

 

AS: I started this whole thing almost 2 years ago now. I had been collecting ideas for my entire life in the form of these short compositions and little lyric ideas, thinking one day I’ll get in a band and I’ll be able to contribute these ideas to the band, and somebody more talented than me and more skilled with me will know what to do with these raw ideas. And at a certain point I thought, this is fucking stupid, I haven’t found the band, and the more auditions I go on drumming for other people, the more I’m realizing that the thing I want to create or be creative with just doesn’t exist.

 

It’s not like there’s a band out there doing what I want to do and I feel like I’ve missed my shot, I just keep thinking, well this isn’t here. I was on tour at the time on cruise ships. We had the greatest gig in the world; we’d be on a cruise for weeks at a time and we would play one show a week. so for the other 6.5 days, we’re in Alaska andI’mm going hiking and playing with bears and running around and that allowed for a lot of freedom and creative space to fail, and so I started going through all these ideas I’d been collecting. In the beginning, it was a game. Take an idea you’ve had, maybe it was a simple five-second idea, or a ten-second idea, and call that an A section. If that’s the A section, you have to come up with a B section. And after that idea, if you still think it’s shit, put it in a folder labeled “things I don’t like” or “things I hate” You don’t get to delete anything.

 

BiT: So the thought is allowing an idea to at least progress before you give up on it.

 

AS: Yes, exactly. You can’t give up on it immediately. And then, if you do like the idea and there’s potential there, continue fleshing it out. Two years late, I’m not done fleshing out those initial ideas I’ve been collecting all my life. Say you had 150 ideas. You hated, I don’t know, 100 of them. So there’s 50 left. Out of those, you’re ok with 30 of them. Then there’s the 20 you think are great, or have the potential to be great if you work on them hard enough. I’ve released 3 of those 20. So now there are 17 more from the initial stack, 17 more that I’m bursting at the seams to do things with. And then in the meantime of two years, I’ve also written new shit and had new things added to the pile of things that I haven’t even had the time to get to in the first place. And so the game is ongoing.

 

BiT: Tell us a bit more about the sound you’re creating on this album.

 

AS: Sure, obviously I grew up playing drums so I’m a drummer first, but I’m coming from a very rock-band background; I’ve always played in rock bands with real instruments where everything comes from actually playing the notes. Playing drums you have to physically make contact in order for a note to happen, whereas with EDM or synthesizers, you hit one button and 50 sounds happen. So everything I’m making is very rock-alternative based. I’ve been exploring different sounds and colors with keyboards and synthesizers, but it’s all rock.

 

BiT: I understand you recorded it in Brooklyn. Any reason in particular? (This is your chance to talk about how Brooklyn is a Mecca for creatives and their prowesses)

 

AS: Haha, this is probably the most important question of the interview, right?

 

BiT: Yeah, I mean no leading question or anything here, just tell us honestly what you think.

 

AS: Growing up I always wanted to live in New York, and there was a very real moment in my life where I had to decide between New York and LA, and ultimately LA won out. Still, I have always seen New York, as has the rest of the world, as an entirely creative place, and Brooklyn leading the trend on that. I recorded the first batch of songs in LA and thought, ok you’ve done that, you’ve had that feeling, you need to go somewhere else and see what that brings out of you. And Brooklyn was the logical next step, having always wanted to live here and been drawn to it. I happen to have a buddy I went to school who works in the music industry, and I just happened to reach out to him and say, Hey, I’m coming to New York and I want to record an album, where should I do it? Turns out he has his own studio, which was a crazy coincidence; I just thought he was working as an engineer. So he said, yeah let’s just do the thing together. The studio is in the Hassidic part of Brooklyn, so it was incredible to walk around and see so many different cultures and types of people. You don’t think you’re in America, and that in itself gets you thinking about so many things on your way to the studio so you get there charged creatively and your brain’s working. I know it was just important to come to this sort of place where I have the friends and you know the community supports artists and supports the creative movement and is there for you in that sort of way.

 

BiT: What are you most excited about from this upcoming project?

 

AS: The amount of possibilities and the range that exists within longevity. When i was 22 and trying to put it all together, I constantly felt like, oh my god, if it doesn’t come together tomorrow, it’s never going to happen.

 

BiT: How old are you now?

 

AS: I’m 28, 29 in May. May 10th. Taurus… but now, you start to appreciate just how long life is, and the amount of things you can do with that time. So many people get locked into 25, staring at the rest of their lives. it was really important to me to realize that just because it hasn’t happened to me yet or I’m not where I want to be yet in no way means that I’ve missed it. I don’t have to be Bruno Mars, So many people are aiming for that, and if you’re trying to be that big, it’s such a game that is out of your control. But if you just put your head down and are genuine about what you’re creating, there are so many middle-ground things that you can end up doing that is a life and is a career and is a way to provide all the things you want to do. There is a way to create the things you want to create and still make a life for yourself.

 

BiT: What has been the most rewarding part of this whole process?

 

AS: Honestly, it’s been amazing that as I keep doing this in life, I keep finding people who support me and believe in me. I met you, and here you’re doing your own thing, you’re trying to make your own thing work, and so am I. And to be part of a community where not only can I come to a place and and say, hey I’m making a record, but I get to connect with people who have been so willing to help. I have people in that way continually saying, I believe in you and you’re doing the right thing, and whatever I can offer you, whether that’s a bed or an interview or just a hug to tell you to keep going, that’s amazing. That’s the whole point of doing what we do and constantly outputting energy into the world, hoping that anybody responds to it and that it moves someone.

 

BiT: Often the best way to do anything is to do it in support of someone else.

 

AS: Yeah exactly. We exist right now in a place that people want to come to. They want to come to Brooklyn, they want to base themselves here or know people who are based here and be part of that energy and that spirit. We are constantly looking for the wavelength that best supports us, and Brooklyn is certainly a place where people have always come to do that. And so to meet you and to be here, on that wavelength is awesome.
……

 

Keep following Alex’s journey here and get on his wavelength with I Need The Pressure available now on Spotify.

Photo by Ryan Vezina @thoughtsdeveloped

]]> https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-hustler-alex-stickels/feed/ 0 4833 Profile of a Hustler | Vicken Donikian of Good Fishing https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/vicken-donikian-of-good-fishing/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=vicken-donikian-of-good-fishing https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/vicken-donikian-of-good-fishing/#respond Fri, 01 Sep 2017 17:20:57 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=3802 Vicken Donikian is someone who was born a hustler. In the 10 years that I’ve known him, I’ve seen him dedicate himself wholly and completely to amazing endeavors with a creative ferocity that you can’t help but get caught in]]>
Vicken Donikian is someone who was born a hustler. In the 10 years that I’ve known him, I’ve seen him dedicate himself wholly and completely to amazing endeavors with a creative ferocity that you can’t help but get caught in his wake. Rather than casting his net wide, he dives deep and intentionally into projects; from years working with the Hill-side and Hickoree’s in Brooklyn to Towns & Cities, a hip-hop language learning app he created, launched, and co-writing and producing all the music for with colleague and friend Peter Muller, to stepping into his home and seeing his own larger-than-life paintings. He’s an artist and a creator who seems to never wait for permission to embrace new endeavors. He arrived in Brooklyn with this spirit and embraced it wholly during the 5 years that he lived here. I hadn’t seen Vicken since Barcelona, where we studied abroad together in 2008, and then I found myself one Sunday sitting two barstools down from him at El Born in Greenpoint. As it turned out, we’d been neighbors for two years and then there we were, sitting and sipping sangria together again, this time stateside. It was one of those weird moments of Brooklyn magic that bring people together despite its size and relative unlikeliness. It’s led us from Las Ramblas to Manhattan Avenue and finally to a bicoastal phone call where I would be introducing Good Fishing, Vicken and his best friend co-collaborator Samuel Bostick’s clothing brand.
After talking to him for over an hour, I found myself heedlessly lost in the tides of understanding what it means to start a new business, in the beauty of becoming completely and wholly enveloped in your passion project, and in trying to navigate the nuances of west coast slang (even with context clues I wasn’t hip enough to tell if ‘crackin’ was a good thing…) but despite my confusion, I gleaned the invaluable lesson from Vicken’s experience that when approaching something you don’t know, it’s best to start with what you do. With a 5 year background in merchandising and small business management at Hickoree’s in Brooklyn, Vicken has been able to plan, launch, and drive Good Fishing from ideation to creation. Despite its relatively new presence on the web, he and Sam understand what it takes to maintain and grow the brand for the past 5 years, starting with a steadfast knowledge of what they like out of clothing; it should be straightforward, simple, stylish; pieces that are useful and live longer than a season. Attractively simple is one of the brand slogans, and calls to mind the modern, unpretentious man. He’s the one you lock eyes with on the L train midday on a Wednesday because he’s beyond the 9 to 5. He’s the guy ordering another whiskey while on what you would imagine is either a business call or his mother on the other end of the line without batting an eye. He’s wearing contrasting solid colors and bold socks in such an aggressively casual way that you wonder why no one has ever done it like that before. He’s available yet unattainable but that doesn’t prevent you from getting willfully lost in a lustful daydream for the rest of your commute. Attractively simple; subtlety and tastefully dressed; unassuming yet deceptively seductive; and, perhaps, wearing Good Fishing.
Dive in below to my interview with Vicken Donikian of Good Fishing. Get inspired by this former Brooklynite’s vision of the hustle and trust me when I say there will be a little something waiting at the other end of your line. (ok, so it’s an exclusive promo code, just for you. but don’t just scroll, read.)
 vicken donikian of good fishing
Brooklyn, I’m Trying When was good fishing established?
Vicken Donikian We officially launched online at the end of June, but the concept for brand started 5 years ago in 2012. Sam and I started planning it and talking about ideas for products and projects. We picked the brand name in 2012 slowly working towards what it’s become today.

 

BiT What is the story behind its inception?
VD The brand name is a reference to the mentality and approach to fishing. You set up and cast a line, and see what you get. We also like to use the word “fishing” metaphorically; a concept that could apply to various situations in life. That opens up opportunities for each person to also make their own meaning out of it.
 
BiT Describe the brand.
VD The brand itself has a simple but fun character to it along with a youthful energy. The clothing is simple and wearable, not flashy but is meant to be worn and used and enjoyed. Inspiration for our products comes from things me and same like to wear or use. We try not to take it too seriously and to keep fun references or images in our work.

 

BiT What’s in your current collection?
VD Currently we make tshirts, soccer jerseys, caps, tote bags, small accessories, toys, art work, and collectibles. This is the first collection but we have planned to introduce one or two new categories of products every two months until we can build up to a full line of clothing. We’ve structured the brand with a collection of basics called Good Fishing Standards that are generally mainstays for the brand that we’ll make year round. On top of that standard collection, we will release themed capsule collections based on specific concept we come up with at the time which will be limited production.

 

BiT Tell me a little about this first capsule collection you have launched, Marquette Records.
VD The first capsule collection we’ve done is a tribute to this obscure funk soul record label that existed in bay area lat 1960s. We stumbled across the label while i was flipping through an old magazine and saw an ad for the label. the logo popped out at me and I began to research everything I could about it. We found out that they released a few singles and then we’re not sure what happened after that. We tried to imagine what a modern merchandise collection would look like for Marquette. We made mugs, pens, stickers, hats, tshirts, and have one of their old records for sale on the site we found at a record store. We made our first capsule for our company a humble tribute to an old company from the bay area.

 

BiT How did your experience in Brooklyn help you with this new venture?
VD I worked at Hickoree’s and The Hill-Side for 5 years, that’s really where I picked up all of my knowledge in terms of operations that we are doing with Good Fishing. I was working and maintaining the shop and packaging orders, and from there went on to managing and buying for the store and I was on that retail side for three years. At that point I transitioned more into the wholesale side of the business, showing The Hill-Side to buyers from other stores, maintaining accounts, establishing new accounts, going trade shows, working on marketing efforts, creating lookbooks and social media content and everything involved in that too. The Hill-Side being a small company helped me gain experience in all areas of the business, which has helped a lot in thinking about how to set up Good Fishing. That’s not meant to say that we know everything because we definitely don’t, but we’re grateful to be able to reference and lean on past experiences and relationships as we set up our own business.

 

BiT What challenges have you faced along the way with launching Good Fishing?
VD It’s so new that everything is one big challenge, from balancing how to set everything up financially and figuring out how to run the company with what we really want to make for the brand. For now, we concentrated on presenting as broad of a collection as we can while planning for future products.

 

BiT Was there ever a moment when you were like, holy shit this is happening?
VD Launching our online store was a big step. While we’ve been doing events and talking about the brand over the past few months and years, having the online shop is something that you can show people what it is that we’re making and they can look at it and keep up with the brand as we continue to build it up. 

 

BiT How are you getting the word out about Good Fishing? Where are you casting your proverbial line?
VD Because we’re not planning to have a store, we’re focusing on getting the word out through pop-up events. Since our website launched, we’ve done a handful of events: a booth at the 4th of July festival in Atwater, CA; a booth at Haus Party in Oakland, CA – which is a super fun monthly party run by some friends of ours; and a couple of our own Lemonade Sundays events. Lemonade Sundays is basically our “grown-up” version of a childhood summer lemonade stand, where we have free lemonade for everybody, specialty cocktails and exclusive products for sale, and an overall awesome party vibe with loud tunes and Unstoppable Positivity.
(Wish you could get in on lemonade sundays? Have a little taste here, with Sam and Vicken’s dope lemonade sundays playlist.)

 

BiT Collaboration is obviously a huge focus for Good Fishing since the brand is the brainchild of both you and Sam. How would you describe each of your strengths in creating the brand and running the business?
VD Collectively, our biggest strength is that we’ve been best friends since college. We’re so close that we end up being on the same page about almost everything we want to do. Especially when it comes to talking about creative ideas and bringing them to life, working with someone you’re so in tune with makes that process fun and it comes together easily. That’s been good for both of us. In terms of outside collaborations, we’ve worked with NYC’s Don Da Menace and (ft$) to shoot our first lookbook “Parks and Recreation” and San Diego artist Keenan Hartsten to curate one of our products, the tackle box planter. 

 

BiT The site and products look great. Finally, I have to ask this… what do you miss about living in Brooklyn?
VD Brooklyn has a different energy and pace that you can’t replicate or find anywhere else, and that’s just something you’ll always miss, but we’re both super happy to be back in our hometowns in California and to grow Good Fishing here.

 

Good Fishing as a brand somehow combines an influence of Sam and Vicken’s time on both coasts while transcending geographical boundaries into a collection and mood that is wearable, attractive, and contagious. Their approach to this venture has not been unlike a good day of fishing; take inventory of your supplies, your knowledge, your desire. Choose your spot wisely, a place you know and a market you are confident will be responsive. Cast your line in the best way you know how and with a little bit of luck, patience, and determination, see what you reel in.
It was no surprise to me to learn that while sam and vicken are kicking ass at launching their website and brand, they are already looking forward to their next mission. while i’m not at liberty to divulge the details, let’s just say it’s a distinctly liquid investment that will be smokey and risky and would go best with in a glass with one big rock and a fishing pole in the other.
Check out Good Fishing’s full collection here. use promo code “GOODFISHINGINBK” for an exclusive 20% off deal for Brooklyn, I’m Trying users, good from 8/30 to 9/6. Post pics in your Good Fishing gear using the hashtag #GoodFishinginBK and keep following @goodfishing_ to see how this ambitious brand continues to grow.

 

<3L.

]]> https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/vicken-donikian-of-good-fishing/feed/ 0 3802 Profile of a Hustler | Jay Rinsky of Little Cinema https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-jay-rinsky-of-little-cinema/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=profile-of-a-hustler-jay-rinsky-of-little-cinema https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-jay-rinsky-of-little-cinema/#respond Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:09:08 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=3725 jay rinsky of little cinemaas creatives and residents in this sprawling metropolis, it’s easy to get so engulfed in your own project that you hardly come up for air. but we need to remember that on this island, we are not islands. which is]]> jay rinsky of little cinema
as creatives and residents in this sprawling metropolis, it’s easy to get so engulfed in your own project that you hardly come up for air. but we need to remember that on this island, we are not islands. which is of course is why we live here. we suffer through relentless winters and astronomically high rent prices and, you know, the rat thing… and this is why we do it. in this city we are surrounded by creators, dreamers, thinkers, mover, shakers, hustlers. you can practically breathe in the creative energy as soon as you walk out of your cramped 5-floor walk-up.
jay rinsky is at the pulse of all of the creativity, inspiration, and talent that paints the perfect picture of artistic collaboration in new york. i was reminded of the beauty that comes from this vital practice as i sat in the dining car of an amtrak train, heading east. i had set up a phone interview with jay and he had been almost suspiciously nonchalant about the time. the past 3 days had taken him from alaska to seattle and back to new york. “call me whenever, no need to worry about time,” he said. even this stressed me out. what?? giving him a ring from the train, i fully expected him not to answer. “hey liz! sure i can talk now…”
the next 45 minutes unfolded into the most inspiring and entertaining interview i’ve ever conducted.
jay rinsky is a modern renaissance man for a generation of hustlers. he’s the founder and creator of little cinema, an immersive cinematic experience that combines film, theater, live music, and audience interaction to bring a film off of the screen and make it into a living, breathing thing. familiar stories explode with life and give the audience, and the performers and creators involved a completely new perspective and feeling about what can often be a one-dimensional art form.
jay’s entire life seems to exist within the combustible ether of spontaneity, something that was palpable as soon as he answered the phone. “you were just in alaska?” “yes. i was on a 2-week artist residency on a 100-year old tug boat with a crew of 6 other artists, none of whom had any experience with boats. i made us all life aquatic costumes using materials i kind of patched together from amazon. we were out there for 8 days, and part of the project was a one-shot documentary film shot with a super 8 camera, which means there’s one scene, one shoot, no edits. once it develops, that’s your story. we had no idea what the film would be about and were filming as we were going through glaciers, and ended up running into a giant iceberg. so we parked next to it and chipped ice off of the iceberg and made cocktails from it and that’s what the film ended up being about, finding ice to make the perfect cocktail.”
what??
and this was my introduction to jay rinsky. as i barreled up the east coast on an amtrak train, i was taken on a journey through his creative psyche and could barely hold on.
my conversation with Jay is below. keep reading.

yep. this is the 100-year old tug boat.

Brooklyn, I’m Trying what is your artistic background?
Jay Rinsky i’m mixed bag of many things. I was born in new york, grew up in israel and spent most adulthood in austrailia. I’ve been back in new york for three and a half years as a video dj and artist. i use old dj turntables to mix both sound and picture and apply dj techniques to videos, and little cinema is the culmination of these two creations through movies. through my work i’ve had the opportunity to collaborate with a 40-piece orchestra, i’ve performed at the israeli opera with an orchestra where we custom built a huge video screen. on my own video shows, i create a fusion of a dance party and video party, so it all combines film and other content into video art that stands on its own two feet.
BiT how was little cinema born?
JR i was working on a project that was very tedious in the editing room. it got me a bit lonely, and made me want to collaborate with other artists. i noticed that there’s not much going on in terms of live action and screen and interaction bw two, doesn’t make sense. i knew that my skill set could lend itself to a dialogue with other artists and performers to meet and use.
BiT how did you take this from idea into an actual performance?
JR I took a chance and pitched this idea briefly to House of Yes before they opened up. The first show was a collaboration with Anya and Kae, who are the founders and performers at House of Yes. They brought together whole other elements that i wasn’t experienced in before, including theater and circus and costume and put it all together in front of screen. I was in charge of that mixing in and looping video live, and thus somehow Little Cinema was born in that way, by accident.
 
BiT what was it like to see that first show come to life?
JR The first show was a tribute to david bowie, and we performed it the day after he died. we put it all together in 24 hours.
BiT it seems that the shows gain energy from this spontaneous creativity.
JR they do! we approach the whole thing with the goal of keeping artistic integrity present and personally having fun. the ground rules include fearless creativity, try something new every show, incorporate anyone who wants to be involved in this project, and to create and perform shows relentlessly. our first year we produced a new show almost every week, sometimes multiple, 33 unique show in about 18 months. this project has grown and developed to 1-2 performances that combine live action and interaction that is happening every 5 minutes and taking place in all forms; multi-sensory experience of sight, smell and sound; performers, projector screens, anything we can do or get or hands on.
BiT what challenges have you faced along the way?
JR (laughing) every single show is a challenge because we have no idea how it’s going to work. i always feel like i’m in over my head because inevitably, art of this kind with this set of rules creates problems. we’re trying something new every show which becomes difficult. as we progress, we still need to invent new things and that becomes challenging. what would be something we haven’t done before? we incorporated a live bingo game into our last show, which the audience didn’t expect. another huge challenge is logistics as the shows end up having 40 or more people involved in them, and it’s all produced and put together between friday and the tuesday of the show, and communicating to so many people as a little operation is hard. i’m at the heart of everything, constantly trying to fuse everything and everybody together. it’s a challenge but also that creative energy is what makes it feel like magic.
BiT so all of this basically unfolds live on the night of the show?
JR yep. during the performance, our communication becomes a different challenge because it relies a lot on improv. the artists are encouraged to bring their own creative touch to things. we never know exactly what will happen. even just a lighting standpoint, it’s important to somehow have everything punch at the right time. we never have a rehearsal so it all unfolds live on stage, and we just have to have a lot of trust that it will go well. there’s a lot of stress because the whole thing gets tightly compressed until the day of the show. for at least half of the shows, we are often writing the ending as the performance is starting. we have no idea what’s going to happen.
 
BiT was there ever a moment that you realized holy shit this is actually happening?
JR this whole project is collaborative and it’s an exercise in a creative democracy. i collaborate with other co-directors on the conceptual bigger level and make sure i bring in talent who are encouraged to self-direct their acts. in the beginning, i had no theater background at all so i was still observing and learning about circus, theater, lighting, stage management. i am so engrossed in the show during the performance that i don’t get to experience it until 1-2 days after when i get to look at the footage. i get to look at the other artists’ works and that i don’t get to see the night of the show and i always think, “wow, you completely nailed that there. i didn’t even know that happens!” all these things wasn’t aware of, it’s so fascinating to see how well it works on the screen. those moments is when i realize how amazing it is, what we’ve created. every time when i come back home and see this amazing aerial piece happening in front of screen and i think, this is the best cinema ever! (laughing)  where else is this happening?
 
BiT how do you choose performances?
JR the films i choose are usually a combination of things. for the big lebowski, it felt seasonally appropriate and we knew it would be fun and a little crazy. i always get inspiration and suggestions from whom i’m creatively collaborating with, and i always wants some variety to keep things fresh. we’ll do a fun one, then dark one, then a documentary, then a comedy. we try to keep the curation very eclectic and diverse. and i always want to have a personal connection to the film so that passion is reflected in the performance.
 
BiT any surprises for the upcoming showing of The Dude Immersive that you want to share with Brooklyn, I’m Trying readers?
JR well you know, I don’t want to give anything away. guests will have action happening in all parts of the room, on stage and beyond stage, above their heads. they will be sprayed and hit by certain things, but in a pleasant way. you’ll see various metaphors come to life, like a drag queen representing a room that gets tied together. there will be a drinking game folded in, and lots of metaphors with objects brought in as people, pysch dreams interpreted by aerial performances, a lot of trapping and changing. about every 5 minutes the audience will get hit with something different, so just as they sink into thinking, “hey, i’m watching a movie,” something else entirely will happen.
BiT i seriously cannot wait to see what happens. can you tell me what’s next for Little Cinema?
JR I don’t have an idea yet for the next project, but for now I’m looking to plan out and curate a season and to establish a Little Cinema membership. I’d like to see the project grow up a bit in that sense. this whole project is very personal, as it is created and runs on people wanting to create and giving them a platform to do so. my goal is to keep it that way, both from the collaborator’s and from audience’s points of view. looking at our history, there’s several hundred people that have seen 5 or more shows, and we want to keep them coming back. in a way it doesn’t make much sense that we put so much work into one-off performances, but that’s what makes sense to us. we keep trying to keep magic alive and crazy and wild and ever-changing for as long as we can.

 

BiT …anything else you want to add about The Dude Immersive?
JR yeah. you can enter into a raffle for your chance to watch the show from a bathtub.

 

as much as i wanted to press him on this… will this person in the nude? what is the bathtub filled with? and where is said tub, on stage? however, i could tell by the reluctant divulgence of this statement that jay was actually doing me a favor by keeping this magic and mystery hidden until i see the show tuesday night. we hung up the phone around the time that the skyline came into view and that pure unadulterated love for this city and its inhabitants filled my soul once again.
…………….
  little cinema

“we often are writing the ending as the performance is starting. we have no idea what’s going to happen.”

by assembling so many talented individuals and giving them a platform to perform and create, the story and performance of little cinema unfolds in a masterful explosion of sound, lights, movement, words, music and pure kinetic energy that is felt by the audience and stays with them way after the curtain is drawn.
in this way, little cinema feels much like a metaphor for the life that jay has created. work hard and dream harder and contribute every fiber of your being to a project, and where there are gaps, surround yourself with people who are the best and believe the most in their craft. let life unfold in a harmonious cacophony, a tenacious performance to which the ending has not yet been written. and if i can tell you one thing, there will be plenty of twists in the plot of the life and work of jay rinsky, and the next scene is far from being written.
immerse yourself in the genius of his creation at little cinema. performances tonight and tomorrow are sold out, but follow Brooklyn, I’m Trying on Instagram to immerse yourself from afar, and check back with your social coordinator (i. e. yours truly) for their next performance, more info and ticket sales and all that jazz are here on their website and absorb all of the magic you can by following little cinema on instagram.
little cinema
]]> https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/profile-of-a-hustler-jay-rinsky-of-little-cinema/feed/ 0 3725 A Peek Into The Bushwick Community Darkroom https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/bushwick-community-darkroom/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=bushwick-community-darkroom https://www.brooklynimtrying.com/bushwick-community-darkroom/#respond Tue, 13 Jun 2017 20:00:52 +0000 http://www.brooklynimtrying.com/?p=3336 bushwick community darkroomlife in new york isn’t easy, and it’s not for everyone. when i’m back home in virginia and i run into someone who tells me, “you know, new york is a nice place to visit, but i wouldn’t want to]]> bushwick community darkroom
life in new york isn’t easy, and it’s not for everyone. when i’m back home in virginia and i run into someone who tells me, “you know, new york is a nice place to visit, but i wouldn’t want to live there!” patting me on the shoulder as they smile proudly. my response is always outwardly sweet, but inside i say awesome, visit then! but stay here. settle in. what we don’t need here is anyone who doesn’t have that hustle in their hearts, that pulsing blood running through their veins so that they wake up with every morning saying GO! make! create! breathe! and then have some cocktails! make some bad decisions! live.
this city is not for the weak at heart, it’s for the dreamers and the makers and the doers and believers. and thus, despite its many, constant challenges, we are immensely lucky to live in a community of such creatively elevated humans. i love that the question, “what do you do?” is constantly met with, “oh, like for money? or my side hustle/creative endeavor/small business/clandestine life?” we see challenges every day and say, i’m going to figure out how to make this work, and make it work for me. and goddamn if that energy isn’t in every molecule of air here in brooklyn, so breathe it in, and hold it there. (unless you’re real close to the gowanus canal, then just save that inspiring inhale for later.)
i’ve met so many people here for whom simply creating is not enough. through all of the resistance you run into when trying to follow your passion in this city – spacial issues, financial constraints, the haters hatin’… if you push through and learn to overcome those barriers, then maintain that path to make the way a bit easier for others.
we all know that a lot of bad things are created and discovered in brooklyn basements, but for photographer and creative hustler lucia rollow, her ability to follow her dreams started in a subterranean brooklyn space. after graduating from college with a degree in photography and moving to the city, she was quickly disheartened to realize that her passion and energy for everything that happens after the shutter clicks would be silenced with her relocation. there were no darkrooms for public use, and sure as hell no space to create one. she managed to make a makeshift darkroom in a basement in brooklyn for her own personal use, and once the word of it spread from her creative circle into others, she began renting it out for use. as it turned out, she was far from the only person craving the creative freedom that developing your own film and photos provides.

 

a look inside BCD from @bushwickdkrm

this basement venture has since evolved into a gift to the community; a space for those in love with analog photography to drop off and have their film developed by people who care, a space for people who truly love the craft of developing film and prints to use, a gallery for established and budding photographers alike, and a classroom for those who want to embrace this craft at every level. this 2,500 foot and 25-member warehouse space has created a photography community, which is what drew manager natalia gubinski to the space. she had been craving that sense of community that is so inherent to the world of photo development, as well as an affordable darkroom to use after leaving college. see some of her beautiful work here, and be sure to sign up for BCD’s emails about upcoming events to see hers and other artists’ work and to be a part of this beautiful community.
having recently participated in a cyanotype workshop at BCD, and found myself sitting outside on the sidewalk in the sun, waiting to see what kind of abstract prints we developed with funky trinkets from the menagerie and minds of the endlessly inspiring @noelleduquette and @donutloverr. we sat and chatted while the springtime sun made surreal indigo landscapes around shadows of plastic babies, fresh lemon slices, hardware ephemera and pressed flora to the curious negligence of passersby. after rinsing, squeegeeing (ah! gonna say it again… squeegeeing.), and critiquing our work before running out to create something new, i realized a few things; that slowing down any craft that has now become technologically lost is both therapeautic and necessary, that pursuing your passion fearlessly will naturally attract a creative community and support system to surround you, and that the necessity to create can then develop into a destination that anyone can share.

Natalia Gubinski, photographer, BCD member and darkroom manager.

Bushwick Community Darkroom represents the beauty of process and community. slowly combating the requisite and relatively temporary paralysis of instagram filter indecision, it embraces the beauty of creation that happens after the shutter clicks and brings back a sense of ownership that’s been lost in our image-obsessed society. you own the print that you hold in your hand, one that you show people without swiping or uploading. and it represents the beauty that can grow out of the passionate hustle.
I had the unique opportunity to interview Lucia Rollow, avid photographer and BCD’s founder and owner, to dive into just how she turned her dream into a 2,500 foot warehouse space and gift to the community. seek insipration below, and then head to Bushick Community Darkroom to get some film developed, go learn how to develop it yourself. go check out a gallery opening for some of the incredible artists in our community. go for free movie night. go and be among the community that surrounds this beautiful art.

 

lucia rollow bushwick community darkroom
Lucia Rollow, avid photographer and BCD’s founder and owner.

 

 

What attracted you to pursue photography in the first place?
I got my first camera when I was about 4 and started working in the darkroom when I was about 12 and it all just fit. It was just something that had to be there.
 
How did you try to seek out options for dark rooms and developing when you got to NY? What were the options at that time?
I moved to New York in 2005 to attend the School of Visual Arts so I was using their darkrooms till 2009 and mostly unaware of any other options because I had no need. After I graduated I lost that darkroom access as one does and spent the next roughly year floating around trying to find affordable darkrooms without much success. I spoke to people I knew and looked online and found Printspace but decided I couldn’t afford their $22/hr rate in addition to paper, then I found a space near me but no one ever seemed to be there to open it and they said they didn’t supply chemistry so I started going to ABC No Rio. Their scheduled open hours were incompatible with my schedule at the time and it was a 45 minute trip each way. So one day my neighbor pointed out to me that there were storage closets in the basement that were totally big enough to put a single occupancy b&w darkroom in, since that was all i really needed and i had no money at the time my mind immediately went to 2 problems: how do i make this a reality as quickly and cheaply as possible? and is there a way for me to make this available to other people that might be in the same position i am?
 
Describe the makeshift darkroom you made in your apartment, and the first experiences you had there. I believe Natalia mentioned you would let other people use it? 
I ran a kickstarter, built a website & started posting flyers. We met the kickstarter goal, built out the space & opened in the basement in February 2011. The original space was a 6×8 closet in the basement next to the laundry room. We set up a sink/print washer & dryer in the laundry room and enlarger/chemical trays in the closet which we could make light tight. It was definitely cozy but it was pretty comfortable for up to 2 people and you could print up to 16×20 in there so for what it was it definitely wasn’t bad. We got to the point where we were booked to capacity and a gentleman (Brandon Schulman) donated 2 color enlargers and a table top color print processor to us so we started looking for bigger spaces. In the summer of 2012 we  moved into the first of what would be 2 spaces we occupied within the Shops at the Loom and built out a small b&w darkroom with 4 enlargers and a small color darkroom with 2 enlargers and the table top processor we had been gifted. In the summer of 2013 we relocated across the hall in the Shops at the Loom and had basically the same set up in a slightly better/cheaper layout. December of 2013 brought us a huge donation when Printspace shut down their community darkrooms and gave us all of their enlargers, color print processor and basically all the other crap besides their sinks. So I put it all in storage and started looking for a space that was big enough to set up all the equipment to be functional
 
How did you find the space that is now BCD?
I started looking and saving and scheming and dreaming. I was having conversations and looking on Craigslist and trying to find spaces as for all of 2014. By the end of the year I had uncovered a lead a few blocks from our existing location. The space was about 1000 square feet on the second floor of a tucked away block in a windowless room. The freight elevator came straight into the space but that was the only advantage. So I mulled on it and engaged in conversation with the landlord and basically was within 48 hours of signing the lease and putting down a deposit when i decided to just take one more look on Craigslist. I went ~3 weeks back through the listings, found this place, figured the worst they would tell me was that the space had been rented and sent them an email. They immediately responded that the space was still available so Caleb, who has been volunteering for me since 2013 and I came over and checked it out and basically agreed to it on the spot. We signed the lease a few days later, spent the next 6 months building out the space and have been settling in ever since.
 
What are the challenges you’ve met along the way (from your arrival in NY to now!) and how did you overcome them? 
Most of the challenges have really involved finding adequate space for an affordable price. Since we’ve re-located to this space our rent has been consistent and we have been able to focus on smaller problems like making sure we have enough chemistry and our equipment is up to par. Finding this space really allowed us to improve the quality of service we have been able to provide.
 
Can you describe a specific time where you felt like giving up? What encouraged you to push forward?
There have definitely been a lot of times. There was a moment last year when we thought the owner might sell this building and it was definitely like “what do we do?!” as a result we actually still/currently have a tiny little satellite location in Greenpoint that no one knows about. It became very clear very quickly at that point that there were too many people far too invested to give up or consider closing the darkroom so we kept pushing and the owner has since renewed our lease on this space and given us assurances that he is not planning on selling the building.
 
How would you describe your art?
Currently I’m working on a series of landscape gum bichromate prints which is an antique process.
 
Have their been any artists you’ve run into along the way that were particularly moving or inspiring that helped you persevere?
My good friend Hope Zanes has been a pillar for me over the years. She taught me gum printing in high school and has been in my corner ever since.
 
What are your goals for BCD for the next year?
Over the next year we plan to focus on increasing our programatic offerings and membership base. We have a stable home now and would like to invite as many people in to do as many different fun things as possible.
To visit the Bushwick Community Darkroom, find them at 110 troutman st. 
visit their website for a list of classes, rates for use of the space, and membership information.
 and for constant photographic inspiration and event announcements, follow them on instagram.

 

<3L.

 

 

a shot of shots borrowed from @bushwickdkrm

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