Entry 010

Entry 010

I Know, I Know. I’ve Been Saying This For Years.

I know what y’all are probably thinking.

“JLaw, you been talking about getting back to your personal artwork forever.”

And you’re right lmao.

If you’ve really been tapped into these Monolawgues over the years, you know I’ve been saying for a LONG time that I wanted to get back to creating my own collections, artwork, merch and experiences. I actually went back and looked at some of my old entries and realized I first told y’all about Champagne Flowers back in 2023. I said I was dropping the collection later that year and here we are three years later lol.

But, I think everything happens when it’s supposed to.

Over the last few years, my artistry took me in a completely different direction. Public art really took over my creative practice and if you read my last Monolawgue, you know how I feel about murals at this point. I love the impact they have on people and communities. I love being outside, talking to people from all walks of life, hearing their stories and seeing the reactions to the artwork in real time. I’ve been able to create artwork in neighborhoods, schools, businesses and public spaces and that work has taught me A LOT about the type of artist I want to be.

But, I never lost that itch to create personal work again.

Remember the 2020-2022 days of ArtByJLaw? I was creating everything lol. Original artwork, prints, clothes, puzzles, keychains, different collections and experiences. I would come up with an idea and figure out all the different ways I could bring that idea to life. That was a special time for me creatively because it was literally just me creating from my own ideas and putting them into the world to see how people connected with them.

Public art has become an important part of my calling and I don’t see that changing anytime soon. But, there’s a different feeling that comes from sitting with your own idea and building an entire world around it. I’ve missed that side of my artistry.

So after talking about it for damn near three years, I can finally say we’re back lol.

Giving Your Flowers

The original idea for Champagne Flowers was pretty simple. Why do we wait to give people their flowers?

Champagne represents celebration. We pop bottles for accomplishments, birthdays, new beginnings, wins and moments we want to remember. Flowers represent love, appreciation, recognition and respect. I thought bringing those two things together was the perfect way to talk about something I think we all could do more of: celebrating people while they’re actually here to experience it.

That was the idea when I first started developing Champagne Flowers. But, the beauty of taking this long to actually create the full collection is that life started adding more context to the idea.

This past year especially has been very raw and organic for me. Instead of just creating conceptual artwork around what I thought giving people their flowers meant, I started paying more attention to how it was actually showing up in my own life. One of the biggest things I started thinking about was the value of relationships, especially the relationships with people you may not necessarily talk to every day.

We naturally think about our closest friends and family when we talk about people who support us. Those are the people we talk to all the time, so the love and encouragement is usually right in front of us. But, what about the people you might not talk to every week or even every month, but every time y’all connect, the love is genuine?

I started realizing there’s almost a paper trail of love that exists in some of those relationships. It could be an old text message thread, somebody commenting on your work, sharing something you created, randomly checking in or simply saying they’re proud of you. You might not classify that person as one of your closest friends because y’all aren’t talking every day, but when you look back over time, they’ve consistently shown you love and you’ve done the same for them.

Those are flowers too.

And funny enough, some of those relationships started becoming part of Champagne Flowers without me necessarily planning it that way.

The good brudda Rian is a perfect example. He’s somebody I’ve known for years and over time we’ve been able to genuinely build a connection through supporting each other. He’s helped me capture content and has been part of the journey in his own way, and now he’s actually one of the subjects represented in the collection.

The same thing happened with Vaughn and Shamara. They host an event called Give Me My Flowers, which obviously caught my attention lol. The whole concept of their event aligned so naturally with this idea I had already been developing for years that I wanted to dig deeper into their vision and what giving people their flowers meant to them. Through that process, I got to learn more about them, build a stronger connection and now they’re represented in the collection as well.

That’s when Champagne Flowers started becoming more than just an idea in my sketchbook. I was actually seeing the concept play out in real life through real people and real relationships. And I think that has made the work much more meaningful than if I would've forced myself to finish this collection when I originally said I would in 2023.

Growing Your Own Flowers

There’s another side of Champagne Flowers that has become just as important to me though.

We need flowers from other people, but sometimes you have to grow your own.

For me, that’s what happens when the lights aren’t on. When I’m not standing in front of a mural, doing something for a community, posting a new project or having people tell me they love something I created. When it’s just me, myself and my thoughts, I still have to figure out what I want for my life and what I want to accomplish.

That self-motivation is important because at the end of the day, you have to look yourself in the mirror every day. Other people can encourage you, support you and remind you of what you’re capable of, but they can’t be the sole reason you keep going.

I think about this a lot with my artistry because I’ve always believed this is my God-given gift. So when nobody is looking, I’m constantly asking myself what God is really telling me to do with this talent. How should I use it? How should it affect people? What am I supposed to put into the world?

I don’t always have the answers, but I try to use myself as a vessel and act on the things that feel aligned with the vision I believe He has for me.

That’s what growing your own flowers means to me. It’s cultivating the confidence, motivation and belief you need for yourself without always needing somebody else to provide it. There are going to be moments when people are cheering you on and giving you your flowers, and there are going to be moments when nobody is around and you have to remind yourself why you started in the first place.

I think you need both.

Everything Comes Back Around

What’s funny about this entire process is that Champagne Flowers was actually supposed to happen before now. I had plans to do the show at another gallery last year, but some things changed and the show ended up being put on pause.

At the time, obviously I wanted it to happen. I’ve already been talking about this thing for YEARS lol. But looking at how everything has come together since then, I think the pause was needed.

Miss Sola eventually reached out to me about doing a show at her gallery and everything just started to align naturally. Instead of building this show in a space where I didn’t really have a personal connection, I’m now building it with somebody I actually know and have a genuine relationship with.

And I didn’t really think about the irony of that until I started reflecting on everything.

I’m creating a show centered around appreciation, relationships, connection and the people who pour into us, and the show itself has come together through those same things.

That’s crazy to me.

Maybe Champagne Flowers wasn’t supposed to be exactly what I imagined it being in 2023. Because between then and now, I’ve lived more life. I’ve met more people. I’ve built stronger relationships. I’ve created more public artwork. I’ve learned more about myself and what I actually want my artwork to say.

The idea had time to grow with me.

So Yeah...It’s Finally Here

I’ve been telling y’all I was getting back to my personal artwork for so long that I know at some point y’all probably just started saying, “Ard JLaw, we hear you” 😂.

But I can finally stop saying I’m going to do it.

I’m doing it.

This November, I’ll officially be presenting Champagne Flowers, my newest solo exhibition and my first time in a long time really building out a full personal collection and experience from my own vision.

And when I say I’m back, I don’t mean I’m leaving everything else behind. The murals aren’t stopping. The community work isn’t stopping. Ground Zero isn’t stopping. That side of my artistry has become part of who I am and I’m extremely grateful for where it has taken me.

This is just another side of JLaw that I haven’t fully fed in a while.

The original artwork. The illustrations. The merch. The objects. The experiences. Taking one idea and figuring out how many different ways I can bring it to life.

And man, it feels GOOD to be back in that mode.

Champagne Flowers will bring together original paintings, digital artwork, sculpture, installations, merch and different experiences all centered around this idea of giving your flowers and growing your own. I don’t want to give y’all everything in this Monolawgue because I still want there to be some surprises when you experience it in person. But, just know I’ve been thinking about the details.

And of course, I had to tell the homies first.

Before gen pop gets the rollout, before I start really promoting the show and before y’all start seeing Champagne Flowers everywhere, I wanted the people who have been tapped in with me through these Monolawgues to hear it from me first.

Whether you’ve bought an original, grabbed a print or shirt, came to one of my shows, shared my work, left a comment, sent me a message or you’ve just quietly watched this journey over the years, I appreciate you.

I see it.

And if this whole collection is about giving people their flowers, I gotta make sure I give y’all yours too.

So after three years of talking about it...

Champagne Flowers is finally here.

I can’t wait for y’all to experience what I’ve been talking about all this time.

RSVP HERE TO MEET ME THERE

More soon.

Much love,

JLaw