WHAT TO EXPECT...WHEN YOU PUSH PLAY

Jimmy Baptiste is an artist based in Ottawa, Canada. He is also a father, educator, graphic artist and culture builder. Jimmy extends his art into the community in a profound and colourful way, working with students to create beautiful murals that discuss themes of race, youth and empowerment. In this episode, Jimmy takes us through his process, his triumphs and his motivations – which ultimately manifest in impact-filled work with youth.

WHAT WE LEARNED

• Do not settle in a job, or situation, that makes you unsatisfied or unfulfilled. Pursue your passion... and success will come
• If you have skills and you work hard, you have potential. But the key to art is understanding and appreciating representations and being unique...so that you can embrace and express your own aesthetic
• Art is an important tool in empowering youth.

OUR HIGHs (NO LOWs)

4:05 “I don’t want to have to come to work at 7 and leave at 11 doing the graveyard shift”

6:10 “Whenever I had a dead call at work I would always be in my sketchbook, you never know what life has in store for you”

9:10 “Seeing a Black artist become successful in a white world and embracing his own aesthetic, that was my main inspiration”

GET IT FROM OUR GUEST

Jimmy’s website - https://jimmybaptiste.ca

Contact Jimmy - [email protected]

Jimmy’s Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/jimmy_baptiste/

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Email guest referrals, comments and stories to [email protected] (feedback welcome…complaints and hate, not so much)

54Lights is committed to illuminating the African experience...one story (paint stroke) at a time.