Creative Humans - Dez'Mon Omega Fair
Dez'Mon Omega Fair, like his water colour painting, is vibrant. He tends to effortlessly blend into the surrounds of the Williamsburg streets - the graffitied walls, the east river parks and the sidewalk strings of cafes. It all suits him. Bright, vast, alluring.
It didn't take long before Dez'Mon was rolling out his parchment, lining up his paints and dropping splats of colour - right there in the park. Watching his method of working was like watching a street artist perform a detailed juggling feat. With no hesitation and complete focus, Dez began to create. It was intentional yet experimental. Detailed yet spontaneous. Paint droppers were held in his teeth, water was poured from a glass, paint splattered from blowing air through his mouth - and it was captivating.
We walked around Brooklyn together, taking in the prolific street vibe while getting hit by rays of welcome summer sun. Dez'Mon told me he would soon be moving to L.A. Like the direction of his paint, Dez seems happy and inspired to just go with the flow. All I could think was lucky L.A. We stopped at Cafe Collette - a favourite place of Dez's and a new favourite of mine - to enjoy lunch. Dez was open. His journal was too. The conversation was engaging, but scattered as I drifted around with my camera and he splattered paint on the words of his note book. It was lovely. Vibrant. Exactly the way I had imagined a creative midday in Williamsburg to be.
What projects are you currently working on?
There's a few projects and 'processes' in progress right now. I like to work on different pieces simultaneously. They all seem to build from each other. However, my favorite and most exhausting is “Hand and Breath.” The world nowadays and strangely, even art, is so over-produced, artificial, and automatic. I enjoy seeing an artist's movement, his pace, his hand in his creations. It's very important that my work reeks of my "energy" so to speak. Further, when reckoning with the concept of breathing; it's funny how breath both keeps you alive and ages you, obviously leading to your death. What we do with our hands (body) and our breath (life) is paramount.When approaching ideologies behind works of art, I typically begin searching for the humanity in a piece, bringing me to a moment in the very beginning of my becoming an artist consciously. I was asked if I had made an article of clothing I was wearing by artist, Jeff Elrod. I explained to him that I hadn't the “skills” to make clothes. He went on to agree, then compared the talents of a seamstress to the artist’s hand. In that brief exchange, I realized that my hand as an artist may be under-developed. This body of work focuses on the development of what makes my touch distinct and serves as a reminder to how art even began. Cave paintings, ritual jewelry, and hunting tools all fashioned from pure creativity without reference. These original pieces of art were created out of necessity, out of a calling for more, ‘a more’ that still expands today. I’m all for the pervasion of technology, however the idea of word processing over handwriting makes me uneasy. To add, one of my best friends, fellow artist Rebecca Richard mentioned somewhat starkly as I finished a yawn that breathing kills you. We looked at one another as if the other was crazy and laughed, however her statement stuck with me. In building Hand and Breath, I am forced to look at my body’s immortality. I draw every line feeling as if these lines, my lines, have the potential to be forever. I blow each puddle of pigmented water feeling that I’m giving precious seconds of my life; seconds of my life for the visual thrill of seeing my breath merge with my hand because, art by hand truly says, I was here.
Where do you draw your creative inspiration from?
Inspiration can be hard to pinpoint sometimes. I have various sources, but people are my most valuable source. Although I am seen as extroverted person, much of myself is extremely inward. I assume that to be true for most. My inspiration comes for the endless well of the diverse, yet similar, the interconnected, and varying and sometimes contradicting threads of the human experience and the interpretation of each individual experience.
Why a visual artist?
Why not? Artists whose work provides visual and cerebral stimuli is a success. Approaching a blank sheet of paper and leaving it filled with a piece of my brain, my life, my existence makes me feel 'some typa way' :)
Do you listen to music while you work? If so, would you be so kind to share some of your favourite artists?
I stick to classic composers when working, Bach, Brahms, Chopin etc. I find when I listen to music from eras closer to my own I get distracted. The melodies, beats, and lyrics are too familiar. I end up thinking about that particular musician and his or her art making, their time, their feeling and view of their world. I'm making work of and for my time. Romantic classics allow my consciousness to reckon with its presence, our present. From there, art that is truly me can be brought to fruition.
Do you have a morning ritual?
No, my days are too sporadic for ritual. Maybe the chaos is a form of ritual.
What's your idea of a perfect Friday night?
There's too much pressure in New York to have an 'amazing Friday night' The best nights in general I've had include two or three of my best and/or most dramatic friends, too much wine, maybe we're around a questionable swinger situation, maybe there's a mushroom about, maybe Jon takes a cab for a short joyride, but that only happened once,and I think it was a Tuesday.
If you could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?
Antarctica. Aren't scientist only allowed there? I'm not a scientist :(
Best piece of advice you've ever given or been given?
I've been very fortunate to have much encouragement throughout my life, but most recently I've had to deal with feeling not as talented as other artists. My friend Rahsaan told me, "...it's good know what's out there, but you can't be afraid of it." That advice can be applied to many human situations. I use it all the time.
What's for dinner?
Um, a salad. I'm moving to Los Angeles.
The best part about being a creative?
I do what I want.
The worst part?
No one ever expects me to be on time.
Day or night?
Night when it’s cool. Day when it’s hot.
Old or new?
Both
City or Country?
Both
Coffee or Tea?
Water
What did you enjoy most about living in Brooklyn, NY?
Seeing it change so fast and seeing a similar change in myself.
Thoughts for the future:
My small scale thoughts are really excited about moving west. My larger ones are excited and curious about what I feel is the start of 'Cerebral Intergration'. People are becoming less and less rigid, re-establishing and really evaluating what they've been taught compared to what they actually believe, i.e. becoming self aware and assured. With this comes all sort of benefits. We're able to communicate and share with less bias and more understanding. Being equally self aware and self-accepting is the starting point for a life of tangible happiness or even understanding what happiness is to you personally versus what you've been taught is happiness. Much of "first world life" (for lack of a better term) is figuring out the right things to want. Most people have no clue who they are, but I'm watching more and more figure it out.
