Exclusive Interview With FlyingB – At Best, You Can Only Count On Having The Next 24 Hours To Work With

FlyingB was recently interviewed by RootsAndRoutesMag.com and below is the Q&A session we had with him.

FlyingB As Cover Story Feature – November 2024 Magazine Edition

Briefly describe your background, interests, and significant life experiences.

My skill as a fine artist comes from working in film and theater production, acting, photography, writing, and producing/hosting a weekly live internet radio show featuring contemporary Korean music other than K-pop. The times that have had the most significance in my life were living in NYC for three years and later South Korea for five years.

When I was living in NYC, I worked primarily in film and video production. The majority of my jobs on films were working as a grip, gaffer, or electrician. I also worked as a camera operator and cinematographer on smaller projects. Durring these three years, I also had good the fortune to work as an assistant for the photographer who documented the work of Frank Stella.

Teaching English in Gong-ju, a town of 180,000, my first year of living in South Korea allowed me to learn a lot about Korean culture and customs without the distraction of a big city such as Seoul. After finishing my contract, I lived in various parts of Seoul for the next four years. Like most major decisions in my life, living.in South Korea was a decision made on instinct. In fact, it wasn’t until I was halfway in a plane above the middle of the Atlantic that I had the thought that I might want to look at a map to see where I was going.

While living in South Korea, I took more than 140,000 photographs. The biggest portion of these photographs were taken when I was the Still Photographer on a feature film starring Korean American singer Jay Park. Another large cache of my photographs came during year-long demonstrations against the importing of US beef.

Early on in the demonstrations, there was a particular moment that had a huge influence on the rest of my time in Korea. On this particular night, I was having an internal debate as to whether or not to catch the last bus home or pay for a cab ride. My instinct was telling me to stay, but my wallet was telling me to catch the bus, so I took the bus. A few days later I learned that a Korean man had set himself on fire about 50 feet from where I had taken my last photograph of the night. After that, if my inner voice was saying to stay, I stayed.

While living in different parts of Seoul for the next four years, I had an 18-month streak of being able to wake up in the morning, have an idea in my head, and it either being executed or scheduled by the end of the day. For instance, I was able to go to three Seoul Fashion Week while I was in Korea. While living in South Korea, I also worked as an actor in Korean films and TV Shows. In addition to frequent trips to Japan, I traveled to Singapore, The Philippines, and Taiwan.

My Chinese horoscope (and a fortune teller in Houston) said it best, until I turned 35 and traveled overseas (which is what happened) my life would be a continual slog. After going crossing the ocean, things would get better. Even before I hopped on a plane to South Korea, a country I knew nothing about, with two weeks of preparation, I had an affinity for things Asian. My favorite movie was, and still is, the Japanese film After Life, written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda. This is still my all-time favorite film because of the 1) cinematography, and 2) the plot. Warning though, you have to let yourself sink into the pace of the film. My favorite board game was, and still is Go/바둑/圍棋/囲碁/碁圍/མིག་མངས. My favorite card game is now the Korean card game Go-Stop/고스톱

Major Challenge: What has been a major challenge in your life and how did you handle it?

The biggest challenges in my life have been my dyslexia and being bipolar. Being Dyslexic, and more specifically Dysgraphic, is something that I was diagnosed with early in life. The most obvious effect of this has been taking ten years to finish four years of college. My Dyslexia has also made it more challenging to do certain jobs that require me to keep track of numbers, such as multiple pieces of art correctly and quickly on the first try in one day. But, on the other hand, this same trait gives my art a slightly different perspective and flow.

Being diagnosed with Bipolar 2 has only occurred in the last three years, so I am still learning how to manage the symptoms. Bipolar 2 means that I am down more than I am up. Another aspect of being bipolar is erratic sleep cycles, which have a huge effect on maintaining a 40-hour work week. The turning point came when I was homeless and ended up at basically the last stop of the continuum of shelter for the homeless.

During the intake process, the in-house psychologist made the observation that, based on my background, education, and life experience, I shouldn’t be at the shelter. The end result of the conversation was him giving me the information I needed to seek psychological evaluation and help.
It was being diagnosed as bipolar that was the final step in my becoming a fine artist. After being diagnosed, I found a support group for artists who had been diagnosed with mental health challenges. After participating in the group for about a year, I started playing with pencils, markers, and acrylic paint. I am now learning how to use oil paints on a variety of supports and have been stretching my canvases for a few years.

Proud Moment: Share a personal or professional achievement you are proud of.

In 2020 I had my first solo exhibition in downtown Dallas. Even though I was only able to be at the location for 5 or six days, I was able to sell 16 of the 41 pieces I hung. The pieces were of various dimensions. I couldn’t do much promotion for the exhibition, so all the visitors were people just coming in off the street, and talking with them was so much fun. One of the visitors bought three paintings for her father by showing him the pieces on her phone.

Since the space was only open when I was there, I had the paintings set up so that people would see one particular painting, “Apples, Bananas, Oreos, Twinkies, and Eggs,” at the end. I started the conversation by asking what objects they saw in the painting, and then the ethnic groups they represented. As a reference, I would be considered a reverse banana/egg (white on the outside, yellow on the inside). Some people got it right off; others took a little bit of time to catch on that the colors of the food items were inverted.

My favorite conversation was with a towering Caucasian man with a stocky but sweet emotional support dog. When I asked him who the red apples represented, he kept saying, “Me.” And, Ironically it turned out, I wasn’t listening to him. At the end of the conversation, he says, “Let me show you something,” and then pulled out a Cherokee Nation card. He ended up purchasing the “Apples, Bananas, Oreos, Twinkies, and Eggs” and “Coconuts” paintings for his girlfriend.

Daily Motivation: What keeps you motivated and inspired each day?

What keeps me going is that I have been successful when I was living in South Korea. Having experienced 18 months of being able to wake up with an idea and either be doing it or have it scheduled keeps me encouraged, even when I am at my lowest.

Community Contribution: How do you actively give back to your community or support others?

Living abroad for five years has given me the advantage of viewing American politics, media, and culture from an outsider’s perspective. This perspective includes how the US media reports events in other countries. For me, the history of Palestine did not start on October 7th. I became critically aware of the geocoding, as defined by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in 2017. Currently, I am working on a series of apparel designs that incorporate important Palestinian symbols, such as the Kufiyah and the Handala character, to raise funds for the Palestinian Red Crescent Society.
https://FlyingB.threadless.com/designs/kufiyah-2

Message to Readers: What message or advice would you like to share with our readers?

My outlook on life is this: At best, you can only count on having the next 24 hours to work with. If there is something that you really, really want to do, you have 24 hours to do it, or start putting the pieces together to do it.

Social Media And Links

My art can be seen on IG at @the_artist_flyingb
Or my website at: theartistflyingb