Choose954 Podcast Episode 73 Featuring Artist Aaron "Aakabo" Bodden

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2B9cy4SOPU&list=PLOQvdw7d0cd9RZZkd2lZy2hmrnJv-cfLI&index=26

Evan Snow: And we are back here on the Choose954 podcast episode 73 with local artist, muralist, and overall good guy Aaron Baden, aka Akubo, from his home studio here in Pompano Beach, Florida.If you didn't know about Choose954, we started a social movement to cultivate culture and community here in Broward County, where I'm very proud to be born and raised. Our effort is to keep people informed about a lot of great things that are going on, primarily within the arts and culture, to make this a better place to live—not just a better place to vacation—because we live here. The point of the podcast is to connect you with interesting people like him to find out more cool stuff going on in the community. We've got a few cool things going on that you're going to hear about, so without much further ado, why don't you introduce yourself a little bit at a high level here?

Aaron: Yeah, my name is Aaron McCarl Baden. Aakabo is a combination of the first two letters of my first, middle, and last name. There's no other meaning behind it; it's just my name, and it's kind of stuck. Yeah, I am an artist. I have been painting since 2018. In photography before then, which kind of set up a foundation to transition into art or into painting. I started doing canvases early on, which is one in my oven. I’ve been actually working for my very first art show when I was a nobody. And yeah, I’ve been going ever since. In 2020, in like March of 2020, when everything kind of shut down for the pandemic, I started 18 murals, and since then, I’ve got 50 murals under my belt. I’ve got 30 plus in the Fort Lauderdale area, I’ve got 13 in Dallas, Texas, and yeah, just all over the place.

Evan Snow: Amazing. So, how did you initially get started in the arts? Was it in photography? Was it at a young age? Then kind of walk us through how you got up to having 50 murals, which is no small feat for any artist.

Aaron: I’ve always been artistic. I’ve always had the urge to express myself artistically, whether it was slam poetry for a little while, acting for a little while. When I moved to Florida, I wanted to go to film school. I wanted to make documentaries, and I came to... I wanted to go to the Art Institute of Miami. I moved to Florida with five hundred dollars in my pocket, with a friend who found a general manager position at Raw Sushi on Federal Highway. He offered me a job as a server so I could go to film school, and he offered me a job as a manager. I turned it down initially, and he came back with another offer that I felt like I couldn't refuse.Being an immigrant, my mom thought, "Oh, you know, this guy's offering you a nice salary; that's the American dream. Take the job." And I just got wrapped into that world. When I started getting my paychecks, I bought a camera—about that 7D right there, which I've had since 2010 or 2011. I first started by buying a bunch of sound equipment and lighting. I started a documentary, a couple of documentaries, and began following these graffiti artists around, documenting what they were doing. Eventually, I moved away from film or videography because it was just so hard. It takes so much patience, and especially back then—I'm not sure what the software looks like now—but rendering video back in 2010 was so difficult. It just took so long. So then, I started taking photos of light painting or airplanes. I did a lot of low-resolution, or sorry, long-exposure photography—anything with lights, anything shiny. I've always liked shiny, metallic things.

I started taking pictures of that, and then somebody asked me if I had ever taken pictures of people, which I hadn't, but I jumped at the opportunity. Then I started shooting models and getting paid to do that. Being in South Florida, I became a swimwear photographer for a long time. Then I started doing product and food photography, which is so hard. I gained a little bit of a following as Akubo on Instagram. As soon as I opened an Instagram account, my username was Akubo, and back then, it was just for personal use. Then I got a camera, and it kind of turned into a photography Instagram, just like unwittingly—I didn't choose for it to be that all right, that wasn’t the intention. And yeah, I started getting some notoriety as a photographer, and then one day, I just didn’t want to do photography anymore. I lost my passion. I would take a photo, and I knew that on a technical level, it was a great photo, but it just didn’t do anything for me. Looking back at it, I don’t know if I was ever truly passionate about photography. I liked that it was an artistic expression. I liked that I could work for myself. I’ve always had a bit of an entrepreneurial spirit, so there were aspects I liked about photography, but as an art itself, I don’t think there was ever a burning desire to go out and take photos or have my camera with me everywhere. One day, I woke up and was just like, "You know what, yeah, all right." Slowly but surely, it was hard to keep it up, and I was just like, "You know, I don’t want to do this anymore." So yeah, I put my camera down. I actually gave my camera and all my equipment to a friend of mine. I just gave it to him—Max McQueen, who’s an amazing photographer. He just won Best Photographer in Fort Lauderdale. Check him out, Max in Media on Instagram, and he ran with it.

Evan Snow: I actually thought he gave you those opportunities before that. I thought he helped you get started in photography.

Aaron: We were roommates. We were roommates back in Pembroke Pines when I was doing photography. Actually, my very first photo shoot, shooting in person, was on our patio. He was an accountant, doing accounting. Then, when I was kind of running out of steam with photography, he took an interest in photography, so I gave him all the stuff, and that catapulted him. Now it’s crazy—he’s a professional and deservedly so. Fort Lauderdale’s Best Photographer—Max in Media—shout out to Max, great guy.

Evan Snow: It’s interesting, you know. There comes a point in time when you’re doing something for a couple of years, especially creatively, where if it doesn’t give you that fuel to your fire, if it doesn’t wake you up in the middle of the night to create, then it’s not for you anymore. So, what was that transition like from photography to the early stages of your art?

Aaron: I stopped photography in 2016, 2017—I would say 2017. So from 2011 to 2017, I was doing photography, and then I needed something. I needed to express myself artistically. I started to try to meditate, and I was having such a hard time achieving what I thought meditation was at the time. So, then I started to look for meditative things to do, tedious things. Photography and following the graffiti artists around, they encouraged me to make a stencil because they were amazing with freehand cans, and I was like, "It would take so much work to be on that level, I couldn’t keep up." So, one guy introduced stencils to me. I made this super basic E.T. stencil—it was just a circle cut out of cardboard to make a super basic moon and E.T. My tag at the time was Jet—I went by Jetta J. That was my stencil; I was throwing it up in Miami. Then, coming back to when I stopped photography and was looking for something meditative and tedious, I remembered stenciling, and I made a painting—actually, it’s in my room. Yeah, I started to stencil. I made my first stencil piece—this is it right here.

Evan Snow: Amazing.

Aaron: Yeah, and I put it on my social media, and somebody offered me money for it. That was the start. I never looked back. I was like, "Wait, people are going to offer me money for the paintings?" I made a joke with my friend, actually Max, asking, "Do you think I could get forty dollars for this?" And he was like, "Nah, I don't know, that seems like a lot." And that's been the running joke. I waited out for this because now, obviously, I'm selling for much more. So, yeah, I just made the stencil, and then I started making three-layer stencils, four-layer stencils, and then I was like, "Oh, I'm not going to make any less than a five-layer stencil, or even a seven-layer stencil." I put together what, 11 pieces? I was just doing whatever. Then I met you, and I had my little crayons—I had 11 pieces, I remember it—and I was just painting whatever I thought was cool. You booked me for my first show at Yolo. Right there, like, you know, Evan, for those who don’t know, set up this little market with music and different artists every week, downtown at Yolo.

Evan Snow: Yeah, local artist discovery series, live art pop-up. Different artists every week downtown at Yolo. We gave you a booth, didn’t take a commission, right?

Aaron: Yeah, yeah, you offered me a canvas. So, that’s when I got my start, and then I had another show with Max the next weekend, and I sold all 11 of the pieces—every single one of them.

Evan Snow: This was 2018?

Aaron: This was 2018. And the stencil, if I recall, that you brought to Yolo was the E.T. stencil, right?

Evan Snow: I think I remember that. You had like a box of them?

Aaron: Yeah, I remember starting this way. I think it was a Salvador Dalí portrait or something. No, it was a different one. Just a portrait of his face, but I remember trying to paint there, and it was just overwhelming—the smell was overwhelming. So, I had that show, and then I just kept going. I think that with any creative, in the beginning, you’re just kind of doing everything. You say yes to everything, and then you really hone in on what your style is going to become.

Evan Snow: Amen.

Aaron: Which has been a struggle. I mean, here we are, it’s 2022, and I’ve just reached a point where my stuff feels concise. I have broken away from stencils; they’re now a tool in the toolbox, but I’ve been painting with just a paintbrush and using a projector. In March of 2020, after doing art for two years—just canvases—I decided I wanted to paint a mural. My friends over at Chops and Hops asked me if I would be interested in painting a mural. They needed their sign on one wall, and they have this big American flag with axes and hatchets in the stripes. They asked me if I could do it, and obviously, I said yes. I had never painted a mural before, had no idea how I was going to scale it up, but I figured it out. From there, I said, "I want to be known as a mural artist." I told my friends. We sat down and had a conversation, and I was like, "Before the end of 2020, I want to be known as the go-to guy for murals." And by October, they had the nominations for Best Mural Artist in Fort Lauderdale, and I ended up winning that. I think that's more because I just know a lot of people—there's much more talent in me and larger artists out there than I am.

Evan Snow: But if I could say so myself, and this is a good point to bring up, when I met you and then up until that point in 2020, and even now, it's still the case—the thing I do recall vividly when I first met you, I won’t say where, but you were very genuine. You were very well-spoken, soft-spoken, well-mannered, and it was so apparent that you genuinely did want this. I didn’t know, I guess at that time, about you wanting to break away from photography. You had mentioned that you were in photography, so I assumed you were in the art game. But you were ambitious, but not overly ambitious. It wasn’t like a turn-off like some people, "I’m going to be the best mural artist!" Okay, cool, prove it, show me. But you put in the work. You networked. You had the business element of it, which we’ll get to, and some of the people you’ve connected with. But you were true to your craft. You practiced. You learned a lot—trial and error. And I do vividly remember you telling me, a little after we met, at that time, that you wanted to speak at Creative Zen, which you’re going to be the upcoming speaker at this Friday at Captain Co., to share your story. And I remember thinking, "All right, your story will develop and unfold." So from that point, I guess, if you want to go from maybe March of 2020 or around that time, how did things kind of take off to this point that you really are now one of, if not the best, muralists in Fort Lauderdale, as recognized by Fort Lauderdale Magazine?

Aaron: Well, I mean, you hit a lot of the points there. Really, it’s network, network, network. I am fortunate enough that I had a lot of followers on Instagram through the photography account, and then I gained a lot of momentum when I started doing live events and showing my work, employing tools like doing giveaways or whatever. It’s such a hard grind, and nobody likes doing it—I hate doing it. But Instagram, social media, is so important. You have to wear that hat; you have to, because now I’m at a point where if I post something on my Instagram, it’s going to sell. If it doesn’t sell within 24 hours, it’s crazy. People come to me for everything, but to the point we just touched on, it’s through hard work and being humble.

Evan Snow: Being humble—he is a genuinely good guy coming from Belize, you know, upbringing, all those things. So it is well deserved. And, you know, for the summary of this conversation, the podcast—you know, you said it sounds bad or makes it sound too easy, but it was a lot of hard work to get to that point.

Aaron: Yeah, and I’m at a point now where it’s like, you know, I see so many ultra-talented artists, way better than I’ll ever be, and it’s like they just don’t have the network or the drive or the personality or the business acumen. It’s a lot. Some of the best, most talented artists don’t know how to market, and some of the artists that are the best at marketing aren’t the most talented.

Evan Snow: Right, yeah.

Aaron: Having talent is 20% of being successful in this game.

Evan Snow: So you started, you did the murals for Chops and Hops, and then you were well-liked, had a good following. How did things kind of evolve to the point that now you have your mark all over Fort Lauderdale?

Aaron: I think that people just started recognizing, you know, "Oh, he’s painting dogs now," and then I got a lot of inquiries about that. Or, "He’s painting pop art now," and I got a lot of inquiries about that. I started making murals, people noticed, and you know, this guy knows that guy, and I just started getting inquiries. Fortunately, with murals, it’s cool because I can kind of set the time frame. It’s like, "Hey, listen, I can’t get to you for a month. I’ll start this day, I’ll finish this day, I’ll take a deposit, and when I’m done, I get the rest of it." People see it, and I just became known as the mural guy. It happened organically, I guess, but not just by chance. I really had to work and network, network, network. It’s really about who you know or who knows you or who has eyes on you. You have to put yourself out there—I know it’s not easy, but that’s my advice to a young aspiring artist or muralist who might be listening.

Evan Snow: Networking and maybe a little bit about your craft and your practice—what are some of the things that were instrumental for you, that you worked on, to get to this point in your career right now?

Aaron: Treating it like a business and not like a hobby is key. This is my fourth LLC. I’ve always had an entrepreneurial spirit—I smell dollars everywhere. If someone’s going to offer me money to do something, I’m going to do it for money. So, out the gate, it was never a hobby. My first painting, someone offered me money for it, and that was it. I thought, "How can I make this a business?" I quit my corporate job. I was working as a restaurant manager, and yeah, I just never looked back. I kept asking, "How can I make this successful? What do I have to do?" So, yeah, Instagram, business acumen, networking—those are the things that brought me here and continue to push me forward.

Evan Snow: Yeah, and now you're doing art shows at the Wilder. You're working on two other venues, had a meeting last night. You're working specifically with amateur artists like you did with Choose954. You want to be their first art show, their biggest art show, or the coolest venue. You’re showing them, "Hey, you can do this. It’s a nice little catapult, a little boost to their ego, showing them that it’s possible, and you’re going to get some sales." You’ve got to shake hands and be friendly with the public. You've had some great talent at the shows at the Wilder, giving them great opportunities and helping them make sales, which is a great way to pay it forward through the relationships you’ve established and the reputation you've built for yourself. What were some of your inspirations, especially on the painting and visual arts side, when you were getting started? I know you mentioned some of the graffiti guys and how they helped you with the stencil thing, but who are some of the artists that have inspired you?

Aaron: Well, I didn’t go to art school, which I think is a blessing. We can talk about that later, but once I started getting more serious about painting, I decided to educate myself. I was crushing documentaries. I would paint and have YouTube on, watching as many documentaries as I could about artists and art history. I was giving myself an art history education. I know it might sound cliché, but my favorite artist of all time is Basquiat.

Evan Snow: That’s not cliché, I was hoping you’d say that!

Aaron: His story—he just knew he was going to do it, and no one could tell him any different. So many stories about his tenacity, just saying, "No, I’m going to be an artist. There’s nothing else for me. I’m going to make this happen." And he made it happen. In terms of his story and how he got there, I love his art, but I love his story even more—his conviction to make it happen. In terms of what I want my art to look like, I have a few things I do. I do portraits, so I like to consider myself somewhat of a portrait artist. Then, I’m trying to get into surrealism. Surrealism is my favorite type of art to look at. I love it because it feels like you’re watching someone dream, like you’re peering into their dreams. Salvador Dalí is another huge inspiration of mine. I feel like people get disappointed when I throw out some of the bigger names. They’re probably looking for more obscure artists. Joel Rea is a surreal artist, and Jeremy Geddes is another one. Their paintings give me chills. Adrian Avila, dude, his work... I remember going to a show in West Palm Beach, and he had this gigantic painting of five ladies, and they’re nude, just kind of floating, and one lady has a veil with six stars. I literally sat in front of that painting for 30 minutes, just mesmerized. Something about surrealism excites me. I think it stems from the fact that I don’t dream a lot, and I wish I did. So, when I do dream, I really cherish them. I wish I could remember them more. Maybe I do dream but just don’t remember. That’s what I love about surrealism—people pulling creativity out of their subconscious is brilliant to me. That’s what I want to lean towards. I have one painting on display in Wynwood Tribe that’s like the brother piece to this one. I’ve done a few triptychs, but those were commissions, and they’re gone. But surrealism and portraits are the two things I really want to tap into. When I started, I did everything—I did pet portraits, whatever people wanted me to paint. But the things that I really get joy out of are these. The things I don’t get joy out of, I don’t want to do. I don’t want to paint a dog, I don’t want to paint your grandma. I don’t want to do commission pieces that I’m not passionate about. In the beginning, you have to do that, but eventually, you get to a point where you can be more selective. You know, you get bogged down because it’s like you’re not doing anything that fulfills you. When somebody tells you, "I want this, this, this, and this," and there’s no joy in that—at least for me, I don’t like it. I think one thing that’s important is realizing what is sucking the life out of you. People always ask me, "Where does your inspiration come from?" It’s a hard question for me to answer. I don’t know where inspiration comes from. I think people are asking me how I conjure up inspiration when I’m down, when I’m feeling in a funk. I don’t think there’s an answer to that, but what I try to be good at is keeping myself out of that space where I’m in a funk. Because when I’m in a funk, I can’t create. So, it’s about what is stressing me out. These paintings that I don’t want to do are stressing me out—so I’m going to skip that. I’m not going to take any more dog portraits because I don’t like doing them. There was a point where I was doing commission after commission, and I just felt so stressed out and weighed down by this heavy weight. I was like, "Oh, I need to be more organized, or I need to structure things differently." I hired an assistant, I tried to do all these things differently, and one day I woke up and realized it’s the job that I don’t like. My relationship with painting had become a job—a job that I hated. So, I just pumped the brakes. I was like, "No, if I’m going to do a commission, I need most of, if not all, of the creative freedom." And then I leaned more into painting what spoke to me. I’ve talked to a lot of amateur artists that are trying to race to this point where they’re full-time artists. "I just want to be a full-time artist. I want to quit my job." It’s like, "Dude, wait. Having supplementary income is great." Having to survive off commissions—I’ve seen it so many times, I’ve experienced it myself—it will suck the life out of you. That’s why I made that little comment about going to art school. Anybody that I’ve talked to who is a burned-out artist—forgive me for saying this—but they get burned out in art school, or they’re in some sort of job. Graphic designers—I talk to them all the time. They come to the art shows, and they’re like, "Oh, I used to do art back in the day," and then they show me their stuff. It’s amazing. It’s like they’ve just lost their passion. When you’re in a job, when you’re in a creative field where you’re forced to be creative at times when you don’t want to be creative, it sucks the life out of you. When I do it, it’s the worst feeling. But you get to a point where you can recognize that.

Evan Snow: Yeah, and through hard work, dedication, perfecting your craft, and being a good human being, now you’ve afforded yourself the opportunity to work on the things that you do want to work on. Everyone has their own unique financial situation. Some people can afford to go to art school and can afford to make an attempt at being a full-time artist. Some people do have to work at Chewy or, you know, some business and paint pet portraits to pay the bills so they can try to pursue their craft, passion, creative outlet, whatever it is, on the side. A lot of people take different paths to get here. Your path has been quite interesting. There’s some that you left out that you’re going to share in your story during Creative Zen on Friday—we don’t want to give it all away. But not everybody can be Basquiat, not everybody can be Dalí or Warhol. But if you watch documentaries—when I first saw "Boom for Real," one of the best Basquiat documentaries, in my opinion, I watched it 11 times in 10 days. It had a profound impact on me for various reasons. He was obviously very dedicated to his craft, very resourceful—soaked up all the knowledge. He read Gray’s Anatomy when he was in the hospital after a car accident when he was very, very young. You can reach a level of success, and hopefully, some young, aspiring, emerging, or amateur artist might hear this and say, "You know what? I can do that too." I don’t think you were selling out doing commissions. Some people sell out to do pop art or whatever, but stay true to yourself. Find something that you like, find something that’s your true calling and passion that does fuel that fire, that does wake you up in the middle of the night. The best art now, for me, is the art that pains the artist to make it. You know that they’ve woken up out of sleep at two o’clock in the morning, thinking, "I have to get to that canvas."

Aaron: Yes.

Evan Snow: And everybody’s going to go through their own process to get to that point. Do you still meditate?

Aaron: Yeah, I’ve gotten better. I still feel like I’m not... I think my idea of what meditation was supposed to be—I was picturing floating through the sky or mindlessness, you know—but I think that I’ve adjusted my understanding of meditation or what the definition of meditation is to me. And yeah, I feel like I have achieved what I wanted out of meditation.

Evan Snow: Well, if you want to partake in meditation and hear the rest of this young man’s story on Friday morning—and I don’t know if I mentioned this to you—it’s a new addition to Creative Zen. We host a monthly breakfast lecture series, a mini TED Talk that we do for free every second Friday morning of the month. We bring in a local thought-provoking, inspiring speaker to share their thought-provoking story, and we’ve entitled it Creative Zen. We’ve been putting the "Zen" in by bringing my coach, my guru, Chloe Revell, aka the Gemini Rising, in to lead a guided meditation before the speaker gives their talk, to help everybody get into a little bit better mindset, do some breath work. So, we’re going to try to publish this tonight. Hopefully, you can join us Friday morning, April 8th, at Kitten & Co. in Oakland Park to hear the rest or the full story. We’ll record and put it online if you’re not able to make it. We know it’s early, but we do have things for you to tell your boss if you’re unable to make it, so no worries there. If they want to find you on social media, where can they find you?

Aaron: On Instagram, you can find me at Akubo—that’s A-A-K-A-B-O, Akubo. I have a website, same—www.akubo.com. I’m on Facebook as Aaron Carl Baden, but that’s Carl with a K. But I don’t really use that as an art-driven profile. I’ve got my recurring art show every third Thursday at the Wilder, where I showcase other artists. I don’t really show my work at those shows. And I’m part of an art collective in Miami, but I’m not on any sort of schedule with them—I just kind of show up when I have the time. That’s the Jason Perez Art Collective. But yeah, that’s what I’ve got going on right now.

Evan Snow: You can find out the rest this Friday morning, April 8th, at Kitten & Co. in Oakland Park for our next installment of AAF Creative Zen. If you know a restaurant or a business that wants some public art, murals, or design work, feel free to hit this guy up. He’s definitely put in the work, he’s definitely built his portfolio—very proud. You know, we like it when the good guys get rewarded rightfully, so we hope to see you there. We’ll see you at one of the third Thursday shows at the Wilder—it’s always a good time, good venue. Stay tuned for more cool venues, opportunities, murals, and other things for you to check out in the Fort Lauderdale art scene. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me at EvansKnow13 or Choose954. I’m an open book, glad to continue bringing you guys local stories, connecting with the community, building community, hosting artist potlucks, creating affordability studio spaces for artists to work in outside their house with Zero Empty Spaces. We have some other cool stuff coming up in the works—Mezcal Lauderdale, May 14th at Toro in Dania Beach. It’s one of the first mezcal festivals in the country with over 20 brands that we’re producing with the United Group. That’ll be a good one—some after parties, some tastings, some classes, and industry events. We’re starting to plan on 954 Day for our third annual installment, September 5th at 4 p.m. Community-led bike ride—hoping we can get some participation from the downtown local businesses to do a proper block party similar to 305 Day in Miami, similar to 901 Day in Memphis. More cool stuff—stay tuned. Choose 954. Feel free to reach out, and I’d love to hear why you choose 954. If you know somebody that would be a great fit for the podcast as well, feel free to send them our way. We’re going to continue doing this as long as people listen, so we appreciate it.