Joshua, as we’ve already said, you were already a very busy man before your career as an artist. How did you find your calling as an artist?
I’ve done almost everything under the sun. I was a barista, a firefighter, US sales manager for The Hundreds, Merchandise Manager for Complexcon and founded a street west label I ran for 8 years to start. The biggest impact I made creatively in my past was as an owner of a street wear label – but I hit a wall after 8 years and found myself in a position where I needed a dramatic change. It was a difficult position to be in. At age 13 or 14, my dream was to own a successful streetwear brand but now that I had reached that goal, I knew I had a larger purpose and decided to blindly walk away. I had nothing planned but I knew it felt right taking this risk of walking away from a secure position. I started conceptualizing what my next move would be, failure after failure I finally stumbled on an idea that would change my life for the better: ‘Reality To Idea’ was born in April of 2017. The concept is to take a finalized object and recreate a visualization of the initial idea from pen and paper. The purpose is to highlight the origin of all ideas and concepts. I think there’s something beautiful in that exact moment you rush to write something down or draw a quick sketch. The first object I wanted to practice the concept with was a sneaker. I picked it up, painted white, and drew the original lines of the silhouette, the way it would have been drawn on paper reimagining the moment someone first said: “This is what this sneaker will look like”. I think seeing that reenergized my creativity and my wants and needs to continue creating for the sake of creating. Ever since I painted on that sneaker my life’s been a roller coaster. Now, I’m in the position that I’m in today because of that moment. I had reached the lowest point in my life and I was somehow able to pivot and climb out of the deep hole I dug myself in.