Meet Watson Mere

We were lucky to catch up with Watson Mere recently and have shared our conversation below.

Watson, looking forward to learning from your journey. You’ve got an amazing story and before we dive into that, let’s start with an important building block. Where do you get your work ethic from?
My work ethic definitely come from my parents and the small town that I was raised in called Belle Glade, FL. Both of my parents are Haitian immigrants and upon arriving to the USA they lived in my hometown of Belle Glade, FL, which other than producing elite football players, is known for its vast cane fields. When I was a child my mother and father worked in those cane fields and they would leave for work at early hours in the morning and come back late in the evening exhausted because of the physical labor of the job. They eventually got jobs that were not as physically demanding but observing them work so hard to provide for my brother and sister instilled a relentless work ethic within me at an early age. Belle Glade, FL itself also played a major part in my work ethic. Even thought it was a town of 16,000, at the time of me living there the city had produced the most NFL player at one point. This fact speaks to the nature of the type of individuals the city molds.

Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I have been an exhibiting visual artist since 2016 and a performance artist since 2022. I enjoy creating images of individuals from the African diaspora that pull in the viewer to ask questions about themselves or society as a whole. I make work that is mostly conversation starters. I think the most exciting part about what I do is the face-to-face interactions and conversations I have with people when I am presenting my work. The array of different perspectives intrigues me and half of the time individuals are pointing out aspects about the piece that I did not intend to place in it, which speaks to the subconscious nature of creating art. As of the beginning of 2024, I will be working on a new body of work called Black Concrete, which will be expressions from my observations of New York City at night, particularly what I am exposed to during my late-night travels from my home in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, to my art studio in Times Square, Manhattan.

There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
I received my Master of Business Administration degree in 2015 from Florida A&M University, and although this was not an art degree, receiving a business degree taught me an incredible amount of business savvy and organization. The business skills I learned from my degree have helped me tremendously throughout my artistic career, whether it be networking with potential collectors, curators, gallerists, and general supporters to refining my time management skills.

Being able to be observant of my surroundings has had a huge impact on my journey as well. I wasn’t able to speak until the age of 5 and was taught to draw to communicate. This forced me to be incredibly observant of my surroundings so that I could effectively express what I was seeing through my artwork, essentially, art was my first language.

Finally, patience in the realm of the art world is key since from my experience opportunities work like ebbs and flows and sometimes the opportunity that shifts things comes out of nowhere amid a dry season. To ride this rollercoaster without wanting to walk away one needs to attain the quality of patience and continue to persevere and push forward even when things are in a slow season.

Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
I would say my biggest area of improvement within the past 12 months has been my ability to paint with acrylics on canvas. For almost 25 years I have been utilizing the program Microsoft Paint with a mouse to make the majority of my works but when I was offered a studio space at the Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts in Midtown Manhattan I looked at this as an opportunity to significantly increase my painting skills. Within the past 12 months, I have produced 7 art pieces that have shown leaps and bounds in terms of improvements compared to my attempts at painting in years prior.

Contact Info:

Image Credits
– Kay Hickman – Hollis King – Byron “Lupo” Smith – Lucas Hoeffel

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