We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Akemi Alchemy a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Akemi Alchemy, really happy you were able to join us today and we’re looking forward to sharing your story and insights with our readers. Let’s start with the heart of it all – purpose. How did you find your purpose?
I found my purpose by following my joy. It sounds simple, but it took me a long time to figure out. As the daughter of organizers & advocates for racial justice (my parents met through the Japanese American Citizens’ League and fought for redress for the WWII incarceration together), I thought I could only create meaningful social change through political change. So I lobbied for affordable education while at UCLA, and took on different non-profit jobs in my 20’s rallying people to vote for tax reform. But there was always something in me that felt like I was forcing enthusiasm – like I was trying super hard to be super into electoral phonebanking, but it wasn’t actually my passion.
It took a disastrous 2016 election and getting laid off a few months later for me to start considering what it was I actually wanted out of life. Somewhere in the mix, I heard this quote: “Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive.” And I felt like it gave me permission to embark on a quest to find what makes me come alive.
So I started listening to my intuition, which told me to go to Southeast Asia and learn what it was like to live in nature, to farm in the mountains, to meditate at monasteries, to sleep and eat and play in community. Coming out of that two-month experience back to LA, I started gravitating more to things which just felt good – camping, learning about gift economics, and singing with my best friends from my college a cappella group.
In 2018, I went to a visionary art rave and was so inspired by the works of Alex Grey and other psychedelic artists that I started drawing when I got home that night for the first time in like 15 years. I had loved drawing as a kid, but stopped when I realized I was no longer “the best at it” in high school and that it wasn’t a feasible career option. But that night opened a floodgate of creative energy in me, and I kept drawing, first weird abstract shapes, pure flow, and then I started painting.
I eventually found an incredible teacher, Amanda Sage, who helped me not only technically render my paintings, but also showed me how it was possible to be a vessel for divinity and universal love through my art. How I could hold a prayer in my heart for healing and paint it into form as a real vision.
So I started doing that, and I’ve never felt more powerful or more at peace than when I’m painting. When I’m painting, I feel like I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. And I see the impact of that on those who look at my art – people feel awe, they’ve even cried. The impact is transformative at a deep level. And I believe that can have powerful ripple effects.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I am an entrepreneurial artist of a few modalities – primarily, I create visionary art meant to make the present a more beautiful place and to inspire others to discover their own creative powers. I also facilitate creative expression sessions for kids, collaborating with them to co-create epic stories, artworks, songs, and more. And lastly, I’m a singer.
What I feel is special about my art is that I just started doing it a few years ago, in my late twenties, and now at age 33 I’m fairly stunned by how much I’ve improved – beyond my wildest imaginings – and by how nevertheless I still feel like I’m at the beginning of my journey. My art is a prayer for people to remember our sacredness, our creativity, and our light. There’s so much that becomes possible when we create with passion and with intentionality.
I’m excited to share that I am launching my first-ever online art shop, which feels like a huge step in my career. You can now buy original paintings, but also prints, notebooks, mugs, phone cases, tote bags, pillows, and even apparel with my art on it. At first, I felt resistance to this idea (was I selling out? would anyone even want my art in these forms?) but after seeing how epic the products came out, I’m so excited to share these offerings with the world. To take up more space in the world, and to shape the world in my own special way.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Deeply seeing – the world as it is, and the world as it could be. As an artist, I’m learning to train bother my outer and inner eye. I can look at a plant and draw it, capturing its form and light and shadows precisely, but I can also draw its invisible energy and its connection to other plants.
Believing in myself – yes, I am talented, and yes, I deserve to live a life doing what I love. Keep going!
Trusting the universe – again and again, I see how it conspires in my favor: introducing me to exactly the right people and opportunities that help me soar.
Ooh, my advice for folks early in their journey is firstly to try your best to ignore what everyone around you is doing if you don’t see yourself doing that. Are people going to grad school and finding people to marry and having babies? You don’t have to do that. Your path is going to be completely unique to you.
My next advice is to get better and better at attuning to your desires. What kind of physical activity does your body enjoy? Do you like to dance? Is watching TV the most fun thing you could be doing right now? (no shade if it is!) Who do you love hanging out with? What is your “hell yes”? Go do those.
Finally, stay curious and stay open. You never know what people, places, or projects are meant for you. Hold a prayer in your heart of wanting to be of greatest service, and you’ll get better and better at actualizing it.
Looking back over the past 12 months or so, what do you think has been your biggest area of improvement or growth?
This would DEFINITELY be my ability to focus, be disciplined, and create structure and organization for myself – and actually follow it. As a creative, I have historically been resistant to structure, as I’ve been stuck in other peoples’ that I hated so often, but it turns out that I can create my own structures, and that it’s SUPER necessary to be productive and creative. In my art journey, my pieces have become much more relatable and powerful when they have a structural foundation for my flow to be supported by.
One very simple thing I’ve been doing is writing a physical to-do list for my day, the night before, and it has really helped me stay on task with whatever I’m supposed to be doing when I catch myself starting to scroll mindlessly (y’all know what I’m talking about!).
Contact Info:
- Website: akemialchemy.com
- Instagram: @akemialchemy
Image Credits
Kevin Lee
