Meet Josiah Bolth

 

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Josiah Bolth. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Josiah, thanks for sharing your insights with our community today. Part of your success, no doubt, is due to your work ethic and so we’d love if you could open up about where you got your work ethic from?

I got my work ethic from being incarcerated on a date plantation when I was a teenager. Toil is inevitable so you may as well enjoy it, even if there are scorpions/tarantulas/vinegaroons hidden among the fruit. Nowadays, I see my toil as a healing discipline. It functions as a way to clarify my most sincere thoughts, passions and anxieties into a material form. Channeling these sensations gives me great joy and release, like a hot bath or an exorcism. I try to exalt my practice as much as possible by adjoining my painting with prayer and deep meditation. Doing this in the morning forms an essential part of my daily rituals, like brushing teeth or saying prayers before bedtime.

Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?

I am from the desert. My life has been a party, and a tragedy, and a joke. My painting isn’t so much a professional occupation; it functions more as a means of preserving my own mental clarity and sense of self-worth as everything around me slips into oblivion. It allows me to engage with the imaginative realm of cryptids, angels and phenomena while roaming the contemporary socio/economic/political landscape without devolving into despair. As a professional skill set, it makes me no money and is therefore, by definition, worthless. I do it to keep myself sane and it seems to work for that purpose and no other. I’m currently plotting an exhibition at Living Arts of Tulsa alongside Olivia Maday, entitled The Enchanted Dungeon that will run from Aug 1-23, focusing on the phantasmagoria of 21st century North American life.

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?

1. Time is not your enemy: this is sacred wisdom granted to me by the faeries of the Uragh stones. Take as much as you need, expect nothing in return for it.

2.Channel your psychosis: if you identify yourself as an artist, most of society will give you an automatic pass on all manner of insufferable attitudes/behaviors/ideas, so you may as well milk that chaotic energy for all that it is worth and put it into your work. This tendency may destroy both human society and all your personal relationships, but remains a resource to be utilized for your practice. Don’t worry about being cringe: as an artist you are already cringe. Never let vanity metastasize into denial.
3.SELL OUT AT THE FIRST OPPORTUNITY. Identify the worst people in your life and kiss their asses until they love you. Do not make waves of any kind. Focus exclusively on whatever you think people will be talking about 6 months from now. Develop a signature style and integrate it into an easy production process that allows you to create artwork that can be traded for CASH and can earn you small amounts of money in the near-term to stave off starvation.

I have personally done none of these things (successfully) so I can attest to their efficacy based on my own failures.

Alright, so before we go we want to ask you to take a moment to reflect and share what you think you would do if you somehow knew you only had a decade of life left?

I am facing an intergenerational curse that I have absolutely no capacity to resist. It has already taken many of those closest to me. I know it will eventually cost me my life, but I am determined to get this bag and dunk on my haters before I go. Defeat is inevitable but I will fight because there is no other choice.

Contact Info:

Image Credits

Josiah Bolth aka the Secular Cowboy

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