We were lucky to catch up with Seangarrison recently and have shared our conversation below.
Seangarrison, thanks so much for taking the time to share your insights and lessons with us today. We’re particularly interested in hearing about how you became such a resilient person. Where do you get your resilience from?
I will try and keep this brief. My resilience comes from experiences in life. Very difficult experiences in life. If I were to attempt to navigate how to talk about all of the experiences, this would be a 100,000 plus word essay. So I’ll speak on moments, according to the decades I’ve lived and conect the lessons or the meanings of them I have uncovered to my art practice. I was born in 1968, the year of the uprising where smoke filled the air from east, west, north and south coast due to the assassinations of prominent figures in america. Or due to injustice. I tell people the fire and passion I have when it comes to some of the subjects I cover in my artwork is due to the smoke in my lungs from that time.
When I was 8, maybe nine. I suffered a stroke due to the stress of a violent father. Not towards me or my siblings but due to the violence I saw him inflict upon my mother. The incident that triggered the affliction occured in the summer of 1979. My father, whom we had moved away from due to his abuse of my mother, had come by my grandparents home. We had lived there after moving out from him. I cannot recall what precipitated this, but he slapped my mother in her “southern” fathers home. My mother stood on landing area by the back door and was holding my younger sister when she was toddler. I stood next to her. She made a comment and he slapped her. My grandfather who was home came through the kitchen with his shotgun raised. My father who was a cop at the time and always carried his gun, pulled his gun from his waistband and raised it. I reached up and grabbed the fronts of both barrells. The situation was hell manifested as screaming and cursing took place until he left. About a week, week and a half later I had stroke due to stress. The left half of my body was paralyzed. It took a bit over a month for me to regain my faculties. The only remnant of that now is the left half of my face is not as expressive as the right and I can no longer raise my left brow.
We moved to Minnesota that fall of 1979 to get away. I went to a Catholic school. I was the new kid, wasn’t a tough at all, and extremely shy. I was the kid that loved being in a book and relatively smart. Maybe a nerd. That disposition of mine was like blood in the water for some. I was bullied for three years until I left and went to high school in 1982. I couldn’t even go to mass without ridicule from some. Also in 1979, early 1980 my mother was raped at home. My siblings and I were there sleep. Watchng my mother survive that was watching God at work. To this day it amazes me how strong she was to get through that moment.
Because of that and me having two other siblings, I began to retreat inside of me and deal with things on my own as opposed to putting them on my mothers plate. It’s how I began writing poetry when I got to high school. I got my heart broke by a young lady after finally mustering up enugh courage to approach a girl. If I hadn’t strated writing I would’ve imploded. It was the only vehicle that keep me safe and was a place where I could let the pain rest.
In high school I was in a dance group called he “Minneapolis Dream Team.” We were the biggest thing moving in Minneapolis at them time. I was still this shy kid that loved to dance. I didn’t have a gift of gab one iota. My friends got the girls, I got to watch. Even when I played for the high school football team, my introvertedness got in the way of me being brave enough to approach a girl with confidence. It was a crazy time.
When I got into college, this long circuitous academic journey, I found my “social voice” in junior college while playing basketball for the team. For once I was “seen”. It was an experience.
Since that time I’ve seen people killed, had people with guns threaten my life, seen dead bodies, known about 12 children I’ve worked with killed over time and wanted to take my own life twice. The first while I sat in my art studio, before I became an artist. At that time I wasn’t brave enough to call myself an “artist”, I was just a dude that painted. Anyway, I sat in my studio frustrated with life. At that time I had one child, had just gotten laid off and was dealing with a few things. I be frank, I was tired. I was tired. Tired of fighing to make this thing called life happy. I surmised no one would miss this sad soul. Yet, the more I looked for ways on the internet (odd way I know) the more websites popped up saying “if you need help call ********” or something of that nature. The second time, in 2013, I fell alseep with the pills in my hand. I woke up that next morning vowing to never let that thought cross me again. I had two daughters at that time.
Many say “suicide is selfish”. I’d tell them until you walk in that kind of pain, that statement is debatable. Is it “fair” to those that love you? I’d say no. But, selfish? I’d tell people to hold judgment until they feel that kind of pain.
Fast forward a bit to today where Ive learned and experienced and survived the moments. Without those I would not be able to handle and believe that my craft and other entrepreneurial endeavors are worth the travel. It ain’t easy and it tests every part of your being. To believe. To have faith. To be resilient. To persevere.
There is nothing that I am aware of, other than God, that will stop me from acheiving my dreams.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a multidisciplinary artist – a storyteller through paint and pen, and social architect whose work lives at the intersection of art, activism, and human impact. I paint, write, perform, and build experiences that challenge systems, shift emotions, and ignite collective healing. My work is visceral, monumental, and deeply rooted in narrative – whether I’m painting a 24-foot canvas live during a live painting experience, creating art that archives pivotal moments in American history, or sculpting installations that translate grief, resilience, and revolution into physical form.
What makes my work most compelling is not only its scale, but its intention. I don’t only create to decorate walls – I also create to move people, confront truths, honor the unseen, and offer tenderness where trauma once lived. My studio is both “sanctuary and battleground”, a place where beauty and truth collaborate to shift consciousness. I believe “Art is the most honest mirror we have….I just choose to paint the reflections others are afraid to sit with.”
Equally central to my work is my social initiative, One Good Human™ (www.onegoodhuman.us). It is a movement built to amplify love, hope, purpose, and courage. One Good Human™ exists to celebrate and encourage people to motivate others to live life with intention, service, and compassion for stronger communities and a more empathetic nation. For me, this initiative is a natural extension of my art practice: proof that creativity is more than expression – it’s activation.
Looking ahead, 2026 marks one of my most ambitious years yet. I’m preparing a 72-foot live painting performance (location to be determined, but it will be BIG) where I’ll travel with a team of creatives to stage a unique union of art, music, neuroscience, and storytelling. I’m also developing new writing projects, launching community programming through One Good Human™, prepping a fashion show, and expanding my studio into an engine for cultural change. It’s going to be BIG!
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?
I’d say the three qualities most impactful in my journey are: 1.) My voracious appetite to understand the intracacies of the art world. Not just the artistic side, but the business side of being a creative. 2.) Understanding and facing what I don’t know and addressing that “self-deficit” as I call it and creating strengths from what were once weaknesses. 3.) My ability to converse, be able to talk to anyone, and know that wherever those conversations take place, be it a gallery or a board room; that I belong there and that moment(s) was made for me at that time. Bonus: My quality of refusing to be fearful of not reaching a goal. Failure doesn’t resonate with me. Every experience is a win.
My advice to folks on their journey is to OWN IT. It is theirs and theirs alone, and the fact that it was gifted to them means they have the power to determine the altitude of the journey. Also, PLAN PLAN PLAN! FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS! I am still a work in progress on both, but I am much better than I was yesterday.
OWN it! FOCUS on it! PLAN IT!
Those three will equal success.
What’s been one of your main areas of growth this year?
My biggest and bravest area of growth came through a break up of a relationship very dear to me. I was in love. What I was forced to do was confront some things in my past I had not dealt with (attachments things rooted in my childhood), some I weren’t aware of until the mirror of this relationship. How and why I responded to certain things, in ways that I did. As an empath (I think most artists are) I feel deeply. My emotions used tie me down in ways that paralyzed me until I sorted through them. Until I could answer and understand why certain things were happening. Over the last 12 months I had to sit with myself and honestly reflect on who I was, so I could move forward. Many say keep “personal things and business things” separate. That’s easy to say but when you have not dealt with understanding how to regulate your emotions, I have found the personal sits in between all business with distraction as the goal.
Once that was settled, a multitude of things opened up with my creative practice and business in general.
Now the sky is the proverbial limit.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.seangarrisonartist.com
- Instagram: seangarrisonartist
- Facebook: seangarrison
- Linkedin: seangarrison
- Youtube: seangarrisonartist
Image Credits
Tamika Garcia
so if you or someone you know deserves recognition please let us know here.
