Meet Ayeola Omolara Kaplan | Abolitionist & Surrealist artist

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ayeola Omolara Kaplan and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ayeola, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking
Risk is at the center of my career because I am an artist. Art is an incredibly subjective medium to rely on for financial stability. However, I found that there’s no real way for me to dedicate myself to my art fully and also work a part time job. Instead of splitting myself into different boxes, I pooled myself into art in hopes of proving that the idea of a “starving artist,” was just that, an idea that I did not have to subscribe to.

When I first started considering art as a career path, I had to reckon with the fact that I wasn’t very good. Generally, you have to have a high level of technical skill to “make it” as an artist, and that was something I lacked. I also didn’t know what I wanted to say with my art. I remember thinking to myself, as I considered at as a career path, that I needed to find my voice and I needed to develop the skills to say what I had to say beautifully.

There’s a lot of honor in being self-taught, but I struggled all my life with building consistent routines. Being self-taught would have been a nightmare. So, I worked my way through college and got a liberal arts degree in Art and Religion. Through studying art and religion, I developed a technical skill I could refine after college and a holistic perspective of reality that gave me something meaningful to say with my art.

Despite my college education, art continues to be a risky career path, this has been made harder by being an “artivist.” because it’s hard to sell paintings that double as political manifestos in a society so divided. Hanging up my work in your home is as much a declaration of taste as it is a declaration of support for leftist movements. However, if I were to make more widely agreeable art, my work would loose it’s passion. The passion in my art is what makes it easy for me to commit so much time to. To mitigate risk, I work hard to find the communities and spaces where my work can be celebrated. In the age of social media, that’s been a lot more manageable than when I first started creating.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
My understanding of my own path begins with my name, Ayeola Omolara. Ayeola means rainbow and Omolara means born at the right time. Both names are of Nigerian origin. My name is a great little summary of my identity and purpose. I exist within many different marginalized identities simultaneously and this contributes to the world that I navigate and the art that I create. I am black, with indigenous American ancestors from the Creek Nation and Nigerian ancestors from the Igbo nation. I grew up Jewish, queer and autistic. Because my identity has so many facets, I heavily identify with the symbolism of the rainbow. I work hard to embrace all the different colors that make up myself in my art.

In regard to my middle name, Omolara, I was born at the right time because I was born after the 20th century black power movement, which produced heroes I can learn from like Malcom X, Martin Luther King, Angela Davis, and members of the Black Panther Party. Like my revolutionary ancestors, I believe that the oppression of the poor and people of color must come to an end and that our equity is worth fighting for. I think that all of the previous generations’ actions have aligned in a way that creates a situation where justice can finally be actualized. We have the capability to birth a new age where everyone can experience freedom and dignity. In the previous age we witnessed a rise in patriarchal systems, industrialization, colonization and the demonization of earth focused religious and spiritual practices. While the previous age involved the establishment of Capitalism and other systems that harmed humanity and the planet, I believe this new age will involve the dismantling of capitalism, a reemergence of communal living situations and a return to viewing humans as a part of the sacred earth.

My creations and existence are built upon my belief that art can have a healing effect on the viewer. This, of course, means that I believe humanity needs healing. In our society, which is plagued by generational trauma, it is my hope that my art can be a necessary medicine.

In the United States of America, we are witnessing incredible levels of gun violence, environmental destruction and hopelessness in the face of urgent issues like climate change, homelessness, police brutality, and international war. We have to reckon with the inhumanity of mass incarceration and the prison-industry. Outside of prisons many of us experience the trauma of wage slavery which keeps many of us bound to low wage jobs and robs us of the time to heal, study, and organize for justice. On top of all of this our communities experience a continued stream of media that instills fear rather than hope. Much of our existence is painted by an illusion that our future is not in our hands. Our conditions keep many of us focused on survival instead of liberation. When we begin to accept our current situation as normal, we allow ourselves to practice patience instead of action. When we accept that a struggle for justice is futile, we begin to ignore or distance ourselves from people who are suffering. We may begin to actively avoid conversations about poverty or prisons. Or even worse, we may decide that politics is something we have to avoid altogether.

I work hard to assert that my work is political because I believe that it is in the political realm that human rights issues can be faced head on. I find that whenever I speak about my race and the history of my ancestors, I am being called political. When I talk about prisons, poverty and homelessness, I am called political. If it is political for me to question why human suffering is excused for the sake of building extreme wealth for a privileged few, then I assert that my work is indeed political, and that centering politics is good.

I create with the hope that my art can help inspire more people to engage actively and continually in politics. When politics becomes something, we can choose to opt in and out of, we avoid tackling the root of many human rights issues. My artwork is created to stimulate political dialogues because I believe the issues I am concerned about shouldn’t be considered inappropriate to discuss. My work aims to make politics less taboo and political conversations normal. When the politics we are introduced to in grade school and in the media is so limited, it is so important for us to take our political education in our own hands. Through dialogue with people who have different experiences and passions than us, our perspectives can be widened. I don’t propose that the political divisions in this world can be healed entirely by dialogue alone (especially between groups who refuse to recognize the humanity in each other) but I do believe it is of primary importance. A society that is unable to communicate about its most pressing issues is a society that is unlikely to develop non-violent solutions or engage in the necessary actions to address those issues. There’s this old saying that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. My art is a part of a chorus of squeaky wheels.

This may sound cheesy, but I create under the belief that if we all follow our hearts and do what’s important to us we can all engage in small steps that significantly alter the nature of humanity into a people that are capable of healing and inventing the ideas and movements that will liberate us. In other words, this is a butterfly effect. The butterfly effect is the concept that small actions can result in large consequences. We all have niche interests and life stories which can perfectly help us understand our path, which can help catalyze a series of divinely inspired events that perhaps miraculously save the world.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I want to preface this by saying that I am a hardcore homebody and introvert. Despite being born and raised in Atlanta, I haven’t explored much of the city’s most popular attractions. Instead, I’ve found a lot of joy in visiting the same coffee shops and walking the same trails over and over again.

When a friend visits and wants to experience Atlanta, I make an effort to have us spend a day in Little Five Points. It represents the artistic soul of the city and I’ve never had a bad time there. It’s just too visually stimulating to not at least appreciate aesthetically. Aside from that, the restaurants and shops there are unique instead of being a part of chains. You can find something there you can’t find somewhere else and you’re bound to meet people you’ll never forget.

If we’re feeling extra spendy, I’d spend a day at Lennox mall and Phipps, Oooing and AAaaaing at the luxury items we could only dream of affording. And then I’d end the night with a dinner at the Westin’s Sundial rotating restaurant. I haven’t been since high school homecoming, but, if it’s anything like it was back then, it’s worth the long elevator ride (which is half the fun) to get a revolving view of the city skyline.

I’d also invite them for a walk on the beltline. I adore having a space to just walk and not have to worry about motorized vehicles. It feels safe and I really appreciate the street art, landscaping, and wildlife along the trail.

My favorite coffee shop to visit is the Read Shop in vinnings. Admittedly, I found this coffee shop, adored it and basically stopped looking for other coffee shops to visit. But from what I have experienced, it’s a really great place to grab some coffee and catch up on work. You have to be there really early to get a seat though. It is very tiny.

Piedmont park is always an adventure worth having and a visit to the Botanical Garden is a treat especially during the winter when it’s decorated with string lights.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I’d like to give acknowledgment to the organization Freedom to Thrive for helping to bloom into the artivist I am today. Through their “We Rise” convenings, I was brought into a community of passionate and diverse people, who encouraged me to view myself as a powerful agent of change. Freedom to Thrive helped me build a worldview that centered the liberation of people of color through the efforts of mass movements. Before my time with Freedom to Thrive, I had a loose understanding of what abolition means and how to incorporate an abolition actively into my lifestyle. Now, I feel more than comfortable calling myself an abolitionist. To be an abolitionist is to reject the idea that the systems and ways of being that we have come to normalize are the only path forward. An abolitionist dares to dream of a liberated future where no one profits from the blood of their neighbors or feels they must continue to participate in a way of life that contributes to the suffering of others. An abolitionist dares to turn their dreams of a just world into a just reality. With the support of Freedom to Thrive, I feel optimistic about my potential to usher in that just reality.

Website: https://www.ayeola.org/

Instagram: @ayeolaomolara

Other: email: ayeola.o.kaplan@gmail.com