Meet Drew & Alicia | Co-Owners of The Local Aesthetic

We had the good fortune of connecting with Drew & Alicia and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Drew & Alicia, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
It started with a long road trip for the first job we had received in a year filled with quarantine. I looked over at Alicia who was driving and said, “Hey, what if we started a subscription box for artists and we start it out in Georgia?” to which she replied… “wut?” Where jobs had been ripped out of our grasp or where expectations of working for free are rampant, we wanted to be different and prove that there is another way for artists to get paid for what they do. Our first obstacle was to get participation so our first goal was to reach out to artists we knew and enjoyed and tell them about our idea. We decided that we would guarantee payment up front instead of giving a portion of the proceeds after sales. Turns out, offering to pay artists to do their work, means they want to participate. 50+ artists and counting means we have an entire subscription year locked and loaded (finger guns *pew pew) and ready to send out. The more artists that apply and become contributing artists for The Local Aesthetic, the more we are driven to support them and the artist community. We know that together we can grow and thrive.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
The Local Aesthetic is a monthly subscription box curated with art from Georgian artists. Each month the subscriber receives one small, one medium and one large art piece plus artist folios of the featured artists to learn their stories and what makes them special. Four artists are featured every month, bringing you authentic works they’ve created themselves. Look on our website: the-local-aesthetic.myshopify.com to see the art pieces. Any 3 of the pieces featured will be in the first box sent out in May 2021. The artists gotta get paid. Our gross proceeds are split 50/50 with the artists.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Street art is so important so there would be a walking tour on doll’s head trail along the beltline to the full murals scattered in Atlanta – proof that artists make every view of Atlanta more interesting. Next would be a meal at Folk Art where hanging on the walls is nothing but folk art. Then we would head to the Atlanta Museum and the Cyclorama – it’s such an interesting captured history and an intricate part of the history of Atlanta. Then we would go to Taco Mac – there is no art there, but I like their wings and I need wings sometimes. Next we would go on a nice walk through the Chattahoochee Nature Preserve because you need to see all of the plants and wild flowers – the bee hotel is lit. If it’s winter, we would go to the Botanical Gardens and stand among the trees to get a view of the musical dancing lights. For a final meal, we would go to our favorite place – Gu’s Dumplings in Krogg Street Market where they will order Sweet and Spicy THICK noodles followed by some ice cream at Jenny’s Ice Cream – they can decide what ice cream to get.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
As cheesy as it may sound, we have to thank our families. They are the biggest cheerleaders, constructive criticism givers and proponents for us to succeed. We could not pave our way without their love and support. Our parents are creatives and chose a career route that was not artistically oriented. It is refreshing to have parents that see a future for an artist in the world instead of directing us to do something with a guaranteed outcome. When we wanted to throw in the towel because truthfully being an artist is hard, they steered us back into this path because they saw that it made us happy instead of money (for now). Thank you.

Website: the-local-aesthetic.myshopify.com

Instagram: instagram.com/thelocalaestheticga

Twitter: twitter.com/tlocalaesthetic

Facebook: facebook.com/thelocalaestheticga