CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – Old meets new whenever inspiration strikes.
Before digital artist Solomon Flash gets creative in his apartment, he burns sage in an ancient ritual. He’s in the zone despite the outside noise of traffic and other potential distractions.
“So while that’s going, I’ll just be breathing it in,” said Flash, setting the mood as he works with a modern medium. “Somehow, it’s relaxing to me.”
He primarily works on an iPad, going by the name Velvet Void. Flash says male African-American artists have a lot of emotions to convey through what they do in the face of self-doubt sometimes.
“You kind of grow up with this feeling like, ‘Are my differences going to prevent me from living the fullest life that I can,’” Flash told Queen City News.
“This is my character, Beatrice,” he explained, working on his latest piece. “Somebody that represents everything about humans: the good, the bad, the ugly.”
“I want you to see yourself in her,” he explained.
Flash’s path to pursuing art full-time came after a string of full-time careers. He served in the Marine Corps and was a Maryland State Trooper.
Solomon’s fond of those memories but recalls struggling in some respects.
“Just the feeling of being lost. I just had this feeling, like ‘Man, I’m not fulfilled,’” he says.
Traumatic moment affected Flash
In 2018, as a trooper, he responded to the scene of a deadly shooting.
Flash saw the body of a man he thought was a suspect, but it turned out to be a Prince George’s County Police corporal.
“That was kind of shocking to me,” Flash said.
He paused as the magnitude of that moment hit him again.
“I don’t think I’ve processed that fully, but this is the first time I’ve talked about it.”
Corporal Mujahid Ramzziddin was off-duty before an incident when he was fatally shot five times.
He died trying to protect a neighbor in a domestic violence incident.
“The way it impacted me that night, I definitely couldn’t sleep,” Flash recalled.
That wasn’t necessarily a turning point, he says, but it is a part of the background that affected him deeply.
It took years to find himself and discover his voice as an artist.
He’ll be among nearly 40 artists on Sunday at “A Marvelous Black Boy Art Show” in Charlotte.
“Everybody wants to feel safe, and everybody wants to be loved. So, with those two things, it’s like how do we do something that people will remember,” Flash says, summing up his approach to art.
He’s seen his share of everything from joy to profound tragedy.
Now, art gives him an outlet to surprise himself.
“Sometimes it comes out of nowhere, and I’m like, ‘Who is this?’” he said.