TVISUAL

20 QUESTIONS: AJ ROGERS

Art by AJ Rogers

1. What is one thing people would be surprised to know about you?

“If I tell you then it would no longer be a surprise. You’ll have to get to know me first and then I would be able to surprise you.”

2. What is your greatest indulgence?

“This is somewhat of a hard question. Hmm, food wise I’d say that I’m really, really, really into cream cheese, so anything with cream cheese in it I’m there! Although I know that it isn’t healthy, I still love eating it. I hope that answers the question.“

3. Go-to song and movie?

“For my go-to movies, when I’m looking for inspiration I often find myself gravitating towards any animated movie done by Tim Burton e.g. Nightmare before Christmas and Corpse Bride. For my go-to song, I don’t have a go-to song per say, however, I do like songs with a particular vibe. I tend to like songs about love and heartbreak. For example, there is this song by Labyrinth called “Jealous” that I really love, also songs from Bruno Mars’ Unorthodox Jukebox album or even his first album. So yeah, songs similar to the examples before really strike a chord with me.“

4. What do you do with your spare time?

“I would love to say that I am productive and create stuff with my spare time…but that’s so not true. So, usually when I have spare time I tend to sleep in really late because I love to sleep in late and because I tend to stay up at night to create. I also enjoy eating popcorn and catching up on movies and tv shows and you can also catch me diving into the abyss that is YouTube and getting lost.”

5. What brings you the greatest satisfaction?

“Hmm this is a really hard question to answer. I think what brings me the greatest satisfaction is completing a task, whether it be art or otherwise, that may have seemed daunting or challenging in the beginning.”

"God Complex" a visual collaboration by TVISUAL & AJ Rogers

6. What is one thing everyone should try at least once in their life?

“I believe that everyone should go on an incline hike at least once in their life to experience the feeling on triumph that comes after conquering a really intense hike. I went to a hike the other day and I felt like I almost died but at the end I was like, ‘I did that,’ and I also felt very accomplished for succeeding.”

7. What is one thing you would change about the world if you could?

“There are two things that I would change about the world if I could. The most important thing I wish for is that human would be eco-friendlier. I would like for us to live in the environment without damaging the environment to the point that it cannot replenish. Take for instance animals becoming extinct due to hunting or extracting and depleting the earth’s natural resources; all of which I wish did not happen so that we can live harmoniously with the environment. Also, if I could I would make money obsolete because I think money brings problems and humans focus too much on money. So those are the things I would change if I could.”

8. Who is your biggest hero?

“I don’t believe that I have one particular hero per say. However, when I work there are people that I get inspired by which makes me research and study them for a moment. But to say I have one person that is my hero I would say no.”

9. What is the best advice you have ever been given?

“I believe the best advice I’ve ever been given is to go one hundred percent at the thing you want to accomplish most. Don’t just talk about it and never do it but actually try your best to accomplish it. If you fail then you fail, but you might just become successful at it.”

10. What mantra/quote do you try to live by?

“In success, there is always failure.”

"God Complex" a visual collaboration by TVISUAL & AJ Rogers

11. What inspires you/your craft?

“I get inspiration from a bunch of different places, but at the core of it all there needs to be some sort of emotional connection for me. I need to be moved by something in order to be further inspired. This inspiration can come from a conversation, movie or music.”

12. What is the best experience you’ve had in the industry or while pursuing your craft thus far?

“I believe that in life anything can happen, so I wouldn’t say that this moment was the best, however, it was definitely a milestone. I was a part of an exhibition called ‘Emerge’ which was one of the biggest shows I’ve had thus far for which I had to do 12 or 13 pieces. I was really nervous as the colour pallet was limited to black, white and grey. Nonetheless, I did it and when I saw my work up on the walls I had a moment of gratification because it looked really cool and the pieces were what I wanted to showcase. Also, the reception from the audience was quite positive to top it off.”

13. What would be one thing you’d hope to gain from the continuation of your craft?

“What I would like to gain from this is being afforded the opportunity to inspire an upcoming mind or creative person. I feel like art has a connotation of elitism; meaning that persons think that you have to be well off to enjoy or create art. However, to me art is something simplistic and I feel like I grew up outside of the image people consider art/artists to be and I’m still doing it. So, all this to say that you can be what you want to be no matter where you come from.”

14. What are the top three things on your perennial to-do list?

“I don’t have a perennial to-do list because I tend to go with the flow of life and set mini goals for myself. Therefore, I don’t really have a list of things I’d like to do before I die.”

15. What is the best gift you’ve ever received?

“That is a very hard question because I like every single gift that I get because I don’t ever expect to get gifts, so when I do I really appreciate them. One thing that stands out from when I was younger was an encyclopaedia set I received as a Christmas gift from my parents because I really enjoyed reading as a child. I believe that it was the one of the best gifts I’ve ever received because I got to learn so much and they lasted so long, even until secondary school.”

Art by AJ Rogers

16. Where do you see yourself in five years?

“I do not know. Maybe in five years I’d be able to have a bigger studio space and still be creating work but on a larger scale. So yeah, basically my own studio space to create in and the ability to create larger scale pieces as well as getting to travel for my art.”

17. What is one thing you wish you knew when you were younger?

“One thing would be that I was ok and nothing was wrong with me. This refers to my body size because I was always taller than everyone else and I had really tiny and average sized friends. I always thought that I was freakishly large but it turns out that I wasn’t, I just had a different body type. I wish that I didn’t care so much about that minor factor.”

18. What would you say to your past self if you had the chance?

“I would say to my past self, “Ok, you have very strong opinions, and nothing is wrong with that, but you can tone it down a bit haha.” Also, “Stick to your standards and you’ll be fine.”

19. How was your TVISUAL experience?

“It was good. I’m pretty scatter brain and for that I think that they got a little upset with me…but they were pretty hospitable, therefore making it a good experience.”

20. Who should we highlight next?

“Ok…there is a young lady from my area, Mayaro, called Zakiya Gill who is a spoken word artist and a very interesting young lady with a lot of stories to tell and she really wants to tell them haha.”