Budda Oeuvre: Art Through A Shared Experience
Art is a conflation of our minds imagery, personal experiences, and intellectual or creative wherewithal, immortalizing each piece as a symbol reflective of an idea or concept. When art becomes culturally relevant and reflects a specific viewpoint within a mishmash of conflicting contemporary thought, we attach prolificacy, when it would be apt to declare society at large late to the experiences of its own people. Many artists, regardless of race, creed, or sexuality, will naturally have a heightened understanding and capacity of expression, due to first hand world experiences — both good and bad.
Maryland based free-hand artist, Maché Turner aka “Budda Oeuvre”, creates her works via inspiration from her thoughts and experiences. Much of her art features bright dynamic colors in a cartoonish style. Her pieces vary in subject matter ranging from pop culture, to social issues, race, and more. Please read our exclusive interview below to learn more about Budda Oeuvre.
Where are you based?
Maryland
How did you get interested in painting and design?
My grandmother used to buy “how to draw” cartoon booklets for me to practice. I believe I was about 12 years young when I picked up this skill. There was a huge break in time but I picked back up on it in my junior year of college.
The DMV area has an interesting hold on the arts, especially within music, the hip-hop and go-go scene for instance. D.C., in particular, is well known for preservation cultural history with The Smithsonian National Museum of African Americans. Did living in the DMV area have an influence on your creativity? If so, how?
It may have had some sort of doings being that before COVID I spent a lot of my free time visiting different museums for inspiration.
Your art style has a vibrant colorful pop art aesthetic. Can you talk about your design ethos? How did you find your signature style? When did you decide to seriously pursue art?
I’ve always been a huge fan of cartoon style art or just cartoons in general. I love the bright colors and/or anything that would make the image pop more than usual. It didn’t take me long to discover my style, I would say, but my work has definitely improved over the past two years. I’ve decided to pursue my art in more of a business aspect in 2017. It started out as something to do for therapeutic purposes, but once I experienced that people actually like my work/interested in purchasing, I began looking at myself, as well as my craft, as a business.
Much of your art highlights black empowerment and different aspects of the black experience in America. What do you hope viewers take away from your art?
There is beauty in pain and art is all around us. It is unfortunate for us as African Americans to experience the things that we do, so, for me, what other ways to deal with these type of things? Create! Although my work is extremely versatile with many of my pieces, I hope that others can see a story through it or be able to understand how I am feeling/what I am thinking.
What often inspires your pieces? What goes into creating them?
I am inspired by many things. Rather it is music, a photograph I’ve seen on social media , or just an idea/thought I have. It varies day by day. I envision many things as cartoons.
COVID had a disastrous effect on small businesses. How was your business impacted by the shelter-in-place order? How has it affected your ability to create?
Thankfully, business has been operating fairly well and the amount of support I’ve gained was truly appreciated. As an entrepreneur, you don’t just stop or give up when something tries to shut you down. With that being said, I’ve found other ways for getting my target audience engaged, in addition to how else I can produce other work, not only for them, but myself.
You have been doing a lot of art that is inspired from the Black Lives Matter movement. Do you feel that art is an important part of a movement?
Yes, I do. It is a form of expressing what and how I feel.
How are you staying positive during these times?
Exercising and creating.
What is your motto in life?
Hard times don’t last, worry about what you can control.
To learn more about Budda Oeuvre, please follow her via the below platforms:
www.buddaaoeuvre.com
Instagram: buddaoeuvre
