There’s a certain point for many artists when they start to feel like they’ve lost themselves. Perhaps they got a job right after graduation that wasn’t exactly what they wanted to do, but it paid the bills. After a while, they found that their motivation to create their own work has waned. Years go by, and they’re still working on someone else’s vision, having grown comfortable enough that they can’t see it getting any better for themselves. But then one day, it hits them: how out of touch they are with their own creative spirit.

This was the position that Anthony Joseph (BMA 2002) found himself in, after more than 12 years at the same company, creating artwork for casino games. “I tell people that I lost myself in the industry and career, and the life that it gave me. Debt had become a foreign word, and life was good, but then I started becoming stale”, he says. “I didn't even know what I was working on anymore, as far as animating and designing. It was like taking your favourite food and eating it every day. Eventually the dish loses its taste and ultimately its worth.”

Anthony's hunger for creativity was reawakened after the passing of his great uncle, as he made a sketch on his flight home to Vancouver. Unlike all the other sketches that were merely “a means to make mental bookmarks of reflections and observations,” this one had a deeper purpose. “I just found myself staring at the sketch upon finishing it, and feeling like the feelings of love for family expressed within the sketch merited being explored on a bigger canvas,” he says.

Those feelings led him to start oil painting again, which helped him combat the creative stagnancy he'd been experiencing up until that point. By dedicating time for his personal work on the side and integrating it into his daily routine, he was able to reignite his love for making art. “The more I [painted], the more I enjoyed it, to the point that when quitting time came, I couldn’t wait to get back home to do more painting.”

That Christmas, he gave his grandparents an oil painting he had been working on for over a year. Prompted by his mother to talk about the piece, he finally expressed what he had been feeling all along since painting came back into his life: joy and passion. “I was so overwhelmed by describing a feeling that I was enjoying that I hadn't really taken a moment to stop and be like, yes this is it,” he says. “And as I was talking, I burst into tears.”

When trying to make sense of his emotional reaction, Anthony had a realization. “This is what happens when you let your passions go, when you neglect your passions: when they come back, they come back hard.”

Since this epiphany, Anthony has never looked back, devoting himself to exploring the arts and himself as an artist, which is evident in his myriad of creative pursuits. While still working at the gaming company, he branched into acting and booked a number of supporting roles in various film, television, stage and commercial projects, including motion capture work. His acting resume includes high-profile productions such as the Snowpiercer and The Flash TV series, along with the staging of “the racially-charged play” Dutchman.

But he was emboldened to leave his secure job behind and dedicate himself fully to the arts after the passing of his grandfather. The loss made him realize how finite life is. When he was given an opportunity to relocate to Vegas, he chose to move on from the company instead. "I never experienced a loss like the loss of my grandfather. But for 12 years of my life, I worked at that company, so it was really difficult to leave. It was the most challenging time of my life,” he says. While Anthony laments on the loss as being earth-shattering, he sees the value in these painful experiences. “It's the pain that you grow from and I've never gone through a period as big as that as far as coming into my own,” he says.

After quitting his job, Anthony embarked on freelance work full-time as an artist in 2012. In 2014, he launched his very own art studio, ADO Works, where he creates mixed media paintings, illustrations and animations. In 2016, Anthony curated his first solo painting exhibition, entitled And the Monkey Flips the Switch, “showcasing a series of black and white oil paintings conveying Anthony’s personal reflections on social evolution through the cycle of life.” Anthony adds, “[The show] also acted as a soft-launch for a line of designer shirts featuring prints from my ongoing painting collections, produced under ADO Works.”

Last year, Anthony made the headlines on CBC News for his sweeping, large-scale mural along the Georgia viaduct that stood as a powerful reclamation of Hogan’s Alley through its depiction of the neighbourhood’s former residents. The piece, called Hope Through Ashes: A Requiem for Hogan’s Alley, was created in partnership with the Hogan’s Alley Society, as part of the 2020 Vancouver Mural Festival. “In painting a mural about Hogan’s Alley on the Georgia Viaduct, I am adding art to the very instrument that led to the destruction of Vancouver’s first concentrated Black community,” Anthony writes in his artist statement.

It’s clear that Anthony is doing something right, with his growing body of accomplishments. When asked what he thinks has been integral to his growth as an artist, he espouses the importance of constantly seeking change. “And change doesn't mean abandoning what was or what you knew, no, it's about expanding and growing and building upon,” he says. “What are the latest techniques? What are the latest styles? What's going on with these styles that I'm already familiar with, that I use and love? Point being, just explore everything. Continue to seek the new— the new of what you don't know, and the new of what you do.”

Often seeking the new means embracing vulnerability, like leaving a financially-stable job to embrace the precarity of freelance work. But Anthony views vulnerability as a necessity in terms of pushing us out of our comfort zones and “hardening” oneself. “Until you get out of your shell, life will remain stagnant. You know?", he says, adding, “So it's gonna hurt at first, it's going to be challenging, but you gotta do it as much as it might seem like it sucks.”

There’s a sage and self-assured quality to Anthony’s manner of speaking, which can only be attributed to someone whose wisdom and insight has come from dedicating their life to their artistic calling. Chock-full of encouraging and inspirational advice that could fill a book, Anthony offers these last words: “Don't ever get content. As soon as you feel content, train yourself to use it as an alarm”, he says. “And it doesn't mean don't take a moment to stop and smell the roses and appreciate what you've accomplished, but once again, it's all about balance. Smell the roses and enjoy the fruits of your labour, but also keep on moving, keep growing.”