“Chilladelic;” twisted imagery, hidden detail, sensory overload—this is how Byron Berry, founder of Midwest Art Movement, describes his art. “My own individual brand would be ‘chilladelic’—I made my own kind of brand,” Berry said. “You just gotta see it, I want people to feel overwhelmed.”
Midwest Art Movement is a collaboration of young artists in Dayton, Ohio, who are focused on showcasing their art and passions, including music, poetry, drawings, paintings and videos.
“The best way I can categorize Midwest Movement is that it is an art collection of youth in Dayton, Ohio,” Berry said. “It’s a collaboration of me and my friends trying to show our art to the public through the Internet or public display.”
Coming from an artistic background, Berry said his parents have always supported and inspired his passion, ever since his first encounter with art. “When I was really young, my dad used to show me a lot of comics in [the Dayton Daily newspaper],” Berry said. “I used to try to replicate them and ever since then, he really inspired me to push my art and develop my own craft.”
Staying true to his first experience with art, Berry just finished creating another comic strip for his comic series. “I just pushed out a comic a few weeks ago—I have my own original comic series, you can find it on www.TandR.org,” Berry said.
Berry graduated from Stivers School for the Arts focusing on visual arts. He said art was his passion, but education plays an important role in his life as well. He is a new student at Sinclair Community College, majoring in Art, but hopes to make it big within two years.
“I honestly hope that something will kick off between the next two years for me to support myself with my art, but I do think education is really important and that’s why I’m here,” Berry said.
This 19-year-old not only shares his artwork through Midwest Art Movement shows, but also online. He said he enjoys showcasing his artwork through public displays because it gives people the opportunity to come to the Midwest Movement shows and experience different art.
“It’s an open art gallery showcasing art and music,” Berry said. “Artists come from all over the city, and even some outside of the city to set up pop up shops to sell clothing and jewelry.”
Berry said there are over 47 members in the Midwest Art Movement, which includes art, music, clothing, poetry and videos. He said he doesn’t stick to just one venue of art. “Outside of my art, I make music, I write poetry, I produce videos, I manage young artists, create comic books,” Berry said.
Midwest Art Movement always wants to encourage young artists, according to Berry. He said he has no set system of finding artists to showcase their work, but suggests people can contact them through the Movement’s website.
“I have no system of how I go about finding artists to showcase their art at the shows,” Berry said. “They are welcome to submit art on our Tumblr and Instagram pages. We can make arrangements for them to show their art at our next show or we can help produce videos and kind of work together to produce art. I encourage people to get involved with other artists and put yourself out there.”
Similar to most artists, inspiration comes from all sorts of aspects in life. Berry said he finds inspiration through Japanese animation, video games and hip hop music. “There’s a lot of inspiration and culture in anime, street art and music in general,” Berry said.
Music plays a huge role in Berry’s life, which motivates him to create art. He said not only does music help him express his emotions, but it also gives him title ideas for his artwork.
“The first thing I do is turn on some music—I get a lot of inspiration from music and a lot of title ideas from my music,” Berry said. “I try to reflect what’s on my mind; it usually comes out as an image of a face or a person. Berry said his art is based off his experiences in life, and a lot of his work showcases facial features hidden in his art.
“A lot of my art has to do with people and my experiences with people. I put a lot of detail in my art—a lot of hidden detail in my art,” Berry said. “There’s a lot of twisted imagery based off of faces and peoples’ features. You can see a face in almost anything—it’s easy for my viewers to identify a face in my artwork.”
Berry said he hopes his viewers feel overwhelmed when they look at his art. He said many of his emotions he feels throughout the day are portrayed through his artwork.
“I feel like art is the way we can express ourselves outside of our daily living. Outside of school we’re required to do things like homework and jobs, which take up so much of our time that we don’t have time to do things that we love,” Berry said.
Art plays an important role in life that allows people to express themselves and use their emotions as inspiration, according to Berry.
“I feel like when you do your art, that’s your way of getting out your emotions that you face during the regular day to day, such as going to school doing or going through everyday life,” Berry said.
Berry said his future goals consist of expanding the platform for Midwest Art Movement, as well as travelling to new cities and possibly new countries to showcase his art in order to expand his business and show the art capabilities of the members’ artwork. He said he has hopes for everyone to be able to support themselves and their art form.
“Hopefully the members in the group can expand and support their own businesses, and just to expand the platform,” Berry said. “I would advise others to pursue their dreams, whatever it may be—don’t be afraid to make sacrifices for the things you love to do or for your art. You can get really consumed in all the other aspects that the world asks of you.”
Berry said many activities in the Dayton area aren’t centered around the youth, which is something he feels strongly about. He said Midwest Movement gives an opportunity to the youth, as well as adults, to come see raw pieces created by different artists.
“In the city of Dayton, I think, especially with the youth, there aren’t a lot of activities that showcase things that we find interesting in the art culture—it’s something for us to show, and give to the youth,” Berry said.
Although Berry stresses how important the youth culture is, he invites all ages to come and attend the Midwest Art Movement shows because it’s a way to see everyone’s individuality through young peoples experiences.
“It’s more centered on the youth, but we invite everyone to come,” Berry said.
It’s important for the community to get involved because it gives the public an opportunity to see art that is being produce in Dayton by the youth through their eyes, according to Berry.
“Our shows are just a way for all of us to show the world what we are really doing. I feel like a lot of adults look down upon us or are ignorant to our art, but there’s a lot more to it than the raunchiness. It would be nice if they could appreciate the rawness of our art—to just be accepting of who we are as a generation,” Berry said. “I encourage everyone to come, youth and adults, because you might learn something.”
To see Berry’s personal artwork visit www.byronblackberry.tumblr.com and www.chilladelic/devianart.com. For more information on Midwest Art Movement visit www.midwestmoves.tumblr.com, www.midwestmovement.bandcamp.com and www.midwestmoves/soundcloud, and follow their Instagram @_midwestmovement.
Gabrielle Sharp
Executive Editor