Life & Work with Arnisha Smith

Today we’d like to introduce you to Arnisha Smith.

Hi Arnisha, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start, maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers. 
As a kid, I loved to draw on everything that wouldn’t make my mom upset and make collages of my favorite celebrities and the life I wanted to live [I was a manifestation and mood board girlie before it was a thing!] By the time I started high school, I had a binder of drawings that where I would watch cartoons and try to replicate what I saw; this was also during a time where I started to become inspired by street art and graffiti. So, I began to play around with creating my own letterforms to add to the bottom of whatever character was on the same page. After a while, I outgrew cartoon characters and just focused on typography. Either a classmate would request a drawing, or I would pick a someone and freestyle a design. This was when I knew I loved to make art for a living, seeing people reactions of trying to read what it said or excitement over what elements they asked me to incorporate. I also was a star pupil in my art class with Mr. Steven Mealy [we ran him crazy at Henry Ford!] so much so he would enter some of works into contest and local calls for art for example I had painting that was displayed at WCCD. He also would allow me to get passes from other classes and do I would create in his class! Thinking back, Mr. Mealy was a definite anchor in my artistic journey, he even came to my final show when I graduated college! 

However, starting at Wayne State was not easy despite me having raw, creative talent. I didn’t know how art could make a living. I didn’t know what major I should even participate in. I was always told to pick something realistic computer sciences was an option, but I learned that leaned more towards engineering. I don’t remember how, but I settled into Graphic Design. Honestly, I was a fish out of water in most of my art related courses I had during my time at school. There was an expectation that you had previous experience in Adobe Creative Suite and working a Mac. I had never known how to art digitally, let alone had touched a Mac! The most I know about Photoshop was using filters on PicsArt and Flickr. But I didn’t let that deter me. I stayed late in the lab, asked for help, and sometimes did what I had to do to skim by with at least that B- C. I always had the odd man out projects during critics and for a while, felt that I was doing what I thought I wanted to do “wrong.” 

There were silver linings though! I thrived in classes that were electives like life drawing, art history, and photography. Which helped me explore different areas of creative media that I didn’t have access to in my DPS school experience compared to my counterparts. These classes and some professors popped up in my schedule at the right sure gave me the inspiration to keep going; well that and not having family support and anything to fall back on I was working two jobs and just getting my own place. There were a few times where I had to go down to part-time classes. I didn’t have a plan B, so the goal was like most black millennials got taught “go to college and get a good job” in order to make a difference in my life. Somehow, I stayed down to stay true myself and eventually graduated in May 2019. 

Post-college I felt like I had to grab life by the horns because I felt like I was behind in life compared to my counterparts. I remembered that a few months prior one of the guest speakers during one of my senior seminar classes, Ron Watters, was an owner of the screen-printing shop at One Custom City and said they his shop offered apprenticeships, so I jumped on it! I thought this could have been a great opportunity to further developing my design skills while developing a new one-screen printing. At first, I thought I would get in learn a new craft and further my artistic journey with a new form of merchandise: T-shirts. Since I had zero experience, I had to start of doing the shop grunt work such as cleaning and reclaiming screens. This lasted at least 2 months then I moved into coating and exposing the screens. All of this unpaid while working full-time during the day! Then when Covid-19 hit I given a blessing in disguise. I was able to get back into my creative bag. During this I had started to learned how to developing artwork and printing basic jobs. 

In 2020 I also decided to officially launch my brand Firsts Never Last where I focus on limited-run art, handcrafted goods, and merchandise. I wanted my brand to focusing on the individual buying not mass production. From 2021 until now, I been focusing on my full-time creative career as a freelancer. I keep my ears and eyes open to Detroit’s creative streets and I have honored and grateful to be given the opportunities to design for a women’s Staple for Ethika and a team shirt for the Philadelphia 76ers! So, I decided to stay true to myself like I did in college, and it’s been paying off! Going into 2024, I look forward into developing and pushing my brand further as well as my career as a multi-disciplinary creative. As of October, I have been mentoring youth at the Boys and Girls Club [Fauver-Martin to be exact!!!] in the Fashion Industry Club, and I can honestly say that it has been 1000% rewarding in being to the youth what I didn’t have growing up. It’s the reason and ethos behind my brand: building community through creativity, sustainability, and education. 

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back, would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Smooth? Yeah, right. Struggle was my middle name! I have had my ups and downs, working two, sometimes three jobs while catching the bus and not always having the best housing situations. Let’s not forget playing catchup in school half of the time. You name it I have probably gone through, but I try to look at it as life giving me my battle scars. 

Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am a multi-disciplinary artist, graphic designer, screen printer, mentor, and foodie Specializing in multi-dimensional textural works both digital and physical, I love to use references of pop culture and media fused with traditional art forms like drawing and painting. I want my work to stand by being bold, colorful, and patterned, encouraging viewers to take a further dive into the details making works that will grow with you and inspire forever. 

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
Perseverance. Life is always going to throw things your way some you can handle some you can’t, but you can control how you REACT. When things happen, we must pivot and continue our journey. 

Contact Info:

• Website: https://arnishatrycina.myportfolio.com/
• Instagram: @nishcina, @firstsneverlast
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arnisha-smith-1608a5189/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCXttvJc6v4FBVmffF1JJceA