Today we’d like to introduce you to Alyssa Rose.
Hi Alyssa, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I have always been a highly expressive person. When I was five years old, my parents enrolled me in dance class and then I never looked back. The dance studio was always my second home. As I got older, my expression became more eclectic. I started writing poetry and drawing. However, dance always sat at the forefront of my practice in artistic expression, and I trained more and more in dance as time went on.
When I was in my teens, I started to paint with acrylic on occasion and I continued to write poetry when I needed to move through my emotions in a healthy way. Artistic expression has always been delightfully transformative. I think I was using art as therapy around this time without even knowing it.
After high school, I attended University of California, Santa Cruz, with intentions to pursue biochemistry. Along the way, I fell in love with mathematics and changed my major to align with this passion. I was also continuing to study dance, taking both academic and physical education classes many hours a week.
The academic classes in dance helped foster my creativity and choreographic/design talents. I directed multiple performances and got very comfortable in the choreographers chair. Choreography allows my creativity to soar, and I am drawn to dance making because of its availability for truth, compassion, and magic.
I graduated magna cum laude in 2018 and left for a backpacking, dance-workshop-hopping adventure in Europe. I had many notebooks while I was traveling and started drawing and writing every day as a means to process my environment and experiences. When I came back to the states, I spent some time living with my family in San Diego, decompressing from the life of a student. In this interim, I painted every day and continued to dance and perform.
My love for painting grew wide and I started to acquire more control and a personal style. Currently, I still paint and dance regularly and have started to delve into sculptural work. Painting and dancing keep me mentally well and centered.
I recently had a residency with a phenomenal organization, Disco Riot, at Art Produce in North Park. I developed both a solo dance performance and a paper mâché tree sculpture during my time. I also rent an art studio at San Diego Made Factory and do most of my work out of there. I sell prints and original paintings, as well as commission-based work. I also paint murals and would love to paint more murals or install my art in other ways for small local businesses and organizations in San Diego.
This month, I left my corporate job to focus on my art practices and developing a mathematics tutoring practice that specializes in students with emotional challenges and learning disabilities. This is a very exciting, scary, and important time in my life.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
As far as struggle goes, I think attending to my mental health has been the most difficult. I have ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorder, and Anxiety. These conditions can make everything I do difficult.
Also, It is confusing to be both analytically and creatively inclined. I have been described as “both-brained” in regard to the left/right brain paradigm. I surprise myself and others all the time because I am off script almost always. Finding a career is difficult when I have so many interests and aptitudes.
In my twenties, I have also come into my queerness, which is a whole other paradigm to sift through. I think that the whole identity-crisis thing is common for people in their twenties, though.
In regard to dancing, I have had many injuries and have had to work around that and my learning disabilities in dance classrooms. I could write paragraphs of all of the things that have gotten in the way of my journey, but I’d rather focus on my accomplishments.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I am most proud of being self-taught as a visual artist and my courage to follow my heart. My work is bright and colorful yet controlled and intentional. I am an improvisor in all of my creative practices. I specialize in tapping into my intuition and flow while maintaining rigor and thoughtfulness.
My paintings are very distinct and often look biological, like cross-sections of cells or organs. I have been making my way toward more spacious, celestial feelings in my newer paintings. I do not try to paint anything in particular, I just follow my inner light and flow. Sparkles, pastels, squiggles, legume shapes, pieces that fit right together, neural pathways.
When I dance or paint, I am flirting with liberation. I treat all my work as research. It is radical, active, playful, inquisitive, honest, and unique to my purpose in this life. I am searching for truth and liberation for all.
Lastly, I also specialize in leading improvisational movement classes centered around wellness and autonomy.
Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
My inquisitive nature is incredibly important. I must ask questions to get innovative, and I know that innovation is where my success lies.
Contact Info:
- Email: alyssarosecreative@gmail.com
- Website: alyssarosecreative.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alyssarosecreative/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alyssarosecreative/
Image Credits
Stephen Louis Marino LTK photography Doug McMinimy
