Meet Jason & Victoria Birdsong | Artists & Owners

We had the good fortune of connecting with Jason & Victoria Birdsong and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Jason & Victoria, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Jason: As far as ‘Art’ goes, I began drawing when I was really young, I had a rough childhood but was adopted into an amazing family when I was 8, and I have enjoyed art; it acted as a good outlet for my young self and became something I really enjoyed. I have been in galleries in several cities across the South; which is where I’m from, Louisiana, but when I moved here 2 and half years ago, I struggled to find one in the Denver area that would really give me a chance or even the time of day.

For a good part of my life, I lived the fast life; I was in a motorcycle club and doing all the things that come with that lifestyle, and I just felt like something was missing. While I loved the camaraderie of the club, I felt like I was being pulled in another direction. After a lot of thought, I decided to step away and I actually got sober in early June, which opened up so much of my time that I was able to refocus back on my artwork. I started doing some shows and markets throughout the State, producing 17 original works of art with in a 6 week period.

I wanted more exposure for myself and for my art, so my fiancé, Victoria, and I decided that since we couldn’t get into an art gallery that we would just make our own. Two weeks later, we had the keys to our current space in Arvada, and before we even had paint on the walls, we had 10 artists signed to contract and ready to embark on this craziness immediately.

Victoria: The struggle to get “seen” in the giant that is “Denver Art” really inspired Jason to find and create a space that was more conducive to the artist and their work and less about the gallery and the dollar. We started out by looking for spaces for his own work, but quickly Jason decided that he wanted to have more of a collective of artists with him because he was so blown away by the amount of local talent that wasn’t even on the art scene radar.

So we designed the entire business model around a gallery that gives more control, attention and compensation to the artist for the sole intention of making an art gallery about the “ART”. We operate more like a consignment or collective space where artists have control over where, for how long and how much work THEY chose to show in our gallery; which, again, circles back to the creative ideal, as a whole. The gallery takes a fraction of the commission on sales that most other galleries require because it didn’t make sense to us that the artist would slave over any given creation and that the gallery would have majority share in the sale.

Jason: I want to share my artwork, and the artwork of the artists in our gallery. It’s more important, to me, that we market this talent and give a name to each artist so that anyone can come to our space and find something or someone that they connect to and fall in love with because we believe that art is such an incredible vehicle for expressing messages, connection and such, not just to the typical collector but to the general public as well. We really push our artists’ names out there because there is just so much talent out there that no one else is tapping into. Art was always such an influential thing for me and I want to deliver that to the masses because art should be accessible to everyone.

Victoria: For me, starting a business was completely outside my comfort zone. I saw it as something that I could never achieve. I never saw myself owning a business, especially one at this level. I never even knew I was allowed to dream of owning a business, at all.

For me it goes really deep… Three years ago, I was struggling with a major addiction and living on the streets; I was sleeping on the concrete in front of a laundromat, or in a make shift tent that I had constructed on the side of a bike path in the middle of Oahu, Hawaii. I was in a really bad place and didn’t even expect to make it out alive. By God’s Grace; I was, essentially, saved and I was given a second chance. I flew back to Denver; because I went to school here, my family is here, with the intention of getting clean and getting my life back. I had lost my children in my addiction, my home and my career and found myself in dire straights for several years with no idea that this life was even a possibility. This March, on the 10th, I will be 3 years clean and sober. I regained most of the things that I had lost. I am in the process of regaining custody of my 3 children, I started working again, was able to find myself a place to live, I earned my license back, I bought myself a vehicle, repaired relationships with my family, made healthy friends, returned to doing things that I always enjoyed, like photography and art, and found myself in the most healthy relationship with my fiancé, Jason. His ambition and serious compassion for “the struggle” many people endure in this life pushed me to develop a new mindset that ANYTHING in the world is absolutely achievable and that even those of us who feel the most undeserved, deserve to live a life that they are proud of, a life they may not have even considered as being possible. That old cliché, where there is a will, there is a way. Please don’t mistake this as a rags-to-riches type of story. That is not why we do what we do. The take away I want from my portion of this interview, and even the portion of Jason’s story in which he struggled and had to heal, is that all it takes, all someone needs in this life is for one person, one source of support to reach out a hand and say, “You can do this, you can be whatever you want, you don’t have to do this alone, let’s see how great you can be.”

The underlying theme through out our journey and the start up of this gallery, now expanded framing, matting and printing shop and our new gym apparel clothing line, is SUPPORT. We encourage our artists and encourage them to encourage each other; and who are the most supportive group of people, we encourage other galleries and art enthusiasts by inviting guest artists to show, we work with the Denver Rescue Mission and other Charities and through the Arvada Chamber of Commerce we are getting involved in the Homeless Coalition, we are beginning partnerships with other local small businesses because I, well we, truly believe that no one was meant to do this on their own and where there is one “great”, there could be 10,000 “greater”. We have watched art bring people together in unexpected ways and connections are being made by simply standing in front of any given Work and finding commonalities and organic connections where there may have never been any. Everyone can create, everyone has something to say… walk down Larimer or up on Pearl Street in Boulder, you will see people who know nothing about art, enjoying something they see, you see collectors and how excited they get over art, you will even catch someone without a home but with a paint brush and a make shift canvas creating something sensational. There is so much hope and love and support in this world and art spreads messages like nothing else… it all just works together so well. So here we are, the Birdsong COLLECTIVE.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
Being different is one of our core values. We like to push boundaries and definitely think outside, on top of and all around the box. We believe that mediocrity breeds basic and there’s nothing better than being yourself out loud. We love the underdog, the outcasts, and the odd things they call unique. So we celebrate the differences that we find in each of our artists because we want a gallery that is exciting to see and one that has so many different interpretations of art and they messages they chose to convey.

Jason is a Charcoal Realism artists who began as a commissions only portrait artist. The man is seriously a photocopier and excels with animals and people. Really, really he can draw anything but his niche has definitely become the female form, some of his most popular works are semi nude, very tastefully done burlesque style charcoal drawings. Being color blind, black and white was his safe zone. But after some persuading and inspiration from other artists that he enjoys, he pushed himself to see things from a different perspective, grabbed some acrylic paint and threw it at the canvases for a super intriguing and colorful spin on the traditional portrait.

Victoria: I grew up dancing so art has always been my fiercest ally and friend. I’ve competed at the national level, I was a training camp candidate for the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders and even on the reality TV show, So you think you can Dance. These days, and for several years, I have enjoyed photography. I find shots that not everyone would think to capture because my instinct has always been to buck the system or find an entirely different instrument to march to… the drum is too over done. If everyone is going left, I go right… really hard. The idea is to create a question when people look at my work. I don’t want them to necessarily feel what I felt when creating, but my goal is to invoke a question.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
That is kind of hard to say…

Jason: I have only lived in Colorado for a little over two years. I work full time as a land surveyor for Excel and have moved all over the United States in that career field on top of owning this gallery so work takes up majority of my time. We do still have fun discovering new places when we can find a day off. I still ride my motorcycle as often as I can and we enjoy taking that up to Evergreen for a hike, Boulder is really beautiful as well and we enjoy walking around Pearl street to people watch and grab dinner… and ice cream. We have some plans this summer to adventure a little more and find some new places to check out. We both love to eat so our days off usually revolve around finding cuisine; we appreciate the ones you find off the beaten path.

Victoria: I lived most of my childhood here, in Denver, but I moved away for so long that when I got back 3 years ago, everything was so different. I have a hard time finding some of the places I once loved as a child and the things that are still around are changed. I too enjoy hiking in the mountains, Saint Mary’s Glacier is probably my favorite. I still enjoy going up the maintain and visiting places like Vail, Avon, Steamboat, Winterpark… during the summer months. I am not a huge fan of the snow…

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
We want to give credit to all of our artists, who have donated so much of their time, their feedback, experience and encouragement, their belief in our vision, their patience as we learn along side them and continue to hang truly brilliant works of art on the walls at the Collective.

But before we can thank anyone else, and this may be something fewer people will appreciate, but we give all thanks to God. For saving our behinds a few times, taking control and redirecting our lives and allowing us to use our talents for a great purpose. For blessing us so that we may pour unto others and for continuing to pour blessings unto us. We’ve witnessed far too many miracles to not acknowledge that someone is looking out for us.

Website: www.birdsongcollectiveartgallery.com & www.straighttrippinapparel.com

Instagram: @straighttrippinapparel

Facebook: @birdsongcollectiveartgallery

Image Credits
Victoria Brown