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Written by: Camryn Collier
Becoming an artist, and making a career of your creativity, is often considered a gamble. We’ve all been there. Standing there, voicing our passion, and we’re met with raised eyebrows of speculation and sympathetic noises of feigned understanding. Art simply isn’t considered a profitable profession in a world where technology and advancement reign supreme.
For Adrionna Cummings, the struggle between doing what is expected and doing what you love is exaggerated. Her Mom’s side of the family is full of artists and creatives going back to her Great-Grandmother. Her angels, she says, there have been many losses. Still, her siblings went to art school, her mom is an art teacher here in Winston-Salem, and they always heralded and cherished her creativity.
Except her Father never felt that way. Instead, he pushed her to pursue something that would “make money,” not something that would light her fire. Since her Father never found value in her art, she was always pulled in two different directions. Should she do what she loves or do what she “should?”
And yet…
I met Adrionna for her interview late one misty December night. When she opened the door, we shared a giggle because we had known each other for some time. Adrionna and I went to the same high school, but she is a year older than me. I have a few memories of her from that time. She used to be on color guard, and of course, being the true Southern Girl I am, I attended most football games. I remember her dancing and waving those bright flags across the field. Slim, fiery, like a comet bolt across the sky.
“Moving here stopped me in my tracks,” Adrionna said while we reflected. She moved to Winston-Salem in 2007 from Northern New Jersey, years before high school. “It made me lose confidence in myself.”
She was judged and bullied for a multitude of things, including her culture, race, and Northern accent, she recalls. Though her confidence dimmed, the artist in her never faded away.
“I started with crayons,” Adrionna said, smiling fondly. “There were scribblings all throughout my household in New Jersey. The mediums I ended up loving through school were oil pastels and colored pencils. So still crayons at the end of the day.”
As she grew older, the itch to explore other mediums caught her attention. When she got to college, she started exploring more with paintings in acrylic, gouache, and oils. However, her major at East Carolina University (ECU) was computer science. She needed to make money, right?
“My Father never really believed in me,” Adrionna said. “He would say ‘art is never going to be your thing’ and that I would have to figure out some other way to make money.”
Her original plan was to study computer science and do something with video games; that would mix creativity with profit and appease her Father. But, something changed in her about midway through college. She disregarded his wishes completely and decided to forge a path towards art.
“At that time, I just thought I’m going to figure out some way to finish college with art, and if it doesn’t happen, then I would feel like I failed him.”
After that, she dove into art and completed a study abroad opportunity in Italy, where she spent three months in the countryside around Tuscany.
“I felt free there, and it was my first time ever being by myself,” she said. Much of that confidence she lost in her earlier years returned. But then, a tragedy. “I also lost my Dad the year after that.”
At first, those words jolted me out of the interview. Here we were in a charming, cozy little corner of her living room that doubles as her studio. There was a big surrealist jungle tapestry behind her art vanity full of unfinished art, a journal, a small easel, and painting supplies. She sat on the bench, hair perfectly curled, a gold chain on her neck spelling out Virgo, a shining anklet, and cheetah print slippers on her feet.
For someone who appeared so poised, she was saying words that would devastate anyone. To me, it felt like when she was finally taking flight from a cage, she was thrown into another.
We paused momentarily, but I recovered the interview quickly and touched on other topics. We got back to laughing and talking about her art. For a time, I was hesitant to ask her about her Dad's passing. But somehow, it felt inescapable and intrinsic to her story; the death of her Father was the one thing I kept thinking might answer her “why.”
“I always felt like I need to be his perfect kid,” she explained when I finally broached the topic. “I never really got to know him. We just watched TV, and that was our thing. We would watch television, go get frozen yogurt, and that was it.”
Shortly after returning home from Italy, rejuvenated and sold on her path towards art, Adrionna’s father had a stroke and was paralyzed from the waist down, she remembers.
When visiting him in the hospital, Adrionna brought her sketchbook with her. Creativity is the outlet for her emotions, she explained. While sitting beside him before his passing, she laid her sketchbook down on the bed. During their last moments together, he lifted her sketchbook, flipped through the pages purposely, and showed interest in her talent—finally, he was showing faith in her, she said.
“I don’t remember another time beyond that, except for on his deathbed, that he believed in me.”
She promised him then and there that she would follow art.
Now, Adrionna is embracing both sides of her family and is finally free to fully embrace her art, no questions asked. An independent artist, Adrionna joined the Associated Artists of Winston-Salem, Inc. (AAWS) in early 2023. Since joining, she’s been in Opposites, When We Were Kids and the Sounds of Music in Art Exhibitions. She also entered a collection into the Artist Spotlight 2024 Show, which she did not get juried into. Beyond AAWS, she is following her Mother’s path. Adrionna finished school with a degree in Graphic Design before becoming an art teacher here in Forsyth County.
“This is my way of continuing my promise to him and showing myself that I can live through my traumas, my struggles, and my disbelief.”
Next up for Adrionna, she is showcasing her “Earth, Wind, & Fire” series with friend, Erica Butler, who is also a member of AAWS. They are currently displaying a duo exhibition called the Black&White Art Gallery at the CMPND, a recording studio, in Downtown Winston-Salem. The pieces she’s exhibiting are the ones that didn’t get juried into the AAWS Artist Spotlight 2024 Show.
The series is largely inspired by her life experiences and growth. Symbols of luck, spirituality, ancestry, and roots are scattered throughout the series. A white elephant with its tusks raised (that’s important for luck and showing that she is standing tall and proud) is featured in “Junglebook Breezy.” A reignbow shines down on her Mother in “BlueJay Fall Destiny.” A baby picture of herself sits in the corner of her portrait, “Quarter Century Bearthday Wishes,” reminding her of where she’s been and where she’s going and that the world is yours on your special day.
“I’m taking my life back,” she said about her recent works. “With the art, exercising, eating right, I’m taking care of myself and romanticizing my life.”
For every artist I talk to, there’s almost always a special “why” that takes a little digging to find. While I believe bringing together the legacy of both sides of her family is of the utmost importance, what stood out to me is her incredible perseverance.
Before I parted with her that winter night, I felt compelled to say something. She was incredibly vulnerable with me, and our community, by telling her story. I was humbled. I needed to give her something in return or somehow commend her bravery.
“I hope you never give up on exhibiting art,” I told her, holding a folder in my hand and a camera on my shoulder.
A smile she tried to hold back twisted her lips, and for a moment, I felt silly. After everything she told me, why did I even feel the need to say the words? It’s evident to anyone who knows her; Adrionna never gives up, especially regarding art. In the face of bullying, opposition within her family, and tragedy, art has always found its way to the surface of Adrionna’s being. Art blooms for her even in the harshest conditions, even when it shouldn’t. Perhaps it was always written in the stars for her, guided by the ancestors who always believed in her and those who came around in the end.
She promised me that she would never give up, and as I walked under the yellow street lamps to my car, I couldn’t help but smile too.
She’ll make it someday. I know it.
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For more on Adrionna, please visit her webpage at misscummingsart.com or on Instagram @misscummingsart.
