ADHDalex //Alex
(he/they pronouns)
Multimedia Artist //
Jack of All Arts...
Master of None
Location: Romulus, Michigan
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Socials:
Instagram: @adhdalexmerch // @marvelousmagicalminiatures
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Bio: Alex (he/they) is a 29yr old Non-binary Trans Man born & raised in the Metro-Detroit area. He grew up in the early 90’s and has been drawing ever since he could hold a crayon or marker (see actual proof below - his dad still has this up on the wall at work and Alex is almost 30 now! They drew this when they were around 5 years old).
(A marker drawn picture of the Detroit Red Wings playing hockey that Alex drew for their dad. They used to watch a lot of hockey together at this point in their lives- drawn around 5 years old- 1998ish)
Alex was always creating something every chance he could get! Spent all of elementary, middle school, and most of high school delving deep in art class and any creative activity he could get his hands on! His first creative inspiration was his maternal grandmother who was an incredible painter, illustrator, and multimedia artist. They spent many memorable hours making art and watching Bob Ross episodes together!
(Alex displaying some of his artwork from highschool and from the art classes he took at the Career Prep Center he went to during sophomore and junior year of highschool)
One of his favourite projects was in 6th grade when he had a castle diorama project in which he built his own miniature castle. Alex's theme was "Weaponry" so he made an elaborate armory where all the weapons were displayed on the wall and there was an epic battle going on as knights broke into the castle. That was the first time he really dove into diorama making and miniatures and it brought him a lot of joy to create and present to his class. This is a solid memory of joy which led to one of his current hyperfixations- dolls, toys, and miniatures OH MY!
In middle school, Alex hyperfocused mostly on photography! He got his first point-and-shoot digital camera and took it with him everywhere, a unique and artistic eye emerging from within. He took photos of very close up, shallow depth of field, weird angles and points of view, as well as nature, animals, and landscapes. His brother and him really only started getting along when he wanted to model for Alex's photography, before then they fought like crazy.
(Under the Bed, Where Secrets Hide- ADHDalex 2015- Ravenna, MI)
After practicing portrait photography on his brother Brandon for a few years, later on in high school he ventured on into taking portraits of people for senior photos, family photos, newborn photos, and weddings starting in high school and throughout his young adult life. Eventually though, he stopped doing those types of events, because they didn't bring him joy and just stressed him out. To Alex there is no point in making art that is going to stress him out, so he just doesn't do it if it no longer serves him.
(Alex (left) and his brother Brandon (right) modeling some ADHDalex's bleach t-shirts back when he went by Exsoart before rebranding)
Now the only photography Alex enjoys is the same stuff he shot when he initially started photography, the artsy shit, the beautiful nature and flowers around him, cool animals and butterflies, intricate architecture (particularly in Downtown Detroit) and of course self-portraits documenting his transition. He wants venture more into fashion and model photography thats more artistic and moody.
Alex was always very musical as well, having both of his parents as semi-professional singers, he began singing since the moment he could form words around the age of 2. He also showed much interest in learning different instruments, messing around on his grandpa's guitar, and singing campfire songs with him and the family around the lake up north and the family cabin.
(Pictured Above: Baby Alex around 2 years old playing with his Grandpa's guitar, always drawn to music of all sorts)
He also briefly took a few impromptu piano lessons with his high school choir teacher after school, and learned how to play the flute in the middle school band. In high school he kept getting in trouble for distracting the class with beatboxing or drumming on his desk with pencils (undiagnosed ADHD), his parents had no choice but to get him drum lessons. He was so excited one day when he found a pair of drumsticks left behind that a janitor had given him and it was ON! At that point EVERYTHING became a drum set, every surface, every sound he could make, he would. Being a drummer also gave him an early interest in beatboxing, which his choir teacher was also coincidentally really good at and gave him some tips and tricks, he also watched endless hours of youtube videos on beatboxing including an amazing beatboxer named Felix Zenger and a really cool beatboxing flute player named Greg Patillo, and even a pretty viral beatboxing parrot!!
(Pictured Above: Alex (right) and his little brother Brandon (left) and their fictional band: Brothers- Nikki Suputo and Nikki Suputo JR- drums made out of coolers, pots, and pans, and Brandon was the lead singer)
(Pictured Above: Alex playing the drum set for the worship team at his childhood church during teenage years)
All throughout high school, Alex was also in art classes where he learned a ton of different types of mediums and art project types and identified which direction he wanted to take his own personal art. He spent the last two years of high school at an off campus school where he went to a Visual Arts & Imaging Technology course at a part-time tech high school in the mornings and then came back to his regular high school for the rest of the afternoon. It was there where he began to develop his graphic design and digital art skills which he now uses for creating much of his artwork. He started designing t-shirts and other merch in high school with the help of his dad's colleagues and now Alex's longtime friends Deb Kenjorski, Owner / Operator of The Stitch Doctor which is a local Embroidery company and her Coworker Gabe Lemus - Owner / Operator of Superior Designs.
(Pictured Above: Alex (left) and his brother Brandon (right) modeling his high school t-shirt designs of Edgar Allen Poe with the quote "I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity" )
After graduation, he continued schooling for 1 year of university, doing a full-time art program at Spring Arbor University, where he really started to develop his art style and technique and start to direct his art in a different more alternative direction. He had an illustration class with Professor Bippes, at Spring Arbor University, it was his last year and he was about to retire, he was a weird and unique old man, but Alex knew Professor Bippes had a soft spot in his heart for him. He had a popular quote which has become somewhat of a motto of his, "Be who you is, cuz if you is who you ain't, you ain't who you is" and that phrase always struck home for him. Alex always craved to stay true to himself even if that meant being the weird one or the only one doing things that way. The phrase means even more to him now, in hindsight, as a transgender person, and for that, he is forever grateful. In his class, they did a project on pointillism/stipple, which is a technique where the artist uses thousands and thousands of tiny dots of varying sizes and densities to make stunning portrait illustrations. Alex was mesmerized by this process, he had done some of it in high school but didn't really take the time to perfect it until then.
(This is the piece he did for his Illustration class at SAU with Professor Bippes- 2012- stipple/pointalism with black ink illustration pens)
He put his everything into this piece, he based the suit jacket off of the phantom of the opera tuxedo suit jacket and the head was an animal skull that their art professor had as a prop. He made the perfect little creepy monster dude. He put over 20 hours of dots (he was able to hyperfocus on it due to his undiagnosed ADHD and the intense desire to become really good at the art form despite also suffering from carpal tunnel disorder which makes his fingers go numb with repeated art forms like stipple. This piece was only half finished at that point, before it was stolen from him, right out of his artist drawer in the classroom. Alex was absolutely devastated, it was his most favorite piece he ever made, and someone stole it from him. Although he was heartbroken at the time, looking back now he's more honored than anything, that someone went to the trouble to steal his artwork because that's how cool it was! A few years later he decided to turn the pictures he had taken of it (ALWAYS TAKE LOTS OF DOCUMENTED PICS OF YOUR PROCESS, NEVER FAILS TO BE HELPFUL) into digital art so it could be printed. He placed the artwork on top of a vintage love letter and turned it into a vector file from the original pen and ink illustration pictures.
(Pictured Above: Stipple Monster digital art final design.)
LIFE LESSONS FROM ALEX-"No art is ever lost forever if you document your process with pictures!" Another specific project at SAU that shaped his artistic path was a found art/ junk art project which is where the gears really started turning as he already had a interest in antiques, old rusty things and discarded or found items...like this random baby head (pictured below), it was already placed perfectly there, he didn't touch, move, or pose it, he believes in capturing things how they are naturally.
(Pictured Above: Detroit Dolly- this head was spotted as Alex peered into the backyard of an abandoned Detroit home. Taken around 2014)
Alex came from a long line of generational hoarders and lovers of all things old and with a history. Naturally his love of junk, antiques, and found objects began pouring into his artwork over the years. He gathered much of his materials from old abandoned houses while urban exploring in Detroit and from things he has found or been given. Seeing the beauty in the decay is what he does best.
He then moved back home to live with his parents for a while and attend Macomb community college where he went to several art classes for a year there including a few drawing classes and a Photography 101 class that really helped him get his photography off the ground because he was self taught he knew nothing about the basics of photography and having that knowledge and understanding really helped him develop his style more as a photographer and Multimedia Visual artist.
(Pictured Above: Taken by ADHDalex for his Photography 101
class at Macomb Community College 2013)
For the last decade, Alex has felt very lost, depressed, and has been struggling against an intense case of imposter syndrome. He feels like he’s not a REAL artist and he’s never gonna amount to anything. All his half finished projects, all his failed hobbies, all his random failed business ventures, all his rebranding attempts, 2 Print-On-Demand model type websites that didn't go well. When he get's depressed sometimes the artistic droughts last for days, weeks, months, sometimes even years. These negative circling thoughts can be debilitating, and the mood dysregulation that come along with his newly found (as of 3 years ago) ADHD diagnosis makes the depressive states unbearable at times. Art is the only thing that is always here for him. It doesn’t judge him, it doesn’t lie to him, it doesn’t hurt or leave him. Art is his ride or die and his everything. He would feel like a shell of who he is without art. During the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, Alex was laid off for a few months and he had a lot of time to work on his newest artistic adventure "All things Queer", which was his short-term brand name in between Exsoart and ADHDalex. Rebranding is something he's done several times as an ADHD artist. Constantly being inspired by his next BIG THING, but this time ADHDalex feels like its a name to stay for good.
(Pictured Above: Fearlessly & Wonderfully Gay- A design created during the "All Things Queer" interim- It is a play off of a famous bible verse that says "You are Fearfully and Wonderfully Made")
Over the past 2 years, Alex has gotten into the world of doll customization, which he called Marvelous Magical Miniatures! That has been the longest artistic hyperfocus to this day. He makes custom Trans and Queer dolls, hybrid monster dolls, and custom mini me dolls, and custom toys and miniature accessories! The doll making hobby uses many art forms including, customizing, styling, posing, diorama creation and/or design, photography, and last but not least story telling. He LOVES the hobby because he uses so many different artistic mediums that when he gets bored he can move to another part of the doll customizing process without having to switch to a totally different project or theme in general. He is able to use a myriad of artistic skills which keep things interesting for him. He uses paints, colored pencils, pens and markers, sewing to make customized doll clothing, applying doll sized tattoos, making or customizing miniature accessories, photography, and short story telling when the dolls are finished.
(Pictured Above: Custom trans-masc non-binary doll Tavon, includes top surgery scars, piercings, face scars, blue hair, and a custom streetwear outfit)
Because the doll custom hobby includes so many different types of art, he doesn’t get bored and move on to the next artistic venture like normal. For his whole life he would get addicted to a certain type of art when first learned, he goes all out and buys all the supplies and stuff to do that art, does it for a short while and then he burns out on it and moves on, Which triggers depression and self-loathing. Finding the doll world has really changed his life and he feels a renewal of excitement about my art which is a relief!
(Pictured Above: Custom trans-masc non-binary doll Tavon, includes top surgery scars, piercings, face scars, blue hair, and a customized upcycled Firefighters outfit transformed into an amazing mini streetwear outfit)
Whats to come for ADHDalex? He's working on a new website for one, he wants to get a consistent artistic flow going, and he is hosting THIS ART SHOW for and by ADHD and NEURODIVERGENT artists! We are a collective of queer/trans/adhd/neurodivergent folks called Procrastination Nation and our gallery show is called the "Art Without Attention Convention". Opening Night is Friday, September 29, 2023 at Affirmations in Ferndale, Michigan. Time is TBD and will be released closer to opening night.
SAVE THE DATE!!
Friday Evening, September 29, 2023
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