Syracuse is home to a vibrant and ever growing art scene. Everywhere you look, you might find a mural on the side of a building, a painting adorning a store front or live music at a bar or coffee shop. The city is the home to a bevy of talented artists of all mediums, eager to work on their next project.
Let’s meet four of those local artists — from a singer to a muralist — who are making waves in the local art scene.
Tyjhier Goodman
Music has always been a part of R&B artist Tyjhier Goodman’s life. The soulful sounds of Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross and Erykah Badu were on constant rotation in her household thanks to her parents.
Goodman enjoyed singing as a kid, often mirroring the voices she heard. But it wasn’t until a car ride with her dad that she realized her talent for the craft.
“I was singing a song, and I don’t even remember what it was. I was on the way to Chuck-E-Cheese,” said Goodman. “My dad just turns around and he’s like, you actually sound really good. This could actually be something.”
Ever since her dad planted that idea in her head, music has been her dream, she said. There’s nothing she’d rather do.
The 24-year-old graduated from SUNY Oswego in 2021 with a bachelor’s degree in audio recording and a minor in arts management. Though the pandemic threw a wrench in her creative drive and minimized access to a studio, she kept creating.
“When we got back to [to campus], it was like we couldn’t use the studio space,” said Goodman. “My friend and I, Evan, who has produced some songs for me, we were creating a project, but literally creating it in my bathroom, maybe a practice room because there wasn’t access.”
While Goodman’s bathroom wasn’t the ideal space to work in, the experience inspired three songs from her first EP, “The In-Betweens,” released earlier this year. The “Shower Sessions” feel as if they were recorded in a bathroom—echoes and all—taking listeners inside the singer’s inner monologues.
“The In-Betweens” is the first body of work Goodman has shared with the world. The singer took inspiration from her experiences transitioning into adulthood and finding love. One of the songs from the EP, “Stick Around,” Goodman first wrote when she was 18, but didn’t finish until she was 21.
“I didn’t really have the full inspiration to finish it. I was like, I don’t really have the words for this one,” she said. “I know what I’m trying to say, but I can’t quite articulate it yet. And it took me finding the love that needed to be found to be able to finish it.”
With her EP out, Goodman decided to start performing live. In September, she found herself performing in New York City for the first time. She was filled with nerves in anticipation. It was her first show in a long time. But once on stage, everything was fine and it felt just right, she said.
The singer hasn’t forgotten her roots either; she’s making the rounds at local venues too. Goodman’s performed at the Everson Museum, Parthenon Books and Funk ‘n Waffles.
“I get to do what I love in places that I’ve been before,” said Goodman. “I don’t know how to explain it, but, it’s like getting to do things that you’re passionate about in this place that has built you up and influenced the way that you are.”
UPCOMING PERFORMANCE:
Where: Funk ‘n Waffles (Opening for TIMALIKESMUSIC)
When: Dec. 21 at 8 p.m.
Tickets: Available to purchase online. Starting at $18.22.
Brandon Lazore
When Brandon Lazore moved back to Syracuse from Washington, D.C.—where he worked as a concrete construction engineer until 2008—he went back to his artistic roots. Lazore enrolled in art classes at Onondaga Community College.
One of his assignments required him to paint a self-portrait. It was a new experience. He’s used to painting murals with spray paint, not a paint brush. Completing the self-portrait was his light bulb moment. He discovered what he wanted to do for the rest of his life: paint.
Since then, Lazore has set himself apart from other artists with his own style he calls “traditional graffiti.” His signature style takes aspects of his graffiti and engineering background, and more importantly his cultural background, as a member of the Snipe Clan from the Onondaga Nation.
“It’s something I think it’s like my calling. It’s something I love to do. It’s something that I feel comfortable and happy with,” Lazore said.
Storytelling is a big aspect of Lazore’s work. The painter takes time to research and study the history of the Onondaga Nation to provide an accurate representation.
When he first embarked on his artistic career, he didn’t set out to tell the story of his community to non-native people. Rather, he wanted to create images for his people, he said. Lazore wanted the Haudenosaunee people to look at beautiful images of their culture and see them exist in museums and schools.
“These stories can be told through the art to my people. And I wanted them to be proud of these images and know that hey, you know, that represents me,” he said.
One of his pieces is on display at Syracuse University, an installation that sits in the middle of the campus. The project took a few months to map out and paint. Lazore knew this was going to be a statement piece and advised with the Onondaga Council to figure out what they—as a community—wanted to tell the world about the Haudenosaunee people.
In the painting you’ll see lacrosse players, images depicting the unification of the nations, their role in the women’s suffrage movement and involvement with the U.S. Constitution. There are also different elements scattered around the installation. Strawberries adorn the corners. The fruit was used as medicine, Lazore said.
His work will continue to tell those stories and his own, too. Lazore wants people to see the story of a native who lived on the reservation and in the city, whose experienced different elements of art, he said. The painter’s work reflects a lifetime of experiences on a canvas, and he hopes whoever comes across it will learn from them.
“I want to put my artwork out there, and not kind of work for somebody and create art for them. I would rather create my own personal art and put it out there,” Lazore said. “It’s kind of like leaving a legacy. You know when I pass on this artwork will still be around.”
Iris Williams
As 2024 approaches, digital artist Iris Williams has already laid out a few goals she hopes to accomplish in the new year. On the top of her list is painting a mural with her colorful and whimsical designs somewhere in Syracuse. Her ideal location: the South Side, the neighborhood where she grew up.
Williams considered herself an artist from a young age; always painting on walls or sketching on random items, she said. It wasn’t until she was introduced to digital art in 2018 that she began to pursue art seriously.
Navigating this new medium felt easy for the artist, admitting that working digitally helped refine her skills in more traditional mediums, like painting, and vice versa. Through digital art, Williams experiments with brighter colors and sketching styles. She tends to steer her designs on the cartoonish side, it’s part of what makes creating them fun, she said.
“I’m not like a realism or realistic kind of artist,” she said. “I like to play around with things. So basically, my work is just a reflection of what I see, my truth.”
Part of that truth includes taking control of how Black women are depicted in art, Williams said. Growing up, the digital artist noticed how media tends to portray Black women through a single narrative—one that it often incorrect. As an artist, being able to tell the story of her community through her eyes is a powerful thing to do.
Since the beginning, incorporating her identity has been a main priority, she said. For the mural Williams strives to accomplish next year, she plans to create a design relatable to the community. She’s always trying to find ways to include and empower in her work.
But Williams does not limit herself to one form of art. Lately, she’s been uploading videos on her YouTube channel, Art By Iris. There, viewers will find her sharing the realities of a working artist, in addition to drawing tutorials. The channel is like a sketchbook; something tangible she can revisit and reflect on her growth as an artist, she said.
To her, making YouTube videos is simply another art form she’s mastering, Williams said. The world of content creating is an area she’s been wanting to explore for some time and is finally able to see it through. The videos offer a look to a different side of who Williams is beyond her creations.
“I’m really interested in sharing my process. And I think being self-taught, a lot of the stuff I’ve learned was from other people posting their process,” she said. ” So, in a way, I can give back in that sense.”
Her latest endeavor continues that notion of giving back. Williams designed a 217-page journal filled with daily gratitude prompts and coloring pages. She found inspiration for the “Time for Growth” journal through her positive experiences attending therapy earlier this year, she said.
Learning how to be grateful for the things in her life—despite how chaotic it might feel—and writing those thoughts down in a journal spurred the idea to create something like this, she said. Because she knows it might be of help to someone that may be going through a tough time. Williams thinks it’s important to create, regardless of what someone is feeling. Simple activities like coloring are beneficial, she said.
With her art, she hopes that anyone who views her designs, or her videos can relate to them as it applies to their lifestyle, she said. The digital artist hopes her work inspires others to express themselves authentically, in the same way she is.
Clove Flores
When you walk into Clove Flores’ studio at the Gear Factory, you’ll find that it reflects her art and personality. It’s colorful, yet calm. A coffee table with a deck of tarot cards is adjacent to her tattooing table in the far right corner as you step inside her space. On the other side, canvases take up space, asking to be covered in paint.
The tattoo artist and painter always had an inkling for what she wanted to dedicate her life to. Flores never found the need to attend art school, considering how art plays a big part of her life from a young age. Her dad—who used to be a graphic artist but now focuses on music and metal working—played a huge influence, she said. He’d even let her draw tattoo designs on his arms for fun. Flores’ friends also lent their arms too.
“I am who I am because of my dad,” Flores said. “The first time I held a paint brush was with him. I was probably four.”
Flores is intentional with her art. She considers herself an intuitive tattooer. She’s not going to tattoo someone if she doesn’t believe the design is meant to be on their body, she said. The artist believes that painting is a higher calling and that it’s an asset, rather than a product.
It’s one of the reasons why she enjoys painting murals because they allow her to transform any given space without the need to sell or protect the art, she said. Flores believes murals are necessary for urban environments as they help bring color to an otherwise dull area.
“Because if you think about it, a lot of the images we see around us are just advertisements,” she said. “We need art that helps us understand ourselves and not just advertisements.”
In her paintings, Flores incorporates aspects of what make a solid tattoo design into her creative process. When she started to design her recent mural in the North Side, one of her main priorities was making sure the design was legible, she said.
It’s important that whoever views her work immediately understands what they are seeing—especially if they are at a distance. That’s why she chose a singular subject for her mural. Flores’ latest mural can be seen alongside the Pastime Athletic Club on North Salina Street.
When brainstorming the design, she wanted to paint something that related to North Side residents. After some thought, she chose to paint a singular Black girl blowing a wish on a dandelion with a purple backdrop.
“Especially within Syracuse, our Black community needs to be represented and needs to be seen. It needs to be heard. And that doesn’t diminish the voices of anyone else,” Flores said. “In fact, if we can see ourselves in a young Black girl making a wish about her community, about her future, about her dreams, that’s incredible progress.”
Seeing her art on display makes Flores feel proud and a bit surreal to see, she said. It almost doesn’t feel real, but what feels real is seeing how people react to it. As she develops as an artist, she hopes to continue evoking feeling from her murals and help foster conversations around injustice in the coming years.
