A different outlook: Sacramento artist Halcyon finds purpose, positivity through art

On the morning of Nov. 19, Sacramento-based painter Halcyon awoke to a phone call from the owner of a new gallery, Project25. The painting Halcyon worked on for hours only a couple days before, was stolen. It was the only thing stolen.

While many artists would feel angry, upset, incensed, heartbroken or any other range of emotions — and rightfully so — Halcyon chose a different outlook.

“Just another chapter to add to the ever-changing story of my life,” Halcyon said with an optimistic smirk.

The story of Halcyon; where he came from, where he started, how he got here, is what makes the piece even more valuable than just the dollars and cents that would have been assigned to it. And while I want everyone to know the story behind the artist, I want the person or people who stole the piece to know it even more.

The Story of Halcyon, B.C — Before California

“Art influences us in everything we do. It gives us energy and life in a sometimes mundane world. In a world where it feels difficult to find space, art provides room to breathe.”

The words flow from Halcyon as he sits at a circular table in the backyard. His entire body is covered in paint. Robin’s egg blue, fuschia, lilac and yellow splatter across his jacket like bullet holes, each wound transmuted from literal pain to metaphorical pleasure in the art he creates. His story is told in the soles of his shoes, thickened with acrylic remnants left over from the paint that pools in puddles below him, dripping from the paintbrush, seemingly oozing from his fingertips.

Upon first glance, it looks like he lives and breathes art. For the last two years of painting, it’s been his obsession. There hasn’t been a day that has gone by where he hasn’t created at least one new piece of work. At one point in late 2019, he had stockpiled so many unseen works that he hosted an art show specifically to give away a piece to every patron who attended. By the end of the night he had given away over 100 pieces.

Halcyon wasn’t always a painter though. He wasn’t always an artist. For a long time he was just another kid lost in the public school system with a mind that yearned for more.

“I was that kid that was diagnosed with ADHD pretty early on,” he said. “I had a lot of energy, and sometimes I would get manic. I could never really pay attention in class so I was always goofing off or disrupting things. I struggled with the classwork and barely skated by. I didn’t really have the right kind of outlet to get things out back then.”

Born in Junction City, Kan., Halcyon’s residence was never permanent. His stepfather was in the military, so he moved from base to base for a good portion of his life. From Kansas, to Washington, to Rammstein, Germany, to finally ending his teenage years in Texas; by the time high school was over, Halcyon decided he was ready to make his own way — whatever way that ended up taking him.

“My biological father had family in North Carolina, so I made arrangements to go out there and stay while I worked and saved money. But…” his eyes break contact, an indicator that the memories flooding back might be a bit painful, “you know it turns out that they weren’t the best people. So I quickly ended up moving to another little town in North Carolina called Clayton. Got the first job I could find at WalMart — I was just working and living. Even though in the end, it was slowly smothering me to death.”

It was that feeling that caused Halcyon to make his next move. His biological father offered him a space to stay in Los Angeles. Halcyon took the money he had saved, along with his tax return, and bought a plane ticket to California. Unfortunately, when he arrived in LA, he found out the living situation wasn’t what he had thought it would be. It turned out his father was living in an extra storage unit above a gym, where he showered and used the facilities.

“No knock. You do what you have to do to survive, it just wasn’t what I was thinking it would be. I decided to take the money I had left and find a place to actually call home,” Halcyon said. “So I grabbed a map and just started looking.”

The Story of Halcyon, A.C. — After California

He landed on Sacramento. Something about the name of the city, he said, drew him. He made his way onto Craigslist, found what seemed like a decent roommate situation, sent them the money, and made his way up to the City of Trees.

“They ended up swindling me. I was really young and to be honest just didn’t really get how the world worked, so I wasn’t thinking they would take my money and I’d be out of a place to live,” he said with a laugh, “but they did. So I was.”

Knowing no one in the city, and unsure of how to go about getting help, he spent his first couple of weeks literally walking and living in the streets. Eventually, he convinced himself to look up assistance programs, and he found his way to Wind Youth Services, an organization in downtown Sacramento that provides a safe space for unhoused youth.

It was through Wind Youth he was introduced to painting.

“There was this little art van, run by Grace Loescher. It was called the Creation District. It would go around to different places with unhoused youth and introduce them to art as a way to express themselves. I was there one day that the van came, and Grace handed me a piece of chalk,” he said.

In that moment, a lot changed for Halcyon.

“I told her I didn’t draw. That I didn’t really know s--- about it. But she told me to not think, and to just see what came out,” Halcyon said. “So I started to randomly draw and by the time I was done, I felt better than I had in a very long time. Once I discovered I could, I couldn’t stop, and when I couldn’t stop I just kept drawing, and painting, and creating. It was the most healed I had felt in a long time. Sacramento gave me that.”

He began working with The Creation District, where he was given a safe space to create. Through Wind Youth Services, he found a transitional living program, and through the program he was offered more stability — the kind of stability that started to make Sacramento feel like home.

Hope Blooms Eternal

While the city offered him stability, his art often felt anything but stable. At least in the beginning. Intense brush strokes and fragmented abstractions of human form mingled with the chaotic force of color upon color layered over each other; his work reflected the years of instability he had experienced before finding his way to Sacramento.

You could feel years of trauma, and pain, exposing themselves on whatever canvas, box, fabric or scrap Halcyon could find. His work is reminiscent of Basquiat, with a smattering of De Kooning, and sprinkle of Pollack, and a dash of Picasso. But more importantly, despite the urge to compare between the artists, Halcyon is 100 percent himself.

In the little over two years Halcyon has spent in Sacramento, he’s made more than a home for himself. He’s made an impression. His work has gained traction. He’s live painted at Ace of Spades, he’s built relationships with dedicated collectors, and two of his more recent pieces landed a spot at an Axis Gallery show in November, alongside Tavarus Blackmon.

With that kind of story, no wonder someone would be compelled to steal a piece of his work. No wonder someone (or someones) would be willing to transport a 5-by-5-foot painting in broad daylight after breaking a window to get to it.

And the story could end there. The painting could be absconded into the ether, never to be seen again — but the artist still holds out hope.

“I do wonder if I’ll ever get her back. I hadn’t even named her yet,” Halcyon lamented, his hands drawing abstract faces with oil pastels as we talked, “and if they wanted to bring it back to the gallery no questions asked, I would be overjoyed. But honestly it also makes me feel … almost a sense of pride that someone found my work so valuable to them personally that they would make it theirs by any means.”

Find his work

For those who would like to support Halcyon’s work and purchase his original pieces, you can find him on Instagram at @1.23four.