Kris Rhymes is a Phoenix, Arizona based artist who has grown his craft of creating provocative pieces of art that evoke imagination and profoundness through encouragement from others and he’s now giving that support and inspiration to kids at LeBron James’ school I Promise.
By: Heather Newgen | Twitter: @hnvoluntourist
When it was announced that basketball superstar LeBron James launched his I Promise, school, which is housed under his nonprofit, and aims to help underserved children in Ohio, where James is from, Rhymes knew he wanted to get involved.
To help support the school, he created a beautiful painting of LeBron and donated it to I Promise, in addition to talking with the students about his background and what it takes to make it as an artist.
“I had to be around the right people, the right amount of support to become the artist I am today. So being able to teach the youth not only the arts, but being able to inspire them to achieve their future endeavors was the perfect combination,” Kris Rhymes told The Voluntourist.
“There’s a lot of children in there that have so much potential so I was glad to be a good influence on them for that day,” he added. “I was so happy to do that, especially in the city of Akron because there’s so much potential, but with very limited resources. With the school opening up it’s going to pave the way for many people to come.”
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As a creative talent, Kris Rhymes knows the level of dedication and resilience it takes to succeed and wanted to instill that in the students he spoke with.
“It’s all about perseverance and strength to become better. There’s a lot of things that are going to happen in your journey and you have to continue to move forward because that’s what makes you stronger. I think that’s something that a lot of people don’t touch upon. When people fall down a lot of people look at that as weakness, but really it’s something to grow from. You can’t really grow from everything being great,” Kris Rhymes said.
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Another great lesson Kris Rhymes wanted to pass on to the kids was to not limit your creativity.
“Thinking outside the box and going a different route [is important]. As artists we’re creators. There’s no filter, there’s no structure to what you can do. So you can’t put yourself in a box, you have to stay out of the box,” he said.
For more information on Kris Rhymes and to see his artwork, check out his site http://krisrhymes.com/about/