One Day I'll Leave to the City - Artist Micky Pop

Artist Micky Pop uses his creative outlets to heal himself and inspire others to do the same.

With varied experience and knowledge rooted in creating both music and visual art, Micky frees his story into something others can connect to using dark imagery to express his vision.

 "One day I'll leave to the city" Being a determined Indigenous artist living in northern Alberta you get a lot of thoughts and scenarios about how life would or could be if you just left home and moved to the city, it's such a hopeful, exciting and mysterious thing to think about if you've never experienced city life. 

 Growing up in a place like northern Alberta and hearing "We're going to the city and going to go shopping at the West Edmonton Mall" sounded just as exciting as "We're going to Disneyland". I always had dreams of leaving the north and moving to a city and starting a band. That was my biggest dream growing up, and at the time that all sounded so impossible and out of reach, it always felt like that was just a dream and that's all it was ever going to be. 

 I used to take walks on the Rez at 4am, and I'd stop and stare at the moon and wish that I was in a different place, living out my dreams rather than hating every minute in a place I felt like I didnt belong and have no future in. At that point I didnt have much friends, or have anything going for me school or career wise. I was just living at my grandparents house and doing nothing but sitting in my room and playing guitar or drawing.

 So I decided I wanted to change my path for the better. I didnt know what I was going to do but I knew I was ready for something, anything. In 2015 I had just came out of a very low dark moment in my life. I was everything that the toxic society and world around me was meant to turn me into, I was everything I hated about addiction. I knew I had to change because I watched many people fall into that life and it's not pretty at all.

 2020 was the year that I finally completed my whole mission. I've moved to the city, built up a name for myself as an artist and musician. I recorded and put out my first album, i've rocked stages with a band that I put together and learned to record and put out my own music. I always wanted to learn how to tattoo which I started doing, I found like-minded friends and met the love of my life.

 Now I'm 28 and I can say that I'm happy and content with my experience on earth. I feel like I'm that kid looking up at the sky wanting an adventure and with all this new found knowledge and skills I can finally make those dreams a reality.

 Metaphorically, the painting is about a mission of building an artistic platform for myself coming to an end, and moving into that new chapter with new knowledge and the tools to bring my dreams to life.” -Micky Pop