Veesh L. Swamy

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Instagram: @live.vls

Where is home for you? 
Born in Flint, MI, currently living in Detroit, Michigan.

If you could go anywhere in the world right now, where would you go? 
If I could go anywhere in the world right now: Serengeti National Park in Tanzania  

If you could only have one pair of shoes, what color would they be? 
Chestnut Brown

Podcasts or audiobooks? 
Both (podcasts for short periods in life, audiobooks for the drives)

Extroverted or Introverted? 
Extroverted Introvert

If you were a dragon, what would you hoard?
I would hoard first-edition books and original works from early philosophers and great minds (if they even exist)! I would love to have the original pages of Andreas Vesalius's de humani corporis fabrica or from any of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks. 

Tell us about one place that has made an impact on your life.

Detroit. There is much to say about this city. In particular, the city has provided me an uncanny support system towards achieving everything I have worked towards, from academics to art. I owe all my future efforts and endeavors back to this place; there are many problems to be solved still. I would like to target homelessness. No matter where in Detroit you are, you will come across one or two people who have ended up with the short end of the stick. I can even name a few by first name as well as describe the physical characteristics of the same few that reside at the corners of the expressway intersection. It is not their faults; our humanity has allowed it to occur. Nevertheless, if we have allowed it, we can easily solve it. I have a goal of one day ending it. It may not be in the next 5 or 10 years, but one day we will witness great change. I am unaware of what this first stimulus will be, but I have been working on a few ideas to make a little dent. I believe that the overall impact is a realization that all the opportunity I have been given in Detroit is a simply fate revealing the work my community and I still have to accomplish here.

Has one piece of art, literature, or music helped shape you are today?

Yes, there have been many, especially Alex Grey's works. However, the most important piece of art that has shaped me is this three-dimensional portrait of Mother Theresa holding a sick child that hangs in my mother's office. As a child, it was merely a quite surreal art piece. You can feel her hands and the expression in her eyes. As I have gotten older, I think about the work more often due to one of her prayers that I hold close to heart called "Do It Anyway." I am not Catholic; however, her words hold extremely high value to me. Just the phrase, "Do it anyway," has the ability to eliminate all fear and self-doubt. My love for the artwork & this prayer have orchestrated in me a strong willpower to accomplish as much as I can solely to better the world around me, no matter the medium - fashion, art, medicine, etc. This is why to this day I consider one of my heroes to be Mother Theresa. Each time I picture the art in my mind, I always feel a few degrees closer to her and enter a very peaceful state of mind.