Agains Da Grain began in 2021 with two neighbours, a living room, and a shared desire to make art.
Gustoe —better known to many as Fat Pat—and Charissa, aka the Lizard Queen, began getting together to create. There wasn’t a grand plan or polished concept behind it. They were simply making things, sharing ideas, experimenting with materials, and teaching each other what they knew.
Those evenings became weekly art jams, and before long, they had outgrown arting in each others living rooms.
The jams moved into a warehouse space called “The Nest” and Agains Da Grain began to take shape.
Every Tuesday night, artists and creative people came together for what was affectionately called:
“An Arty, not a Party.”
The idea was simple: create a welcoming space for people to actually make things together.
The art jams weren’t about being the most accomplished artist in the room. They were about collaboration, experimentation, and getting unstuck. People shared materials, techniques, tools, and ideas. Artists taught one another different ways of working through creative blockages. Sometimes someone arrived knowing exactly what they wanted to make. Sometimes they had absolutely no idea.
Both were welcome.
Over time, those Tuesday nights grew into friendships, collaborations, pop-up art markets, new projects, and a creative community of their own.
For the Lizard Queen, the experience became something even more important.
Fat Pat began as a neighbour but became a mentor, collaborator, close friend, and Art-ner. At a time when the Lizard Queen was still learning to confidently call herself an artist, Fat Pat and the community surrounding Agains Da Grain created a space where that identity didn’t need to be justified.
Where creatives could simply make art.
Somewhere along the way, the question of whether she was allowed to call herself an artist disappeared.
The Lizard Queen had truly arrived.
Together, Fat Pat and the Lizard Queen built Agains Da Grain around a belief that continues to shape the project today: art doesn’t have to follow the expected path.
Creativity can happen with whatever is around. Knowledge is meant to be shared. People make incredible things when they have room to experiment, fail, laugh, learn from one another, and try again.
And sometimes, the greatest thing created isn’t the thing sitting on the table.
It’s the community that forms around it.
The roots are already here.
Now we keep growing Seeds.
