MY STORY

When I was young, I was always enamored by things that would stimulate my imagination. I was always fascinated with the story and journey of how things came to be the way they are. I think this led me down a road of me wanting to create my own narratives, worlds, and forms of storytelling.

I grew up in a decently large family, me being the middle child. My parents did their best bringing us up, with the information they had with them at the time. My parents struggled much through having several children, and didn’t really have a plan for us growing up. They did their best. The area we grew up in was very impoverished, and very dangerous. Oakland California was listed as one of the most dangerous cities in America from the late 1980’s to the mid to late 2000’s.

Needless to say, growing up in these environments were not the best. There was a lot of dysfunction, self hatred, and limiting beliefs that were usually found in my city, and would later pervade itself into our household. These are things I did not know at the time, but I can analyze and see now as a full grown adult.

Sometimes when living in these sort of circumstances, people need something to believe in and escape into, in order to escape the mundane, chaotic, and sometimes hopeless reality that they face everyday. For some people it is finding religion, community, sports, or sometimes escapism through recreational drugs, drinking or some other form of vice.

Sometimes people’s environments can have a huge impact and effect on who they are and shapes them into the man or woman they are today. As I’ve grown older throughout my journey, I’ve found it important to remember where you come from, but not to be a victim of your surroundings and circumstances.

For me as a young child, my “escapism” was drawing, video games and anime.

I felt as though this was a way for my to escape or decompress from a reality that I felt that I had no control over as a young child. I would often draw and make short stories about the characters that I would come up with, or draw some of my favorite videogame and anime characters. It was a form of owning something that no one could take away from me.

I think sometimes when there is the “creative” child in the family, especially in the black American households, no one really knows what to do with them, or there aren’t many resources known to get them ahead. I particularly struggled with this as a young child, not really knowing what or how I could use my “gifts” that were given to me and developed through practice to make a living for myself and make an impact to the world.

I went through most of my teenage life with no real clear written goals, or direction. Despite this, I never really stopped drawing. I was often times the “best artist” in the class, and when some of my classmates would get a new jacket, or pair of Nike Air Force 1’s, I would often be the person that everyone would be ecstatic to see in order to write or draw something on their clothing. Or whenever there was a class project that involved storytelling or some kind of artwork, people would metaphorically speaking, roll out the red carpet for me when it came to display the artistic side of the project.

Moving forward several years, one interaction on my journey in life that led toward a great impact on me, was when I went to visit a friend overseas in Japan shortly before the 2020 worldwide pandemic. I remember accompanying this friend to an art exhibit he was a part of. Sometime after, when many of us were mingling, I revealed that I too was an artist, and showing some of the people at the event my drawings that I had saved to my phone. This left a very positive impact on me, and placed a bit of a core memory into my mind. Japan is home to all things anime, and at the time, my drawing style was heavily “anime” oriented. (It really still can be seen that way now, but that is besides the point…) Could it be true that the small audience of Japanese people were “just being nice to me” and blowing smoke at me? Sure. But it left me with a positive impact, nonetheless.

Fast forward towards today, and I have decided to turn all of my knowledge, gifts, and talents into something that I can earn and make a living from.

I think when it is all said and done, I want to be remembered as someone who put my all into my work. It is a great way for me to express myself. When I am no longer here, I want to have something that will far outlive me. I want those who know me to be able to smile for me, remember all the laughs, good memories we shared, and my drawings will let the world know that I tried, and everything I did came from the heart. Sometimes I look back at old pictures and drawings at I can see the good times I shared with people that I love and care for. Its funny how things like art and music can bring us back to old people places and things. To reminisce on all the good times that were made and had, and help us strive and give us strength throughout life.

I think sometimes to better understand a person, you need to understand their story. Today, I thought I would share a little of my story…

Thanks for reading. Please sign up for my e-mail list for all the latest updates, products, and more!