Finding Your Roots

Painting is just one of the many art forms I love to practice. When people ask how to improve their sense of creativity, I tell them to try other art forms like dance, music and sports so they fan feel their mind form a relationship between the various hobbies. Every talent I have pursued in my life has helped me grow as an individual and brought me closer to self.

Fire Dancing

Fire spinning came into my life when I was 18 and really started things off for me with exploring new hobbies. Poi taught me the value of being a practitioner and showed me that I could learn anything if I practiced every day. It was amazing to feel my mind grow as I learned to use both hands simultaneously and practice learning every trick forwards, backwards, opposite, and mirrored.Watching fire performers at music events gave me the idea of traveling the world sharing this art form and inspiring others to try the game that changed my life.

Live Painting

Lightning in a Bottle music festival in California was the first place I saw live painters and witnessed artists create paintings very quickly, displaying fast geometric movements with a paint brush that I didn't even know was possible. One of the painters told me about their lifestyle as an artist and how they would travel to music events around the world and get paid to make art for the events. His story was so inspiring that I began to paint eight hours a day for the next two years. Live painting at festivals had a huge impact on the style I developed because I gave myself a three day time frame to create something worth selling, which taught me to be quick and efficient.

Pottery

My Jr. Year of High School I took my first ceramics class and continued this practice for five more years. My biggest lesson came from a teacher who told me not to save a single pot until the last week of class. He told me that by the end of the semester, I would be able to create pots that were 10 times better than the first three months of the class, so I destroyed every pot I made on the wheel, focusing on improving my ability to create thinner and larger pieces. Seeing my classmates energy being dispersed into decorating their pots was taking time away from their skill of making the pots. By the end of my first college semester, I was able to create elegant abstract forms that were delicate and strong with ease. Understanding this process helped me paint over my work countless times simply to restart with a slight improvement in dexterity and understanding of how paint comes off the brush. This lesson in detachment is something I teach all my artist friends as it has been my greatest advantage to progressing quickly.

BMX

BMX freestyle came into my life at twelve years old and I felt a powerful creative freedom from this sport. This was where I learned to play with fear and risk getting injured if I didn't land correctly. At age 15 I broke my back at a skatepark because fear entered my mind before I tried a trick and didn't allow me to commit. Being able to walk away from this injury a year later left me truly inspired to learn new hobbies and live life to the fullest, not taking anything for granted. BMX taught me to visualize success and block out all the internal negative self doubt.

Snow Boarding

A friend of mine took me snowboarding for the first time when I was 19 and loved it so much I went every weekend that winter. When I was 21 I got a job as a snowboard instructor at Sugar Bowl in Truckee, CA. Moving away from my hometown helped me grow as an individual and discover who I was around new faces. The nature at every resort was full of incredible views and the people who would ride every day became my family. There was a unique similarity between how the paint brush moves and the way a snowboard edge carves in the snow that gave me an advantage to mastering the flat brush. This discovery brought me so much joy and made it feel like I was snowboarding while painting.

Gymnastics

One day while at the rock climbing gym, someone saw me practicing backflips on a soft mat. She knew I coached kids in climbing and invited me to work at her gymnastics gym. I coached for the next five years and felt this work space help me with my own fears because I felt like I had to practice what I preached and would demonstrate the skills I was working on in order to inspire others to try. You can do anything you set your mind to and the only thing stopping you from achieving your biggest dreams is fear. This motto gave me the confidence to perform dance and live music in front of a crowd years later.

Guitar

Picking up the guitar at seventeen taught me another form of dexterity and muscle memory. The guitar showed me the importance of practicing every day and I could feel the imperfections if I skipped a couple days of practice. This awareness became apparent as I used my hands for pottery, painting and climbing. Playing instruments with friends puts you in a creative vortex and I felt the resemblance as I began painting with other people. Live painting in front of a crowd feels the same as soloing on a guitar because no one knows when you make a mistake and you can always cover up any mistakes by improvising. My background with guitar has been helping me with my new outlets of electronic music production and djing live shows.

Rock Climbing

My first job was at my local Rock Climbing Gym and I worked as a coach for six years, developed my love for helping others learn. My communication with others was important in order to gain their trust and encourage them to try the things they were afraid of. It laid out an amazing foundation of psychology for me and helped me find my place in a community. With my knowledge of climbing gear, I began to rig slacklines hundreds of feet in the air and continued to challenge myself to play with my fear of heights. The climbing world taught me that it was possible to overcome my fears with practice and began my journey of doing the things that scared me.

Writing

The four elements of Hip-Hop are Break Dance, MC (mic controller), Djing, and Graffiti Art and I had been practicing all four elements without realizing it, giving me a new sense of identity. Rapping out loud really helped vent my frustration with the world and transmute my message into spreading positive affirmations to uplift human consciousness.

About Me

As far back as I can remember I've had a fascination with finding forms in organic material like woodgrain, marble and clouds. Abstract art allows me to transcend time and feel the imagination I once had as a kid. A walk in the forest will reawaken my child like curiosity of how things came to be and to think like a true creator. Brush strokes perceived as dance movements, hands and fingers set free in space. Learning how crystals can grow in geometric forms taught me the importance of the atomic structures that compose our reality, orchestrating line work like spiders weaving their webs, combining rigidity and delicate curves in order to unite the masculine and feminine energies. My dreams of being a successful artist are tied directly to my hopes of inspiring others to embody their full expression, question realitv and pursue their dassions.