The semester continues and his professor makes it apparent that he doesn’t quite approve of his work. In the nicest way possible, this professor tells him that his art probably won’t go anywhere. As his dreams are being shattered, his heart is being broken at the same time. Murky waters loom ahead with his high school sweetheart. Months of fighting ultimately lead to a distant break up on a Military base on the other side of the country while visiting his lover’s brother. He knows no one and nothing around him and can’t escape as he watches his ex lover become infatuated with someone new, waking up to find them as they lay sleeping together on the couch.
He comes home a broken man, with no inspirations or aspirations. So he does what most people in that situation usually do; works as many hours as he can, and drinks the night away the second he gets home. A lot of time after his freshman year of college is but a blur of 60 hour work weeks, drunken vacations, and last minute tattoo appointments. Luckily enough, his old art teacher had gotten him in contact with a local artist who he in turn ended up working for that summer (and still does to this day). So he’s happy at work, and having fun outside of work. Unfortunately, it’s the most destructive kind of fun. All of his drunken hazes lead to a terrible relationship with his parents, and on the days he doesn’t spend out having fun, he is busy getting kicked out of his family home and couch surfing. It’s nobody’s fault but his own, and he knows that. So naturally, he decides to spontaneously drop out of school, pack his life away into a few trash bags, and head west to the sandy shores of the Pacific.
Time continues to fly, but a dollar and a dream remains but a dollar and a dream. With a few cents left in his bank account, the cost of California living has it’s grip on his throat. But he still manages. He makes some wonderful friends and spends all of his free time at the local library. Though he hasn’t completed a painting in ages, he is now a very well read young man. Averaging a book a day when he can, his selection ranges from classic literature to geographic and art history books. He reads his days away until he comes home again, and this time he is determined
After a few years of failed scholastic endeavors and a ton of musical exploration going nowhere, he decides to try something new. He picks up a paint brush, and this time decides that he would like to work with oil paint. He had tried this medium a few times years ago, but to no avail. It was pure miserable failure back then. This time, though, it was different. Starting with a long forgotten idea, he reworks it and creates something satisfactory to him. In December of 2020, a delightfully sinister grin creeps across his face as he realizes that maybe he can paint the way that he had previously hoped to.
Now spending days at a time locked away in his room painting, he is desperate for an alternative solution. As much as he loves to paint, his room is so small that the fumes become unbearable after a while. Months go on without an answer, and just as he is about to give up, he is gifted from a friend a massive and marvelous studio space. The dormant creative monster within him roars into live as he now spends every second he can get in this studio. He reconnects with family and friends and learns as much as he can absorb. He has so many wonderful artists in his family (at least four members on his father’s side, and five more on his mother’s) and he cannot believe that he didn’t think to learn from them before. Every time he runs into an issue, he consults his family rather than getting discouraged. Whether he is spending his days at his Uncle’s tattoo shop, or on the phone with one of his master-painter Aunts, he strives to always be learning something. Always traveling with art supplies and doing quick studies. Even at work he is now responsible for learning new techniques to help further streamline the studio’s silk screen printing process (though, those folk already work incredibly effectively and fast). He now wants to do nothing more than consistently grow and follow this path until the end. But with his studio on the brink of being unavailable to him as covid restrictions ease and workers begin to flood his once-empty happy place, he becomes worried… though he now knows that never again will he be discouraged or shaken. When a new opportunity presents itself, he will pounce. He is hungry… but that is all that he knows for now. What happens next, only time will tell.
