My first introduction to art happened in a dream. I dreamt of these weird shapes that kids were throwing out the window. I did not know what was happening but the imagery felt very DADA-esque to me. After that dream I felt compelled to paint, there was a powerful craving to make this imagery. My introduction to art also began with my mother, she would always take me to museums all over Los Angeles. She introduced me to Picasso, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Klimt the list goes on! I was always allowed to express my creativity. Fast forward to my teenage years and into my pool of teenage depression and mood swings, I began to listen to a lot of heavy punk music, that heavy punk music introduced me to some pretty cool music videos with some very surrealistic imagery. I felt compelled to paint what I was seeing. My mind started to make up stories of other little worlds, maybe there were some friendly monsters that lived there too! I would spend hours on one drawing and then writing a little story for it.
I slowly began to find a love of horror movies and scary stories. Artists like Stephen Gammell and Edward Gorey were two of my favorite artists growing up. I realized I also loved production work, set design, and filming! I explored making stop motion movies in my room and uploading them to my YouTube Channel. With the support of my parents, I was able to continue to experiment and explore this passion for art. A few years into community college I went ahead and applied to Art school. I attended Otis College Of Art and Design and studied Illustration. Taking the knowledge that I received at Otis, I went ahead and began work on my small art business. Using Instagram and TikTok to sell my work, I posted stories of new pieces that were for sale, on TikTok I would introduce these new monsters that were available. I took some time and developed my Etsy page as a more stable platform to sell my work.
To think that my introduction to art started in a dream, being able to sell my work and show in galleries feels like just another dream I am having. Meeting other artists and other creatives has been so amazing and a huge inspiration for me to keep going.
