For most people they are given a talent or skill, mine has always been art. I can’t tell you why, but I can tell you that I discovered it very early in life. I only discovered it because people like my family saw that I had a natural talent in drawing. I know that many of my family members all liked to draw and were pretty good at it. Growing up I thought my mother was the world’s greatest artist because she could draw anything I requested. My mother raised me by herself in the very early part of my growing up and we did a lot of drawing. Later on a great man was in our lives and I guess he was my Dad. I was too young to understand but soon I had a sister, and two years later I had another one. I didn’t think much about having a different last name because of being so young. I remember there was a lot of violence in my youth between my parents and I would hide and draw. I would draw because it made me feel safe. My drawing was noticed at school and I learned that with my drawings I could get things I wanted like toys, cookies, and friends.

 

Moving to Sycamore before starting 6th grade was the first time I had a real art class. I even competed for my first art contest and won 1st place, the next year I won first place again. I learned how to start seeing negative space, and I learned that eyeballs have a light reflection. I started to discover more than what I thought I saw and it started to show. I remember how movie posters were so magical to me. If the poster was great I wanted to see that movie. Star Wars the Special Edition came out and with that came the poster art of Drew Struzan. At the time I had no idea who this person was but I knew that I wanted to be just like this person and make movie posters. Star Wars, comic books, cartoons and sport logos became such an inspiration for me during my Junior High days.

 

High School I started to really have the urge to draw and make art. I started to brand myself. I loved the attention I would get from my art and the recognition. My work was my identity. I wanted to show my pride for my cultural background, my family with my artwork. The first time I was ever destroyed was when a kid from school defaced my artwork. I never felt the hurt like that before. This was the beginning of knowing how important my art was. I wanted to become a real artist and I wanted to go to art school. I didn’t want to go to college because I thought I was a bad student. I was told all the time I was lazy and didn’t care by both my parents and some of the teachers I had.  I knew if I wanted to go to school I would have to do it myself so I joined the U.S. Army so I could go to college.

 

After the Army I went to the American Academy of Art in Chicago. I did my four-year school and earning a Bachelors degree in only three years. I thought after school that my life would be set and I would become a great artist. Didn’t happen, in fact I had to work at sign shop where the owners didn’t know how to do anything and I was able to learn how to graphic design. At the same time to make ends meet I started to tattoo. It took about four years to start to understand how to tattoo. Nine years later I’m still tattooing and graphic designing. The biggest and greatest part of my life now is becoming an art teacher at Northern Illinois University.