Beginning to now

From the very first plumeria to now painting sailor jerry flashed this has been one hell of a journey already. There’s been many times where I wonder why I choose to do this and there’s been many times where this was a clear cut decision. I’ve never doubted myself more in this time and I’ve never believed in my ability as an artist more in this time.
            I’ve gone from shakey thin lines to bold more strong and straight line work. I’ve gone from just looking at a image and trying to create it from lines to breaking an image done into shapes and building off of them to create an image. I’ve gone to having very little confidence to building myself up into a confident strong artist.
            From drawing palm trees at four while all my buddies are asleep after going out to banging my ahead against a wall on trying to figure out how to properly shade black in my paintings this has been very frustrating but more rewarding then anything over ever done and I haven’t even put a needle to somebody's skin yet. The feeling I get from seeing beautiful flash on Instagram and the internet to the feeling of me wanting to draw and tattoo better then those people that I see on Instagram is what drives me. At first I wanted to be on the tv shows, and then I wanted to do great work on people, and now more lately I’ve let my competitive athletics side take back over me and now I want to be one of the greats. I want people from all over the world to come to me because they know they are getting something one of a kind.
             There’s been times where I’d go hangout with my buddies and wonder what’d it’d be like if I would have turned down Adam’s offer and stayed at Olivet to play baseball with my buddies, but quickly there’s a voice in the back of my head that always reassures me that I’ve made the right decision. Knowing that if I stayed at Olivet I would sit in classes that I hate and drinking at night to no end. Every time I come back from Olivet it’s always a fresh of breath air knowing that I did what a lot of people wouldn’t have done and put all my chips in on me and bet big on myself.
               I’ve learned many lessons in this journey from art lessons to life lessons to health lessons. All this work has opened my eyes to a whole new world of possibilities that I would have never thought possible a year and a half ago. Many people have asked me why I chose to go down this path and go to one of the most expensive living places in the US and tattoo there, one I could have just apprenticed at one of the shops in Lansing. And at first I’d always say ya know something’s happen for a reason and right place right time and all that sort of stuff. But as of late the more and more confident I’ve become I’m starting to see what Adam saw in me that day at his shop. There was no reason for him to offer me an apprenticeship when he didn’t even know my last name, and I showed him a crudely drawing lure that I got off the internet. But with each painting I paint, and each drawing I line, with each setback I face I have more and more confidence in myself that Maui may bend me as far as I can, but it will not break me and I will come out of this part of my life stronger and better then ever in all aspects.