My Path - My Creative Process
I have always been doodling and drawing. It started when I was bored during a time of being homeless while traveling across the country later in life. I needed to change my life, so I moved away from my old one.
I grew up in Texas and lived in North Carolina. I have worked many jobs and have been through many experiences. Some good, some hard. I am not here to invoke your sympathy. I am here because I aim to live my purpose as an artist and give back to those around me.
It took someone saying I can do more in life than just sit around – after contemplation I thought about what he meant and what that meant for me. I have never lived sitting around. But in many ways I had.
I was bored, I was tired of sitting around doing nothing and I was very tired of being told I can't do anything.
So I picked up some sharpies at Walmart and didn’t know where to start. But I knew I had to start.
Then I just googled “eyes” – I started drawing eyes and tried my best to replicate what I was seeing.
I would go get on a bus and I would draw black and white pictures – and people would be amazed because I was doing the pictures on the moving bus.
I have always been taking care of kids, wives, lives, but not taking care of my own life.
I thought, if I can take care of all these people, I can take care of myself.
That’s all I want – to take care of myself, take care of a few other people and be able to help others, shoot even buy someone else some ice cream while they're on a walk. I don’t aim to get rich. I just want a normal life.
I am in my fifties – I feel like I'm in my twenties, but I do understand I am in my fifties. My body understands I am in my fifties. My mind understands that I am capable of anything.
I've had jobs where I was paid $30-$40 an hour and I never saw a penny of it because it always went to other people. And now with art, I see every penny. Because of how it's opened my eyes.
“Before art, I never saw the river. I never saw the ocean, lakes. I never paid attention to flowers. Now after art, It all looks like something I can draw.”
“My mind is open, I truly understand what it's like to be free.”
‘I think every person should live their passion. It’s time I live mine.”
My Vision - My Purpose
My purpose started with me buying groceries – to feed myself – with a tendency to cook more than I could eat. Remembering what it's like to be hungry and wasting food, I would get to-go containers and give it away to the homeless.
I started out with just a few people and after some time, I got to a point where I was feeding 15 people a week in summer of 2019.
I’ve taken 100 to 150 hot dogs to people and handed out bottled water.
I’ve helped 3 people get apartments and off the streets with Opportunity Council.
During this process I started to meet people in a higher standing and they were appreciating what I was doing. They wondered if they could help me in any way.
It set me back to meet people that were willing to help me out in such a way that made me very thankful.
One person gave me an Allied Art membership – and Allied art adopted me as one of their new artists.
They apparently saw something in me.
“I never asked. I never begged. I always humbled myself and was ready when I needed to be.”