How long have you been making art? And have you seen yourself evolve as an artist over time?

I’ve been making art as long as I can remember honestly, my mother was an artist/photographer all her life. She taught me art therapy at a young age because I used to be a pretty shy kid, and sometimes saying things with pictures or images helped me communicate more than my words could, which led me to be who I am today.  I have definitely seen myself evolve over the years, going from simple linework doodles to digitally painting my work, and even animating it at times. I have always had a fascination with exaggerated facial expressions in a way, though, so that’s always been a constant theme in my work.

Who/what are your greatest artistic inspirations?

Well my parents showed me Ralph Steadman, Ed Roth, and Gary Larson really early on, and I would watch a lot of older cartoons, so I believe those had the biggest impact on me.  I did however fall in love with music, which is probably why I ended up adding quotes to everything I do.  And I think the metaphors in a lot of music led me to be able to use metaphors artistically in the way I do. Especially artists like Mac Miller, Lucki, Earl, and basically everyone else who was able to voice their life story in a beautiful way.

One of the first things I remember seeing from you was the Nike shoes you transformed, turning the iconic swoosh logo into a happy character. Can you tell me about this project? Have you been doing any more fashion design work?

[Laughs]. That was fun. My friend had a pair of the Travis Scott Air Force 1s with the replaceable patches, so I had some patches custom made that I reworked for the shoes.  People seemed to like them, so I had originally planned to find a way to create a small collection of them, but never ended up getting to it.  I really enjoyed seeing that come to life though.  I have played with a couple shoes since, but nothing as cool as those in my opinion.  As for clothing, I have been making T-shirts with my friend Casey casually for a while now.  I worked in a T-shirt shop when I was in high school, so I’ve always kind of made clothes as a side hustle.  Besides that, I am still looking for more ways to apply my art into different fields though, it’s always a fun process to stretch your work’s boundaries.