For as long as I can remember, art as has been an intriguing phenomenon to me. I remember my first art project in school. Creating a spider and its web using markers, construction paper, a plastic, pipe cleaners and hot glue. My art teacher, Mrs. Stevenson, instructed us on how to properly draw a spider web. Then showed us, very carefully, how to place the plastic cap on the web using a hot glue gun. At that age it seem so real. When compared to my classmates, every single project was completely different. From the position of the spider to what was in the web, even the spider’s webs were different. From that point on I knew that art would be my passion.

 

The amount of creativity that one could muster showed that art could never get tiresome, that it would never grow old for me. My heart was formed around art. Through it ran the ideas, and drawings of dreams. Art peaked my interest and made me want to learn more about it. So by 3^rd grade I could draw like no tomorrow. By 4^th grade I could do all kinds of origami. In the 7^th grade I was deep into comics and anime. When I entered high school I returned to my roots of drawing become a more sophisticated artist. I wanted to draw things that were more life-like, and real.

 

My heart began to beat…

 

We fast forward to college. I was not as in tune with art like I had been before. I was drawing as much and crafts seemed to be elementary at the time. The college I attended was the prestigious Purdue University. I was a student-athlete there on scholarship and I played football for the Boilermakers. I had a couple of design classes but because I was so out of whack with my creative side, the classes were tough on me. The art within me was fading. Just when art was on its last limb, gasping for air, I had the fortune of meeting my teammate Adam Wolf. Adam was an upper classmen who was majoring in Computer Graphics Technology. He introduced me to the world of graphic design. This newfound interest made my heart jump. Seeing his work amazed me. Watching him draw and the process of him creating wallpapers for our teammates pumped me with inspiration. Could I create that? Will I ever be this good? How does he do it? Those questions raced through my head. The creativity that I saw on his computer screen and the way he executed each effect, technique and design was inspiring and had my attention. Graphic design was what I wanted to do. Art had become my main focus again.

 

To this current day, my routine is never ending. I wake up every morning, freshen up and head to my home office. I grab my DNA Monster headphones and plug them into my computer. The first application I open on my Macbook Pro is iTunes. I’ve compiled a list of songs that I enjoy listening to and I open both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.

 

All day long I design. Starting off with an all screen. I listen to my music. Hip hop and R&B flows through my ears. Singing along and hitting shortcut keys in the rhythm of the songs, I create project after project. The music and the art go hand in hand with me. The music puts me in a creative environment and I just get lost in my illuminated screen. Every day I tackle a new technique or project. Once I learn a technique I work with it until it becomes second nature and I can perfect it myself. My projects are usually never finished. Even when I post something, to me, it is never truly such a thing as a finalized design. The designs are alive and henceforth killing it of be saying it is “completed” is rather unlikely of me.

 

While my computer is flooded with designs, some would say that they are completed; music also takes up most of my hard drive. I download music everyday and music is always playing around me. What interests me the most about the music is the album artwork that comes with it. See how they tie in with the music it represents is often a puzzle, yet it is one I enjoy doing. Every thing from simple (Frank Ocean’s channel ORANGE) to strange and abstract (Maroon 5’s Overexposed) is sometimes a mystery in why it was chosen to represent a particular project. I guess in that sense music artist are similar to designers in the sense of why we do the crazy things we do.

 

With two of my friends being rap artist Kennarri and Young R-rah, my spare time (if you can call it that) is spent around design music covers and promotion schemes for them. Between the crazy ideas we all come up with and with those two not being able to make up their minds (one of the things graphic designers hate about clients is indecisiveness) graphic design becomes my own job that I work full time. Reese (Young R-rah) really supports me. He is constantly sharing my multiple pages and connecting me to others who are in need of my services. Kennarri constantly keeps me working, too. He sends me so much work. Honestly I try a lot of effects that I want to learn out on the projects that he needs. Their music is great and they are bound for much success. I enjoy listening to music and the fact that I can listen to great music and design, puts me in a peaceful state. I listen to their music everyday, at least one song and design what their music makes me feel.

 

I believe the creativity in the words of the songs allow me to think more vividly. The beats and lyrics flow through my art and designs. The art pumps the music through the canvas and keeps me interested in it and makes it entertaining. Ideas and effects are usually clearer to me and the overall tone of the design is usually tied in to the song. Most of my designs are usually associated with music in some way. Album cover, song art, poster, and flyers are common for me. When my day is over I look through what I have and I decided what needs to kept or not of the designs.

 

From the day I know what art was, I fell in love with it. I’ve explored so many avenues of it that it’s hard for me to latch on to one particular form of it. When creating art I just feel alive! With the music keeping me focused, allowing me to learn and master my talents, and keeping me entertained, it will be a sad day when my life doesn’t revolve around art and music.

 

My art heart yearns to grow. Although it has suffered over the years, each recovery has made it stronger. It pumps better it allows me to live better. With music running through its veins, I can easily express my self with a song and bring it to my workspace and create. The music is what keeps me going and without either or, the latter has no purpose to me. Live to inspire. Engineer your dreams.