My art days go back to elemenatry school art class and the opportunities it opened me up to. I began drawing from inspiration I sought out from my father, who is a good pencil and paper artist himself. It was from there that I began experimenting with film and animation, specifically stop-motion animation. I owe a lot of my desire to pursue stop-motion to my aunt, who bought me my first stop-frame animation software kit. Some of my early animation can be found here:

Painting and drawing continued to stick with me through the years to the point where I now run my own streetwear brand from shirts I design and print. Here is one of my favorite shirts that I’ve made:

Music is another form of art that I developed over the years as I now play drums for the hard hitting shoegaze trio “Senior Living.” It has taken me places I thought I’d never go and I have met a lot of great bands along the way. Our most recent release is a 3 song EP titled “35mm.” You can listen to it here:

I did not get into programming and arduino until freshman year of college when I got an arduino uno starter kit and began learning how to program stepper motors, LED lights etc. to run certain commands. I have not been as consistent with pursuing Arduino as I have other forms because I never really had a project in mind that required the implementation of Arduino. However, now I do!

As I mentioned previously, I enjoy playing music as an alternative art form and even go on tour from time to time playing for different people from different backgrounds and sharing a lot of great ideas. A lot of my inspiration comes from musical artists, most of which are underground alternative/hardcore bands. However, one person who has consistently made my mind wonder is Wes Anderson. He is the brains behind the stop-motion animation films “Fantastic Mr. Fox” and “Isle of Dogs.” I have watched too many interviews of him talking about his background and inspiration behind the films to the point where I just need to meet him in real life. 

Art plays a HUGE part in my goals; almost to a point where it is scary. As I mentioned previously, I run my own streetwear brand/ art collective where I design, print and sell clothes and other accessories. It is still in the beginning stages but has recently began to pick up some momentum. I would really like to make something of it and even hope to partially rely on it to pay the bills some day. The other portion of the bills I hope to be able to pay from drumming and touring full time. Even the engineering I am studying relies on art because my concentration is in mechanical design and I hope to be able to land a job creating CAD models for a company if I choose to pursue the engineering path.

Over the summer, I was lucky enough to carry out most of the creative projects I had in mind. For example, my band was able to release our sophomore EP as mentioned previously, which we all believe marks the beginning of a new era of our sound. I was also able to make a number of digital drawings that are nothing like I’ve ever made before. 

Here are a few of my favorites. I’ll probably make some of these into shirts for future drops.

I’m excited for this class and looking forward to sharing ideas!