how art saved me

Art is my first language. As early as I can remember, I was drawing. As a kid with so much energy, art was my peace—a place for me to sit still and channel the creative energy I was constantly overflowing with. I always had something to draw with wherever I went, whether it was a sketchbook, an Etch A Sketch, or just a pen and paper. I remember riding BART from Oakland to San Francisco with my mom as a toddler, always drawing, or sitting at my little red table in my room, drawing way past my bedtime. Art has taught me peace. A peace I can take with me whether I’m drawing or not.

As I got older, I went through some of the hardest years of my life. I struggled with depression, dissociation, feeling outcast, and questions around my identity, especially growing up mixed and not always knowing where I belonged. After high school, I found myself going down paths that were destructive for me and those around me. Around that time, I started creating clothes and getting into streetwear. What began as transforming clothes slowly became a way of transforming myself and the future I could imagine for my life.

That eventually led me to murals, community work, and working with young people. I started to understand that art could be more than something that helped me survive—it could be a vehicle for healing, connection, and transformation. Today, I use art to help young people tell their stories, explore who they are, and create the lives they want for themselves, while continuing to do that same work within my own life.