My Origin Story
The short version, I am a proud Chiricahua Apache and Mexican and growing up I would experience two divorces & three marriages, moving willingly and without a say, meeting/losing people, and constantly adjusting. When I was going through these experiences at a young age I was scared to ask questions that might go against the rules and ideologies of others, which led me to not being myself and conforming to these rules and ideas that were not my own. I started taking control of my own life and was labeled rebellious, troubled, or feared for not being/thinking the same way as others especially if their beliefs were negative, cruel, or aggressive. So art became a way for me to express myself or just escape reality.
" Why would curiosity and willingness to understand, be seen as a bad thing, then punished for not going along with what is 'normal'? "
A longer version, I was born in July of 1993 in the city of La Junta, Colorado but my family and I lived in the town of Lamar with my sister; the oldest and my two brothers; one older and the other younger. My parents divorced within the next three years and my mom won full custody of us. I vaguely remember living in the home my family lived together in before the divorce. We eventually moved to the town of Rose Hill, Kansas where I spent most of my childhood and my mother would marry my first stepdad. When I was around ten I got to see my dad again in Bakersfield, California. My mom then went through her second divorce around 2004 and we almost became homeless. We were taken in by our pastor and a friend of the church we attended at the time. They helped us until my mom could get back on her feet and find us a home of our own.
Once she found us a new home living there was the time I became interested in art. It was when my older brother came home from high school with self portraits of himself created from a drawing and later sculpted from clay. They absolutely fascinated me and sparked my passion into learning to create art myself. The only problem was I had no natural talent for it at all and I had to teach myself from tracing-to-getting into art classes when I was able to.
My mother began seeing someone one summer that we visited our dad in Parker, Arizona. She would remarry before the summer of '07 when some of my family then moved to Savannah, Georgia since our new stepdad had enlisted in the military and that's where he was ordered to go. There I was once again 'new' to another school but this time as a freshman in high school. There was no space for me in any art classes from me transferring from another state. I was struggling with my mental health at this point, I would go on long walks/runs lasting for hours screaming and crying randomly, punching things, cutting myself once, and even contemplated suicide a few times.
My family and I moved a lot throughout the years for various reasons (not all mentioned) and no matter if the move was big or small, after each move I felt less like myself for adjusting because I was conforming to societies/others ideas of who I should be. To challenge these ideas I chose to enlist in the U.S. Army in 2011 as a missile station operator to travel on my own and see what life was like around the world. I was able to experience Oklahoma, North Carolina, South Carolina, South Korea, Texas, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Puerto Rico, and Texas. 2015 is when I switched to Army Reserves as a mortuary affairs specialist to reintegrate back into the world without the military. During this time I decided to live in Los Angeles, California for awhile and start college. Unfortunately, I became homeless and lived at a shelter for veterans in the middle of 2016. I worked my ass off then to move out because it was extremely depressing being there with others who were fine staying there indefinitely. I was able to find a place to live with some support from the VA which was bittersweet since they helped my financially but then from a misunderstanding stopped out of nowhere and I began struggling to pay bills.
I was finally able to start my Bachelors of Fine Arts education in 2018 at Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles. Using my military benefits helped me financially get stable for a little while. In the middle of 2019 I finished my military service, then I completed my degree in 2021. By this time I lived in six different places while living in California and I stopped speaking to my family for various reasons. Struggling to keep myself stable after graduating college, I chose moving to Washington last minute at the end of 2022 with my girlfriend for a change of pace and scenery. Seeing what this state has to offer us until while traveling and before we move again. Our eyes are set on Germany being our next move to continue our journey in life.
Wherever we go, art will always be on our minds and in our lives!