Creation Is Sustenance Anonymous

I am an artist, and this title manifests itself in the proud paint splotches on my denim Bob Ross-esque button up. Beyond the frequent color stains on my hands and clothing, this title is backed by 10 years of apprenticeship spent beside my dad’s studio table (he’s an artist) and exhaustion of every single art course offered at my high school. My love for art translates beyond my canvas to my daily life. As an artist, I’ve trained my brain to see things differently. Just like how I discern hidden hues of green and blue when painting skin tones, I seek out hidden potentials and ideas in ostensibly mundane objects. For me, creativity is seeing the world through a kaleidoscope -- noticing what others do not to transform the ordinary into something extraordinary.

Fireworks of ideas light up in my mind, but they’re fleeting; sometimes, as soon as I part my lips, the thought evaporates before the syllables crystalize on my tongue. Thus, my fingers feverishly hunt down these brief flashes of brilliance with my preferred weapon -- pen and journal -- locking them down with each bold sweep of ink. The tangles of loops and crosshatches materialize into the beginnings of proposals for a town coffeehouse, designs for a school flyer, or...