I’ve enjoyed drawing for much of my life, but first became more serious about improving and expanding my talents around the time I was in high school, and began painting. My earliest sources of inspiration were other native artists and my great- uncle, Robert Kakegamic. I enjoyed watching the process as they brought their art to life, and it made me think about trying to do the same.
At first I didn’t feel I was very good, but I kept practicing by drawing fan art and continuing to study other artists work. Some of my other artistic inspirations are Japanese artists such as Naoko Takeuchi and Yoshitaka Amano.
Lately I have increasingly begun to draw inspiration from music, ballads, and stories from other cultures besides my own. I find many things in these stories to be universally appealing and want to express and share them with others through my art.
This is another aspect of my art which in some ways ties back to my native heritage. Native woodland art is an art form which preserves the old stories and legends of my culture. And I believe that it is important that my art should have a story in it or behind it.
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