The 3 Childhood Memories That Influenced My Whole Art Journey
Sometimes, folks want to know a bit more about how an artist became an artist and how their backstory shaped their creative perspective and artistic direction.
It’s in this spirit by which I’m sharing 3 early experiences I wholeheartedly credit for influencing my avid propensity towards living a creative life.
Here we go … 🙂
The palettes of island life
When you’re born on a Caribbean island, as I was (I was born and raised in the suburbs of San Juan, Puerto Rico), your environment is one of instant and pervasive color.
So seeing bursts of color everywhere you looked was an early-on and natural experience for me.
But beyond the vibrancy of my childhood settings, there was also my stepmom Leany. My earliest memories of drawing and coloring with markers, crayons, and such exist because Leany would always have some kind of coloring book or creative project waiting for me during weekend visits with my dad.
Oh and the fabrics!
My grandmother Juanita (or abuela, as we say in Spanish) was another family member who tremendously influenced my affinity toward creative endeavors.
Abuela was a stellar seamstress; she was always in the middle of sewing *something,* and her dresser and closets were filled with fabrics, sewing patterns, and notions.
Moreover, our many outings together (as we rode a packed, public bus downtown) to the local fabric store were, as I recall, intoxicating; walking through bolt after bolt of fabric (many with bright colors and beautiful patterns) as abuela waited for her yards to be cut was a favorite pastime and today, a beloved memory.
The dancing lizard
After my mom and stepfather moved my siblings and I over to mainland US, my stepmom Leany wrote me a ton of letters that first year I moved away. Her handwritten letters were adorned with pen and marker doodles of all types and I remember it being such a euphoric experience to glance at all her cute little drawings, time and again.
But Leany’s most memorable doodles were the ones featuring “the dancing lizard,” an endearing reptilian character she’d dress up in ballet slippers and a pink tutu; she’d also include zany tales, silly rhymes, and fun poems about the dancing lizard’s ballet adventures and these, too, were an absolute delight to receive and to read.
🌼
It’s impossible to not credit these three visceral memories for having planted the seeds towards my own doodling, rhyming, and creative writing later in life.
I hope my sharing these early-year breadcrumbs with you — specific and key moments that introduced me to HOW colors, patterns, and creative writings kidnaped my art heart, arrested my soul, and fueled my total imagination — that you have a better sense of who I am today as a burgeoning visual artist 🙏
Yours in art and creative expression,
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