It took me 35 years to pick up a paint brush…
“Jim Jupiter the healthiest man in Chicago.”
Jim Jupiter was the healthiest man in Chicago: fit, popular and admired until that fateful day when he fell apart at the cost of some bonbons and cigarettes. My story has nothing to do with that, other than the fact that I laughed hard when I saw this episode of Married with Children as a kid.
I was born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. I’m a Native American from the Gila River Indian Community and up until high school, I called it home. Art was always a part of my life growing up on the reservation; my father, especially, had a creative side from painting to building things his own way. He always had a way to put a spin on anything he crafted, which included making and painting his own handcrafted leather belts, painting sports logos on our basketball hoop and refurbishing something broken into something artistic and different. To him, I owe a lot of my creative existence. He was a fearless and fun person who took many chances with his art and never felt it wasn’t good enough. He just wanted to create and show the world that he loved to be unique and different. However, I never felt I was a good enough artist. In fact most of my life I felt I was the exact opposite - the understudy of people who were naturally gifted and better than me. I envied those who didn’t have to try as hard as I did to make a good piece of art. Yet it never steered my determination to get better as an artist because I knew I was capable to doing more. I just never thought it could allow me to experience so many new aspects of being creative, and I’m truly thankful that I never gave up. Even in my lowest times, art always was able to help me get through. And here I am today an artist, always learning something new and practicing to make up for that lost time.
Life Drawing and Photography
Art became my primary focus in college, as I was able to get into the art classes I wanted to take in high school but couldn’t get into. High school felt very limited and unfair to me, so I took it upon myself to learn anything and everything once I left. I first started with photography and the basics of life drawing and creative writing. These classes were big on giving me a better understanding of how to grow as an individual and explore my creative mind. I must say that my insecurity still got the best of me, as I was intimidated by other classmates - to the point that on my first week of photography class, I compared myself so harshly to the other students that I walked out of the class, only to return the following semester.
I came to realize from making that mistake to walk out, that I wouldn’t get anywhere in life. I knew I was probably better than some of them artistically, which I did prove upon my return. Eventually I stuck with photography for the next 3 years, experimenting and taking endless mediocre photos just to get a thorough understanding of the craft.
Life drawing class was one of the best experiences I had ever had in college. Drawing large scale in charcoal for short intervals opened up my insecurity about being a perfectionist. I knew I wasn’t the best artist in the class, nor was I the worst, and I think that comforted me knowing I could definitely get better. Seeing what I should actually be drawing, instead of visualizing what I think I should draw, made a big impact. As I learned this, I greatly improved my images.
Life drawing and photography helped me become more visual, and even helped me develop my creativity as a writer. The name Jim Jupiter would be my pen name, along with many others, but I always felt that it went hand in hand with my writing and of course it was recognizable to those who were fans of Married with Children.
As my time at college came to an end, I was forced to begin working to support myself. The workforce that came afterwards consumed me, and my artistic focus would be lost while trying to make ends meet.
I kept myself busy for the next few years until I decided the job I was at was not really working out. I often felt that I was losing myself to a draining everyday routine of wake, work and go home. And as I looked for another occupation, the world had gone into its recession and it made finding employment almost impossible.
During my time in between jobs and the recession, I lost focus and life began to lose its meaning. My life was in turmoil. From relationship problems to falling into substance abuse and being in a few car accidents, I didn’t know where my life would end up. I had a hard time trying to figure out what I needed to do to better myself and be successful.
Most of the jobs I had during this time were in offices. This allowed me to focus on writing, which was mostly based on journaling that led to writing a few short stories to make light of my lonely lifestyle. It helped, and what came of that was something I am proud of - a few chapters of a short story were what I needed to get me through my depression and push me forward to a find a new career path. I would someday be employed again but my life still would not be to the standards of where I wanted to be and my depression would continue on.
Eventually I hit a new low in my life, self-sabotaging because I was unable to deal with my inner demons. I had gone through so many ups and downs, even to the point where it led me to believe that I could end up in prison for the rest of my life if I didn’t change and get help for myself.
It takes a lot to be honest with yourself about where you are falling short in life. I felt like I was letting down everyone in my family. I would wake up most days thinking that there really is no happiness for me, believing I was never going to change or understand how I can fix myself and move forward. However, I knew at some point I had help, and it was literally right in front of me. I just never thought of myself as a potential counseling client who also needed to get help.
I was fortunate at that point to work in a healthier environment, and I finally came to realize that I needed to fix myself and start on a new path. And at the same time I was lucky to be sitting in front of a computer every day, watching YouTube videos in my spare time.
Isolation and depression
Working in an office setting 8 hours a day, I had a lot of time to do some online research watching random videos related to anything from art, to culinary and even diy how to videos. Which is how I came across learning to make customized cakes. As a fan of art and food, cake decorating definitely felt like it would be a good fit for me. Shaping fondant and mixing colors without any legit training on how to make cake, was a good and bad experience. On the plus side of it, I was exploring my creativity. On the negative side of it, I really didn’t know what I was doing and some of my cakes were impacted by my lack of basic knowledge. However, it was a fun experience for sure, and I’m glad I have that knowledge now - but if anyone does decide to go into cake making, don’t do it alone. 20 hours to make one cake is too much work for one person to handle. As I realized this, I just happened to come across another video online dedicated to painting shoes.
You would be surprised how artist “Chad Can’t Color” makes customizing a simple Nike Air Force 1 into a work of art. The impact of that video alone, along with videos of restoring old shoes to new, got me to think that maybe I could do this myself. My father’s drive inside me got me to think that I could definitely design something more colorful and unique, which could the start of something new.
So my introduction to customizing started with a basic starter kit of Angelus brand leather paint and a pair of Jordans I found at Goodwill for $5.00. Like any other form of art I started small and practiced the basics until I got comfortable to work on more complex designs.
