Personal. Development.

As long as I can remember, I have always marched to the beat of my own drum. I was different right from the start and I always knew that. I was adopted from Texas and grew up in New York with two white Jewish parents, my real biological brother and I were one of maybe four Black kids in my town. From a very early age I have expressed myself through art, music, and observational studies. Together, I always found these interests to be a helpful collective in being an objective observer of society while still maintaining a complete understanding of myself. I can recognize and appreciate what other people enjoy while still appreciating my own uniqueness. And when I mean unique—I mean unique.

Right before Middle School, I started to explore my inner desire to be different and independent by trying to break away from the social constraints of suburban living. I’ve worn bright silver pants David Bowie would have been jealous of and t-shirts with strange, ironic phrases (before that trend even existed) and I listened to music that complimented my alternative yet thoughtful lifestyle. From Sneakerpimps to Sublime, or Bob Dylan to the Deftones, I’ve listened to everything and always enjoyed finding new musical and artistic influences.


Teaching myself writing and drawing from an early age, I invited artistic creativeness from all areas. Salvador Dali and the abstract movement cultivated my desire to think outside of the box, while literary icons such as Kurt Vonnegut and Chuck Palahniuk heavily influenced my writing style—making it a much more personal undertaking. Often times I would get lost inside my own head and the consequences were pages dipped in madness, sorrow and hilarity.


Still enjoying my creative pastimes today, I find that I have evolved in such a way that I have become more open and aware of the world around me, both culturally and socially. I'm pretty sure this was a response to being an uncomfortable, restless youth and trying to find my place in the world. For example my fashion sense these days no longer ascribes to just one style and nor should it. Instead, it is an eclectic combination of fashion and functionality that borrows bits and pieces from various aspects of life. As for the musical side of my mind, it does not discriminate against but instead invites genres from around the world—rock, reggae, rap, punk, pop, electronic, trip-hop, trance, folk, funk and everything in-between. I like to think that I am an individual who has forged my lifestyle from the fusion of many ideas. Most recently I have been exploring my creative side even more. In high school and college I participated in bands, fashion design, literary groups and psychological research that has only added to my understanding of the world and the appreciation I have for it.

Phoenix Rises Again!

//This is a mag. article that I created about some incredibly gifted French electro-rockers.
You may know them simply as,
Phoenix.

//the layout was fairly simple. Using autoshapes and color gradients in MS Word, as well as some interesting fonts. The article istself is all me. A Greg Shaw original production.

//the band is just fantastic. Featured in almost every music magazine, and many festivals, this band is impossible to ignore. Even reinventing their sound over the years hads only added to the success. I also embedded some of my other new favorite albums of the past in one of the sidebars.

//It was fun to play around with different ideas for the overall feel of the article, and choosing the right images and placements was the best part. It really made the whole thing fall into place nicely. In addition to this 3-page spread, I also created an advertisment for the music and arts festival Bonnaroo. But that I will save for another day...

Let me know what'cha think.

Still, Life..

Lately, I have been contemplating the idea of Abstract art, versus the merits of Still Life. I enjoy them both equally, and I think I finally understand why..

Still Life-which can be accomplished through mediums such as sketching or painting is an attempt to recreate and capture the world as it appears. As hard as a person may try, it is impossible to create a tangiable copy of something that exists in the world. But this is why artists try. Because the idea is to come as close as possible to this recreation. And the closer we come to this recreation, the more we feel we understand the beauty it holds.

But the world is more complex than that. You cannot simply draw or paint what you see and have it mean anything close compared to the orginal subject.

When I create something, it is not about copying some inert, meaningless object. No...
It is about that particular subject, in that particular space, at that particular time..each line containing as much significance as the subject itself. The beauty we seek to capture as artists is in each and every line we make, eeyelash, shade and hue, strand of hair, dimple and smile.

As hard as we try to control and create a two-dimensional representation, the more we learn about ourselves. So the meaning and emotion of a painting or a drawing is not in the finished product, but in the process of creating it. Because when we look at what has been created, we see ourselves, and what's important to us.

They say art imitates life...Id like to think it works both ways.