I went to this dope ass art show by Erik Otto (featured) called Searching for Higher Ground. It’s at the Luna Rienne Gallery in the mission. He walked up while I was looking at the piece behind him so I asked him, “What was your inspiration for this piece?”
“This is the inside of a cloud. I used to paint clouds, but this time I wanted to go deeper inside and see what’s underneath what we usually see. I want to go even further with my work but I feel like I need to take it in steps so people can still connect to it.”
“I feel you, you can go all the way to the source, but it’s an infinite road so there’s no need to rush.”
“Exactly.”
“How long have you have you been painting?”
“I started back in 2001 and it was pretty tough to survive for a few years. Around 2007 my friends and family got to the point where they were telling me I should think about doing something else. But I thought to myself, ‘I don’t really want to live if I can’t make art.’ So I really stepped it up and put all my energy into creating. Then things started to get better. And since 2011 to now things have really picked up. Like I called my parents and was like ‘It’s on now!’"