I was born. My mother was an ex-Catholic who had watched her brothers be raped by the priests. She painted Matisse flowers on the walls. I grew up studying the strange shapes and bright colors. My father blasted Reggae on his precious sound-system. My mother went to Africa. She brought home beads, tapestries, and drawings of insects. I was the youngest child, with two rambunctious brothers. We grew up in a tight home in the countryside of Michigan, full of love and hatred, joy and chaos. I would draw with my grandmother for hours on summer nights. As I grew, I became fascinated with music. I picked up instruments: banjo, oboe, saxophone ,etc.. I wrote poetry. My parents fought, money got tighter. I started high school. I acted in plays, played in an orchestra, wrote poetry, directed films... I knew I was an artist. Then my brothers moved out, I was alone with my father. My mother had left him. He cried as he drove me to school. We fought off dark thoughts together. I was so sensitive. Then, I found something that would take my pain away. A background pain that I had carried in my heart since childhood. Drugs entered my life. Exploration, and excitement at experiencing new areas of my brain. It was set in stone forever now, I was to be a great artist. Then a psychosis sank in, a total dissociation. I disappeared into a thunderstorm. I moved to Chicago, sitting up late at night in an armchair, smoking cigarettes and fighting my insanity. My poetry grew dark with me. My life became a blur of trauma. My body was in a tundra. I lost myself: I was assaulted, robbed, ravaged. Culturally disconnected, thrown to the outskirts of the village. Then, I found my inner strength. I sought help from other cultures, I fought for my sanity, I found people who I trusted, I became deeply attuned to my body, I studied piano, I surrendered to my lessons, I refused to give up. I now believe that angels were guiding my experience. I learned how powerful the human mind is when it is activated. I realized that if you seek, you will find. So I have become dedicated to the ultimate truth of the universe: a self-expression so exquisite that its mojo can liberate the minds of those who see it. A joy so supreme, that only those who have brushed with death can recognize the true tenderness of life. So I paint every day now. All day. I listen to reggae like my father showed me. I paint flowers like Matisse. I turn all my material into art. I waste nothing. I transform darkness into light, weakness into strength, pain into love. This is my evident purpose in life, undoubtedly.