I saw martial arts like the black crayon that helps people understand something that at first appears distorted, a way of providing texture to the contours of a large feature of human nature we otherwise outlaw and yet celebrate almost everywhere.
After many years of trying to convey something to others, to my contemporaries, to my students through my art I was unsuccessful. The context of fighting as a medium had become most familiar at this point though I could not speak to it. My frustration grew until a depression set in, and so I stopped painting and began to burn my work in an effort to purge myself of a radical idea that seemed redundant in the shadow of the status quo.
I continued to teach and train despite feeling weak. I became negative and dark like the ink in my work. I used my martial arts training and artwork to assist in my healing, and continue to advocate for the martial arts and arts as a path to self-knowledge, healing, and growth.
