"My earliest creative vision was born in a prolific time of mural painting along railroad tracks, alleyways, and depopulated neighborhoods, where I could create freely, but where I encountered communities isolated by racism, untreated mental illness and addiction, homelessness, drug trade, and violence. Interactions attendant to those works became a pivotal revelation of how institutional disregard has left vast populations cut off from opportunity and resources. Because I rarely secured a property owner’s permission for those early murals, that body of work suspended me in a cycle of continual arrest, thousands of hours of community service, and left me deeply embedded in the criminal court system for several years. However, it became a profoundly formative experience by showing me the importance of taking action to improve the state of my community. Through my sentences, I cleaned a lot of streets and public transportation, but also worked for organizations that helped young people find creative outlets as alternative sentences, served our homeless population, and provided AIDS treatment. Eventually, my work moved into studio and gallery, but I maintained an acute sense of responsibility to affect positive change in the world through my actions, which still informs my current work and guiding principles."