Stories Behind My Art
Most of my art has no rhyme or reason behind it. But these pieces all have stories behind them to share.
Lilly Singh
In by far the most insane art story I have, Lilly Singh commissioned me for a painting of her dog Scarbro. Lilly Singh is a comedian with 15 million subscribers on YouTube, her own late night show on NBC (first woman of color to have her own show!), and is the founder of a charity organization called Girl Love. She has been my biggest role model since 7th grade when I started watching her YouTube videos. Lilly Singh was the first Indian I saw “making it” in entertainment, and was absolutely hilarious. I saw her live show in 8th grade, dressed up as her for Halloween in 10th grade, and have a poster of her in my dorm. I also wear her Girl Love bracelets everyday, and she inspires me daily. On May 5th, 2020, her management team DMed me saying that Lilly would love a commission from me of her dog, and that one of her assistants would pick up the painting a few days later. Little did I know, she would pick it up herself, and she filmed the surprise for the announcement video of the second season of A Little Late with Lilly Singh. You can watch it here!
Blues Podcast
As a part of the Sport Business Program at Washington University in St. Louis, and the Business of Sports Society (BOSS), I got the opportunity to work with the St. Louis Blues hockey team to help develop their new podcast. 11 students worked together to perform market research, develop suggestions, and create an outline for the podcast that we formally presented to the CEO, Vice President, and other Blues executives. In addition to doing the other work, I was asked to help design a potential logo for the podcast. Whether or not it is used for the final logo, it was an absolutely incredible experience, and I’m happy to report that I now have two teams I’m in a committed relationship with - the Blues and the Lakers.
Macklemur
I really like lemurs. In fact, I have a lemur. Named Macklemur. You can head downtown to visit him at the Santa Ana Zoo. Santa Ana Zoo carries out amazing conservation and education efforts, while also ensuring the safety and care of their animals, unlike many bigger and more commercial zoos. They only keep animals that can naturally survive in the Southern California climate, and I wanted to support the zoo, so I sponsored an endangered black and white ruffed lemur, and got to name him. After coming up with countless lemur puns based off of celebrities, I settled on Macklemur. Why? It was the funniest, and I knew it would be representative of me, since I love Macklemore’s music, for its political yet also funny aspects. When I visited Macklemur for the first time after the plaque with his (and my) name went up, I brought him a painting of himself. I hope he likes it.
yung gravy
Yung Gravy is my favorite rapper - although according to him, he doesn’t make rap, he makes smooth jazz. His music is hilarious and satirical in nature, and is filled with ridiculous rhymes and references. I credit my love for his music as a huge reason I stopped taking myself so seriously and was eventually able to start doing comedy, so I listen to his music before I give stand-up sets. I had the opportunity to meet him, and naturally, I had to give him a painting. It’s based off a picture on his Instagram of him holding his friend’s dog, so when he officially gets his own dog, he can hit me up for a proper commission. I can now say that two celebrities officially own my art!
Mamba Out
Mamba Out… but never forgotten. I grew up in Newport Beach, CA, where Kobe Bryant also lived. I was raised from birth as a Lakers fan thanks to my dad, and frequently seeing the Lakers’ star at the grocery store made the Lakers mean so much more to me. The first week of college, I was jokingly given a “Biggest Lakers fan” award because I barely took off my Lakers hoodie during orientation. As a toddler, I took swim lessons with his oldest daughter, Natalia, and my mom remembers sitting with Kobe as they watched their daughters learn how to swim. Seeing him around showed me that legends were real, and when I heard that he and so many others had passed in a helicopter crash, in the same helicopter I remembered watching fly over Newport Beach to Los Angeles almost daily, I could not stop crying. I was in my college dorm in St. Louis, and wanted nothing more than to be home in Southern California celebrating Kobe’s life with the rest of his city. I joined countless other artists in creating my own art to honor Kobe instead. Thank you for everything Mamba - for the work you did for women’s sports, for inspiring a generation of athletes, and for being a huge influence on my own desire to work in the sports industry.
The Iron Wonder
I’ve always loved superheroes. In almost every picture of me under the age of 8, I can be found wearing a Robin or Superman costume. As the years went on, I became obsessed with Iron Man and Wonder Woman, since I saw parts of myself in both characters. I’ve never made superhero inspired art before, but I figured it was time since these two characters are such a large part of my life. At first glance, it just looks like Iron Man, but if you look closer, it’s a combination of Iron Man and Wonder Woman. On top of Iron Man’s helmet is Wonder Woman’s headband, and right above the arc reactor is Wonder Woman’s chevron. I used official Iron Man and Wonder Woman movie posters as reference pictures, but decided against making the art entirely realistic. Instead, I tried to make my work have a bit of a comic book feel to it, to honor the fact that these superhero movies could not have been possible without the comics. In addition, a really cool thing I’ve learned about comic book art and superhero design is that superheroes are typically depicted in primary colors, while supervillains are usually secondary colors. Sticking to this theme, I tried to only use shades of red, yellow, and blue for this art, which successfully made it look comic book-y.