Though I've always had an interest in art, particularly painting, it was during high school that I began to pursue it as a serious hobby. In my advanced art class, we had access to a screen printing machine. This coincided with the release of Travis Scott's highly successful "AstroWorld" album, and our grade was particularly taken with the song "FEFE" by Nicki Minaj & TEKASHI69, you couldn't go to a party, football game, or even down the school hallways without hearing them. My partner Emma & I decided to test our screen printing skills by creating small designs inspired by these current hits. After our friends expressed interest in owning one, we began producing a batch of the designs on demand, eventually seeing students all over the school wearing them.

Similarly, my venture into other commissions started in 10th grade. One day, out of boredom, I painted Kanye West's "Graduation" album cover on the back of an old thrifted jean jacket and wore it to school. To my surprise, many of my friends asked me to paint their favourite album covers on their jean jackets. While I don’t have photos of all these works, this interest eventually evolved into painting university logo jean jackets in grade 12, as my classmates wanted unique pieces to wear for homecoming at their future universities. 

Additionally, I had requests from peers for paintings of their favourite album covers on canvases instead of jackets, which I happily did. Looking back, there are aspects of these pieces I would change today if I were to re-do them, but I view them as pivotal moments in my journey of merging art with entrepreneurship.