WHAT’S UP! I’M CAM!

Artist, Illustrator and future published indie graphic novelist!

Welcome to my colorful and slightly chaotic world!

I returned here myself with a fresh, unbreakable creative spirit, sewn together with pieces of the artist I was when I was younger and free and pieces of the artist my college professors would later train me to become. However, the journey to becoming the artist I am today would come many years after graduating from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2016.

My creative spirit began to form when I was really young, from drawing on the kitchen walls, to spending hours on Saturdays in that same kitchen drawing the cartoon characters I saw on TV in a sketchbook made up of printer paper that I stapled together (which my mother much preferred), to drawing my favorite singers in my notebook, to creating my own original characters and hand drawing manga and comics on the fly.

Throughout these years, art was the most consistent fixture of my life. Despite this, it slowly slipped through my fingers as it became a casualty to an individual who prioritized fitting in and pleasing others. As a result, I lost the most important tools every artist should have: my voice and my sense of self.

At the ripe old age of 33, I had an epiphany that served as a reminder as to why I loved art, storytelling and creating imagery with my own hands. It required me to dig deep within and find the last version of myself who truly felt free when he created: the angsty teenage boy who wore black every day. Who blasted Evanescence, My Chemical Romance and Paramore into his ears on the school bus on the way to and from school, who was obsessed with the grunge era and recorded Nirvana songs to add to his playlist. That boy wanted to be heard but didn’t know how to scream loud enough so now I listen to him many years into the future.

With inspiration from the alt rock artists I enjoyed then and the punk rock artists of yesterday that I enjoy now, I like to think everything I create today is a collaborative project between both versions of myself and now I stand in this world as a proud black gay illustrator with something to say and stories to tell.

We thank you for listening to the stories you’ve seen, and we hope you enjoy the stories to come!

Chaotically yours,

Cam