My history as a human and an artist has been both amazing and devastating. I choose to focus on the amazing but one can not just speak about the good, for it would betray reality. So I begin with the devastating. My earliest memories are with my mother, painting with my mother at the dinning room table. Me with my watercolors and Christmas coloring book as she sat with her oil paints working on a still-life. She died when I was 4 and 1/2 years old. Being creative, painting and drawing was my way to keep her alive. It helped those around me, as they would enjoy my creations and be able to remember her too.
When I announced to my family that I would be an artist when I grew up, it was met with skepticism, not exactly what they wanted for me. They told me I would be poor and that I should pursue something else. Well now most of them are gone and I am here poor and not for the right reasons. So I am pursuing my dream of becoming an artist and that’s what I have decided to do. No matter what it takes.
Teri Mori
