Music is where my passion for art and self-expression all started. As a child, my parents had a mini wind-up record player that only played one song. I carried that thing around everywhere. Fast-forward to the mixtape era of the late ‘90s and early 2000s and you could find me creating samples from cassette tapes, banging on an MPC 2000 and a Korg Triton keyboard, and recording in my friend’s parents’ basement. I graduated from the Art Institute of Seattle with a degree in audio production in the summer of 2007.

Shortly after, under the moniker Sam Judah, I linked up with rapper Knot Impressed. Thanks to some local Seattle love and the power of Myspace, Sun Rare Records reached out to us to create an album. I produced and mixed 7 Days In The Same Clothes, which was a limited edition release in Japan in 2009. After working on a few more projects, I stepped away from music to pursue my passion of illustration and design. Music will always be my first love though, so I opened the record store “Collective” in Nampa, Idaho. I got to be around music all day and work on my design skills in my down time.

From the start, I would sketch superheroes, NBA stars, fantastical creatures, and Aztec warriors with the hopes of one day getting a call from Marvel. I love to work with color, but paints, pencils, pastels... they all cost money, and on an artist’s budget it wasn’t sustainable. Yet through this crux and the advancement of technology, I found my own style in the digital realm, where every color is a possibility.

What started as a hobby to promote my music became a passion, and in 2009 I went back to the Seattle Art Institute to study graphic design. In the beginning, my style followed all of the conventions and guidelines taught to me in design school, but is it really art if it’s bound by rules? Within the past 5 years, I have pushed my limits and embraced a style that finally reflects who I am as an artist. After all, some rules are made to be broken.

In 2011 I got the itch to return to the audio world and returned to the Art Institute to receive a bachelors degree in Audio Production. Music will always be a part of me, and if you look closely you’ll see similarities in my music and visual art style. Influence comes from all sides, but the soul of my art is rooted in my Chicano culture. Add a dash of THC, a stack of LPs, a cup of coffee, and let the positive vibes flow.

Thanks for joining this little tour through my mind.