This is because of Miami Ink. Kind of.
While binging a marathon of the reality TV classic Miami Ink on a bad day in the late 2000s, the myth of a koi fish turning into a dragon came up —probably while they were tattooing someone’s back or something.
The myth must have gotten stuck in my head, because a few days later, I sketched and painted a quick piece with two fish to help me push myself forward.
The minimalist forms of the fish led to other internal rules around geometric shapes and organic elements, which helped me avoid getting in my own way. One painting led to another and then over to drawings and back to paintings.
Since that first painting, I’ve created hundreds of these pieces, and they’ve been in various shows around DC and Virginia. They hang in friends’ houses and sit in my sketchbooks. I work in acrylic, pencil, and digital media. Whatever fits my mode at the time.
The point of it all is to take my anxiety and do something productive with it instead of staring at the ceiling and not sleeping.
It’s a very art-for-art’s sake kind of thing.
A few years after starting the project, I got a tattoo of one of my pieces on my shoulder. It felt pretty fitting, especially with where the inspiration had come from.
Some good things do come from reality TV.