A life of designs

Like many children growing, I was in a quandary on the career path that I would take once I entered college. Looking back, many paths seemed to open for me, all as enticing as the others. But in hindsight, I guess I wanted to follow in the footsteps of one man, my father. His vocation was that of a designer.

Since I could remember, I could see myself with him in his office as he worked at his job as a software designer. It wasn’t easy for me, but my mom kept telling me how integral my father was to the company. My father taught me the value of enterprise and industriousness in the job that he was going to do.

That was one trait I would ever give credit to my father for teaching me that one value. I believe that passion is not acquired; it is the result of endless hours at honing one’s craft and looking for ways to improve oneself.
But my father was not all work; he taught me also to be versatile in life.  To my surprise, my father also had endeavors in a variety of activities. Among them were guitar playing, sketching images of still life and rendering designs for furniture.
He taught me that one’s life needs to find a sense of balance, not that he didn’t enjoy his work, but I guess that his creativity needed to have release valves, if you will, so that he can work at his “day” job.
Once I arrived in college, finally knowing my life’s vocation to be a designer, one could feel a sense of being awestruck with it all. The pressures of meeting deadlines, accomplishing all the projects and the homework, and then some, tend to take the wind out of one’s sails. Fortunately for me though, I met another influential figure whom would aid me in my quest to become a designer. His name was Professor Joseph Velasquez, or simply “Pepe”.
Professor Velasquez, or Pepe, was very influential in the cultivation of my talents as a future designer. He patiently worked with me in all my subjects and projects, like a guiding, and sometimes stern, hand to bring out what was inside me, all that passion I had inside of me. In all of the three years I had stayed in college, I would say that not even my non major subject mentors had had such a profound effect on me as Professor Velasquez.
In fact, many of the students always sought a meeting met with him after class and studio that I had to wait an average of two hours just to get to talk to him. I hope that one day I will be able to impart the knowledge he graciously and sacrificially gave us to future designers if I get the opportunity to teach at this learning facility.
As with all students in college, we all dream of becoming like our icons someday, people who we admire and wish to imitate even in the slightest way. For me, that was my all-time favorite artists, Craig Mullins. Mullins would be for me the embodiment of what I strive for as an artist and as a designer.
Mullins, in my opinion, has the capacity in inducing that emotion in his concept arts works and his paintings that make him a cut above the rest.  His medium in provoking that emotion is born out of his choice of colors and his composition of his work. Sometimes, when I encounter a “block” in my artistic flow, I would consider what Mullins would do for the piece.