The beginning of a career in art
A career in art was a secret dream that I didn't even tell myself out loud until I was in my mid-twenties. At the time I was traveling around the surf destinations of the world wondering what I was meant to do with the abyss of time in front of me. It was a white fog that I did everything I could to avoid staring into.
The panicky feeling started after I graduated, I didn't know what to do with myself: I had a Bachelor of Fine Arts in acting, possibly the most useless piece of paper anyone has ever paid tuition for. I knew I wasn't an actor after second year but at my family's urging I finished my degree. I traveled abroad in the summers to surf, skate and see what else was out there. (those summers are another story, which deserve a whole entry)
At that time in my mid-twenties when I discovered I wanted to be an artist I was living on the North Shore of Oahu surfing and cleaning vacation rentals for free rent. I budgeted $50 a week for food and shared a shack with 5 boys, 4 cats and bedbugs.
Life was so great when it was good: I got to surf and skate and live like ferrel teenager. Most of the rest of the time wasn't fun: it rained for a biblical 48 days straight my first winter so no matter what time of day or night, everything was damp, the surf was big and messy forEVER, the vacation rentals were over crowded so there was twice the work just to pay for the bed in a shack and on top of everything my food money was running out.
There was this pivotal day I got a call from my boss about a complaint that I didn't scrub a toilet to the guest's standards and I would have to go back and do it again. As I scrubbed the inside rim of the uptight Norwegian guest's toilet, trying to explain that it wasn't a bad job, rather the old toilet had been stained because the porcelain was worn away... I started wondering if this was the best I could do in life. A panicky feeling welled up inside and without knowing what I was going to do or say, I walked to the office with a combination of seething anger and utter defeat.
The lady that owned the vacation rentals always seemed cold to me, and I got the feeling she didn't really care to hear problems unless they were disrupting business. I opened the door and said something to the effect of "I can't do this anymore. I work twice as hard as the boys do because I'm the only one who does a decent job, on any given week my mattress is either full of bedbugs or full of bug poison, I'm living off the food left by your guests when they leave and no matter how hard I scrub the oldest toilet in the world, it will NEVER appear clean!" She took a moment, looked me over and asked "can you drive?"
I ended up driving her 13 year old son to his private school in Honolulu 4 days a week, a job which afforded me my own room and $100 a week! I was so happy with my good fortune that I didn't even notice that my 6 months were up and I was supposed to go back to Canada.. besides I couldn't! Not now! I was finally living comfortably and the winds of destiny were blowing in my direction, what if I missed that special once in a lifetime discovery that would change the course of my existence?!!
In the year I drove Conner to school, I spent a lot of afternoons killing time in Honolulu waiting to pick him up. I didn't lay around on the beach or shop. Waikiki wasn't my thing and I had no money for shopping so I spent most afternoons in the university library looking up books on favorite artists and how-to books on figure drawing... I figured I had some good stories that would work in autobiographical comic form but I just needed some artistic skills to pull them off. I'd never been to school for art, but I'd been drawing my whole life, it was just something I was compelled to do. I had stacks of sketchbooks at home in Canada and with this new windfall of $100 a week, picked up some supplies and started drawing again. This time it was different though because I had a whole day to devote to it and I treated those afternoons like school. When I picked up Conner, I'd ask him what he learned that day and he'd look through my book to see how my drawing was coming along. I think having someone to answer to at the end of the day was the biggest motivator to gain the technical skills and start executing my own original ideas. He was a creative kid himself and I really valued his opinion. Not long after, I started doing sweet graphics for his surfboards. Next came a little series of paintings inspired by our after school surf sessions (some I joined in on if the surf was small, and some I stayed on the shore taking in the beauty of North Shore life as an observer). He told me I should get my work up at the Pupukea Starbucks, which I asked about but I was told it was the domain of a local artist. Fate stepped in: not 3 days later, I got a call from Starbucks telling me the local artist was moving to Maui and the space was available! After that things moved pretty fast, the owner of Wyland Galleries noticed my work and I got an offer to hang at the gallery, Freesurf did an article on me and I was being commissioned by people I never dreamed I'd meet in real life! It seemed pretty clear that it was the beginning of a career in art.
Eventually I did have to go home to Canada and face the music regarding my massive overstay in America, but I've made it work for the last couple years by commuting back and forth as much as I can, trying not to miss anything important, (but sometimes feeling painfully out of the loop). Although it's a struggle to keep the momentum going, I've managed in the mean time to become an official Triple Crown Artist, do shows as far away as Brazil and Denmark, and get my work published in several magazines. Fate gave me a huge series of opportunities and I'm not going to let it go easily. I just got back from the North Shore a couple weeks ago and I've made the decision that I'll do whatever it takes get back to the place where my life as an artist began so I can see where it takes me next!
-SHINN