By Kekoa Paki
Hello Reader.
During these past few months, when I was kept from doing artwork by school responsibilities, I took the time to do some thinking, reflecting, pondering, even. I asked myself, “What do I want my aesthetic as an artist to look like?” and “How do I want to portray myself in my work?” I decided that during this summer break, I would take the time to define myself in my art, before returning to making work about other people and wider concepts. The results of this pursuit can be observed in my new website banner and business card design.
New Banner Painting
New Business Card
I don’t think I’ve mentioned it before in my branding, but I heavily identify with angelic imagery in art. This includes both angels as they have more traditionally been portrayed in art, as humans with dove wings, such as in the piece Annunciation by Leonardo Da Vinci, and more abstract depictions of angels, like those in the biblically-accurate-angel trend, which went viral a few years ago. Though I must say how disappointed and disgusted I am to see how many images have been generated with AI (A.K.A. devil-tech).
I don’t really know why I identify with angelic imagery. I’m not Christian, nor a part of any religion which believes in angels. In fact, I kind of hate religion as a concept. Maybe it could be something about the desire to transcend humanity and be something better, I’m not sure.
An aspect of my aesthetic I’m more certain of the origins of is the fact that I identify myself with the three primary colors of paint: yellow, red, and blue. This just makes sense as I’m a painter and I’ve sort of inexorably tied that passion to my identity as a person. That fact has also led me to identify with the medium and texture of paint more broadly.
Additionally, I associate myself with water and the sea for a depth of personal reasons I won’t bore you with in this blog, but which can loosely be summed up in the sentence “I YEARN FOR THE SEAS.”
So that brings us into the personas that I think I’m going to use to represent myself going forward. Firstly, we have this chibi angel doodle that I sometimes use to communicate with people on Instagram. I call him “little guy.” He’s pretty simple to explain. I identify with angel imagery; he’s an angel.
New and old Little Guy designs
Angel Persona
My more fleshed-out way of representing myself can be explained somewhat succinctly as well. It is also an angel, featuring the rings and many eyes associated with “biblically accurate” angels. It’s also a humanoid with wings, reflecting more traditional depictions of angels. It has white skin, which I like to imagine has the texture of canvas, with wings and eyes made of acrylic paint of primary colors.
In fact, it kind of resembles an internet creepypasta character. This makes sense, as when I was younger, I was really into internet creepypastas. I’m not sure how I feel about my persona looking like a 2010s creepypasta character…
Now, I’d like to ponder the role of personas in wider society. For our purposes today, we will define a persona as a person’s visual representation of themselves, which need not resemble what they as a person actually look like. The development of the internet allowed people to connect without being geographically close to each other. This created an opportunity for people to represent themselves in ways other than their physical form. This was somewhat liberatory for many people who saw their body more as a mocking prison than an asset.
A lot of folks started using personas to express themselves online, especially artists, who had the skills to create their own self-depiction. Many people and artists whose work shaped my development as a person and artist used personas, including but not limited to: TheOdd1sOut, GinjaNinjaOwO, LavenderTowne, DJ Peach Cobbler, and many, many more. Thus, I figured it was only natural for me to replicate these inspirations of mine and adopt a persona of my own.
I think I’m going to make it a tradition of remaking my website banner and business card every year to reflect my growth as an artist.
Anyways, thanks for reading my ramblings, have a nice day.
From,
Kekoa Paki
Kekoa Paki Arts 
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