My name is Alex Kajikami! I am a Japanese American college graduate of San Jose State University with a bachelors degree in Digital media Art. When I was a child my aunt got me a Spider-Man action figure, that I named Venom, and that character has stuck with me throughout my entire life and inspired me to pursue a career in art. Venom, now Kumo (as seen above), is a reflection of myself. A way for me to see myself how I want to see myself, and this inspires me to do this for other people. To be able to make art that makes people feel happy. To give people that feeling of wonder and amazement, that I feel so many people lose as they grow up. 

While much of my work is based in fiction there is still a foot in the land of fact. As I said I am a Japanese American, but I have always had a disconnect between myself and my heritage because of the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. Art has been one of the ways I use to explore my heritage without judgement and bring it to life in a meaningful way. For this reason, Japanese art and culture has always fascinated me and led me to research a lot of Japanese artists during my time as a student. It makes me feel more connected to the heritage I feel my family has lost a little while living in the United States.

I got into digital art a couple years ago when I began making gameplay commentary videos on YouTube using adobe premiere. From there I learned adobe photoshop to make thumbnails for those videos, which made me want to learn to do more than just edit photographs, I wanted to learn to draw. A few art courses later, I found I wanted to do more than just make drawings, I wanted to combine art with my video making skills. This led me to taking an animations course and learning adobe animate, and then Clip Studio Paint. I’ve bounced around a lot of disciplines, but now as a DMA student, I feel I can learn so many new techniques to make real and meaningful artworks. 

My dad once told me that I could do whatever I wanted when I grew up. He didn’t care if I became rich, or famous. He said he wanted me to be happy. And what makes me happy is making other people happy. This is why I create art, because I want to be able to make something that makes people smile. To show people that even though the world is falling apart every day, there is still beauty in it. To show people they can be the best versions of themselves. The same feeling I had staring down at that Spider-Man figure so many years ago. Art is a powerful tool, time to be responsible with it.