I keep telling myself, “get up and KICK it into gear, buddy!” The only problem is that I don’t know how to drive a stick.
So, at this moment, my life is in automatic and it’s puttering along and I might even have a flat. I guess I’m trying to say that there are some tune ups that need to be done on my life and I need get things fixed in my mind to be able to focus on my work. I have a full-time job and little boy that needs my attention. Well, he doesn’t NEED my attention, I just give it to him because sometimes a Ninja Turtle comes out of nowhere and punches me in the belly and it almost makes me pee myself, and sometimes I need to transform into Shredder and chase him around the house.
That’s me. I give my son as much attention as I can, and now I’m trying to do the same with my artwork. There’s something inside of me that won’t let me quit, even though I tell myself that it’s just too much to do. I love art and I love being Shawnee and I want to combine those two aspects about myself to create something amazing for Indigenous children and adults to be able to look at and say, “Hey, he looks like me,” or, “Hey, I’m Shawnee, too!” and I want them to be proud that there are Shawnee characters, or just Indigenous characters, for them to relate to. Indigenous children need to be able to see themselves in their favorite genres,
There are a lot of native artists coming up that are making indigenous movies, comic books, novels, etc., and I want to be apart of that revolution. I want to be able to say I did something for my people. I put us in books, comic books, movies, novels, and not in a broken English native role, but in the lead role. My characters went to space and time traveled to a distant planet full of strange aliens who wanted to eat them, so they fought them, but they also made friends with some of them. The best part is the protagonist is Shawnee!
Whoa! What! An indigenous sci-fi story?
Thought that story hasn’t been made yet, it’s a story that indigenous youngsters can get into. Just because they’re native, doesn’t mean they need to read stories about feathers and powwows all the time. They want stories that they love to read that just happen to have a character who is Shawnee and they can be proud of it.
It’s time for me to stop driving in automatic and learn to drive a stick shift. That’s the only way that I’m going take control of how fast I move toward my goals.
I’m just a one man crew…but it’s time to get up and kick it into gear!
Michael Daugherty 