Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Dexter Komakaru. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Dexter, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
The first time I ever questioned my purpose on this planet, I was 12 years old, going through some of the worst struggle and depression you could imagine a child to go through. I remember looking to the sky, a jaded atheist already by that age, and wondering what the meaning of life was, what my purpose was. It was at that point that I realized, the purpose of life is to find what gives it purpose, what gives it meaning. I didn’t realize what mine was yet at that time, but it was that hope for one day finding it that kept me going even through the lowest lows and my darkest days.
Now, 10 years and a whole lot of suffering, healing, and personal development later, I’m one of the lucky people who can say at an early age that they’ve found their sacred calling in life. I call it my sacred calling because it is so much deeper to me than a purpose or meaning for my life. It is the sacred multi-generational realization that my story is just a small piece of a much longer timeline and larger tapestry. That my purpose for this life is so much farther than the extent of my own physical form and lifetime.
I come from a long lineage of storytellers and creators. As someone of northern Native American and Mexican descent, we recognize our lives and their purposes here not as individual separate journeys for each persons self and ego, but as one spirit and one story that is impacted by and impacts generations of ancestors and descendants. Many of us operate our day-to-day lives under the idea of “seven generations”. With the idea that everything we do should be with the next seven generations of our people in mind.
With this multigenerational context and approach to the way we live, our purpose is greater than our individual lives or the human experience. We are all related, both in a generational sense and a metaphysical sense, and we must live our lives operating for the benefit of those who are yet to come, while passing down the knowledge and stories of those who have already left us in the physical body.
It is with this perspective that I’m able to keep my creative fire lit and my passion going. Because I am not just creating art and community organizing and working in the world for the benefit of myself or my loved ones now, but for the benefit of my future self, my children, family, and future generations. I can’t stop, I can’t give up, I can’t fall into hopelessness or despair, because it is so much bigger than just me.
To start with naming my purpose, I must first name my struggles and suffering. Long before I was born, I was born into a lineage of resiliency, built through generations of struggling through trauma, war, poverty, violence, racism, addiction, incarceration, deportation, imperialism and settler colonialism.
Within my own lifetime, I witnessed, experienced, and was directly and indirectly impacted by almost all of these things, along with my own lived traumas and mental health issues to heal from as well.
Trauma research shows that even when a person hasn’t personally experienced a trauma, it can be documented in their very DNA and inherited whether in the womb or in development. C-PTSD and somatic disorders usually related to experiencing trauma directly have been observed in descendants of the holocaust and similar genocides, and it is no different with the genocide of the indigenous people of Turtle Island (The Americas), with an estimated 10 million indigenous peoples living in what is now the US when Chr*stopher C*lumbus reached the Americas in 1492. By 1900, there were fewer than 300,000 Native Americans. The damage done generationally to countless families throughout the continent still lives on both in our minds and bodies.
I wasn’t born with access to other indigenous people or community being born in central Ohio, as all the indigenous people of Central Ohio and the Ohio River Valley have been displaced. The only access to community with other indigenous people I had growing up was through the Native American Indian Center of Central Ohio (NAICCO) and traveling to powwows with my grandparents. I wasn’t born with access to learning Spanish or my Mexican culture either, as my father was deported at a young age and my mother had been in and out of incarceration my entire life, herself being born into the generational cycle of addiction, both to drugs and love. I wasn’t born with access to what children should have access to, whether it was a stable roof over my head, care and nurture, food when I was hungry, or anything I’d thought I’d inherited outside of trauma and suffering.
From a very young age, when I wasn’t raising myself, I was living the phrase “it takes a village”, because without the care of my community and certain loved ones, I would not be here today. From struggle, we build resilience, and I had enough struggle to share.
Little did I know that despite my shame and anger at the world and my circumstances, that it was through that suffering and building of resiliency that I would find my greater purpose: transformation and healing, both of myself and the world, whether it was through the storytelling told my by artwork, my activist work, or my lifetime itself.
I first realized the power of storytelling and the healing that can be found through art through music, whether it was Tupac or Eminem, and learning through storytelling told via poetry and lyricism that I wasn’t alone. That feeling and realization of a shared struggle is empowering enough, but realizing the power that storytelling and art has, that it can make other people feel the same way, like they’re heard/seen, like they’re not alone in their struggles, like there is community out there even when they feel alone with their suffering, was my first clue to my greater purpose.
My second clue to realizing my greater purpose, after realizing the power of storytelling and art, was realizing the power of transformation. Octavia Butler says, “all that you touch, you change, all that you change, changes you. the only constant is change, god is change.” This realization came to me years later, at the age of 15, houseless and couch hopping and left with nothing but bags of my stuff and my own thoughts that I realized a deeper truth about myself. That I was queer and that living in my truth looked like transformation. So after a long time of self-doubt and contemplation, I made the leap to transform myself, and in doing such, transformed my future and my circumstances.
Since realizing the power of transformation, I’ve been able to see how it applies not just to my own story in this body and lifetime, but for the greater good.
Through transforming a blank canvas into a painting, I can make money. Through transforming pain and anger into energy I can use, I transmute it into a positive emotion or energy that creates rather than destroys. Through transforming water and food into energy and energy into movement, I can transform my body. Through transforming my thoughts, behavior, and patterns, I can transform my relationships around me. Through sharing my art and storytelling, I have the power to transform not just someone’s idea or perspective, but to change the world.
It’s also been a huge inspiration for my personal healing, as I recognize that “what you don’t put down, you pass on”, so in order for me to break the cycles of suffering I was born into, I need to do the work I can in this lifetime to heal and transform those stories of struggle and trauma into a story of resiliency, resistance, and restoration.
And the final point to my greater purpose, my sacred calling, my north ‘STAR’, is restoration. I want my life to embody the quote from Albert Camus; “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion”.
As someone who lives a life of multiple marginalized identities and intersections of identity and lived experience, living my day-to-day life in and of itself is a radical act in the face of our unfree world, but I believe in going one step farther than just being visible or out loud and proud.
Like my ancestors who envisioned a future outside of genocide and grief, I envision a future for myself, my loved ones, and the greater community of the living world, a future built on self-determination, bodily autonomy, and radical joy and transformation.
As a believer of abolition, intersectionality, and restorative justice, I envision a future where we aren’t just liberated and free beyond our wildest dreams, but a future where we are so free that we can work towards healing ourselves and our world, and restoring what has been damaged or harmed under the oppressive patterns or systems we live under.
It’s this belief in restoration and healing for all that inspires me to keep going and persevering, showing others than even someone who comes from some of the hardest times can find a future full of softness, love and light.
My purpose is my north STAR: storytelling, transformation, art, and restoration. And I’m so immensely grateful to have the opportunity to realize it in this lifetime.
Appreciate the insights and wisdom. Before we dig deeper and ask you about the skills that matter and more, maybe you can tell our readers about yourself?
I’m a freelance artist, illustrator, and multimedia visual creator, and the queer human behind my one-man design studio DXTROSE.
I work as an independent artist to create a lifelong body of artwork that seeks to engage, educate, and inspire the viewer, particularly those who have experienced similar things as the stories I tell or those who come from similar intersections of lived identity.
Through my three tenets of art, activism, and access I create artwork inspired by my lived experiences and calls for social change rooted in my experience as a youth activist and community organizer.
In addition, I also work as an educator, peer mentor, and public speaker in service to other artists and creative humans who I hope I can inspire with my story to work towards creating their futures and manifesting their creative dreams.
Most recently I was hired as one of the Greater Columbus Art Council’s GCAC Navigators, a cohort of artists from different disciplines and communities across Central Ohio providing 1-on-1 peer mentorship and community support for other aspiring artists and creatives.
Additionally, I also work one on one with people and organizations both locally and on an international level to help bring their ideas to life through illustration, design and visual arts. As a freelance artist I’ve had the opportunity of working directly with numerous clients, from For Everyone Co. to the GSANetwork to the local Land Grant Brewing Company and continue to have the blessing of being able to work creatively with other commission clients to this day as an artist for hire and creative consultant.
Currently I’m working on client works in between working on my own personal pieces, as I work to complete an upcoming new painting series for my 2023 solo exhibition end of this year. Stay tuned for more info!
You can support my work for free through Instagram @dxtrose or by shopping at my online store at dxtrose.com/shop or by searching “dxtrose” on Etsy, RedBubble or Society6! I’m also available for custom artwork and projects via commissions, you can contact me via dxtrose.com for more information and to get a free quote for your project today. I’d love to work with you!
If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?
1. PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE
One of the most important things to learn not just in art, but in life, is patience.
As an artist, your entire skillset revolves around being patient. Whether it’s with your process, learning and studying, or working with clients as a commission artist, you need the ability to calm down and know that making great art doesn’t usually happen overnight.
Think about what patience looks like for you. Take time in your process to appreciate what you’re doing. Be mindful of what you learn and what techniques you use. Don’t try to rush yourself into a certain style or way of drawing. Take your time in what you do and it will pay off.
2. EXPAND YOUR COMFORT ZONE, WORLDVIEW, AND VISUAL LIBRARY
One of the most critical skills of a good creator is drawing influence. What are the things you love? What inspires you? What experiences and memories have influenced your work? You can be the best artist, but if you don’t have the lived experience and visual library that adds life to your art, it’s not going to be as good as it could be. Sure, you can think of what a tree looks like and imagine the symbol you associate with it in your head. But if you’ve never seen a tree in person, you can’t comprehend the same level of shape, form, detail, and life that comes from a tree or it’s movements.
A lot of artists have the impression that all of their time should be dedicated to sitting in their room or office drawing away, but a good chunk of the creative process should be going out in the world and expanding not only your experiences but your visual library. This is what will allow you to recreate reality in a way that’s not only convincing but already has emotion behind it, drawn from your own memories. This is where creativity and storytelling come from, so make sure you’re making time to go out in the world and study.
3. EMBRACE BEING A BEGINNER WHILE YOU STILL CAN
You don’t need to have it all figured out.
If you are a beginner, remember that and embrace it. You’re allowed to suck, you’re allowed to not like your art, you’re allowed to want to improve, don’t put any extra stress on yourself because of where you’re at. As a beginner, you have the least amount of expectations for your work than anyone you’re comparing yourself to, and way less experience. Think back to when you first tried drawing something as a child, you didn’t care what it looked like, you just wanted to draw. Just like as a child, when you’re a beginner, your interests, goals, and who you are isn’t something set in stone, it’s constantly changing and evolving, just like your art. Embrace the spontaneity and the freedom you have in being a beginner.
Awesome, really appreciate you opening up with us today and before we close maybe you can share a book recommendation with us. Has there been a book that’s been impactful in your growth and development?
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown, hands down. If there were a cult around the book, I would absolutely be a part of it. It changed my life and continues to with every time I reread it.
amb defines emergent strategy as “a series of strategy for building complex patterns and systems of change through relatively small interactions” and as “an adaptive, relational way of being”. Brown has further distilled the concept as “the way we make moves towards justice and liberation in right relationship with each other and the planet, in right relationship with change, and learning from the great teacher of nature.”
ES has and continues to inspire not just the way I approach life and my relationships with others and the natural world, but the way I approach my work as well. Some of the most valuable insights I draw from it are from the tenets of emergent strategy, all inspired by beings and ways of our natural world:
1. Small is good, small is all. (The large is a reflection of the small.)
2. Change is constant. (Be like water.)
3. There is always enough time for the right work.
4. There is a conversation in the room that only these people at this moment can have. Find it.
5. Never a failure, always a lesson.
6. Trust the People. (If you trust the people, they become trustworthy.)
7. Move at the speed of trust. Focus on critical connections more than critical mass — build the resilience by building the relationships.
8. Less prep, more presence.
9. What you pay attention to grows.
If you haven’t yet read it, I absolutely recommend it. Seriously.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.dxtrose.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dxtrose
- Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/DXTROSE
Image Credits
@emmaparkerphotography Emma Parker for portrait of Dexter Komakaru, 2023
