Meet Myka Arakawa

Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Myka Arakawa. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Myka, 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?

tl:dr – my purpose is curate and catalyze the creative process in Hawaii.

The creative process is something that has brought me endless joy, enlightenment, and passion. I truly believe creative work is the best way to deliver both educational and entertaining experiences. It just makes life better. My life experiences have “proved” that objective value to me.

My mission is to build the thing(s) that promote this type of work and more opportunities here. And from there, there’s restorative things that we can do for this place. But additionally, this place also has profound messages and meaning for the rest of the world and that’s how our creative work can hit a global audience and deliver the very things that delight me to others.

Growing up, I was never really good at “school.” I was fortunate enough that my parents sent me to a very competitive private school here in Hawaii (Iolani School) but I was perpetually a B student. I was never a reader, could never do homework, and the resounding comment I got on every single report card was – “if only he gave a little more effort, he’d be an A student.” Despite this, I loved to learn and always enjoyed engaging with interesting material. However, material was rarely engaging and it was a high stress and highly competitive environment.

What I did love, in contrast, was video games, cartoons, movies, and manga. Where I could hardly hold my attention for assigned material, I had a seemingly limitless attention for “fun stuff.”

All of this to say, throughout my life, a lot of people would always say things like, “you’re so smart and knowledgable” and what not. And yes, I did have a good education, but I was mostly raised/made from things like video games, cartoons, movies, and manga. Of course, I had a wide variety of mentors – my parents, family members, teachers, and mentors that also provided a strong foundation of character as well. But I would attribute a lot of my heart and tenacity to things like watching Goku on Dragon Ball Z hahaha.

I have found the most fulfillment in those spaces and those worlds. The creative process has been the most enlightening thing for me. Whether that’s learning from consuming passionate material or from learning making passionate material.

That’s the initial seed or observation. That there is something profoundly important about creative work. There’s a subjective delight with it. But also an objective efficiency that people (particularly myself) can learn a lot when the material resonates on that level of fun.

Hawaii is a tough place to be a creative. It’s a tough place for any industry to be honest.

One of Hawaii’s issues is “brain drain” where so much money is invested in education. My parents are a prime example. They worked really really really hard to put me through 13 years of private school so that I could go off to college, learn some stuff, and come back. But the thing is most people don’t ever come back. Hawaii jobs pay far less and the level of experience you gain over here is also less in a lot of ways. It’s this thing where people move to the continent to gain experience and make money and then they never return because returning is so hard. And then on a socio-economic level, it’s like that part of the island’s economy is just raised in the islands and then exported without ever gaining a return on investment.

Sorry this is a little ramble-y it’s a passion point for me haha.

But yeah, after graduating college, I moved back home to help out with family. And of course, no one’s really looking for a creative writing major. So I really did what I could and I found ways to *survive* with again a lot of help from my family and friends.

All of this to say, PURPOSE. My mission in life is to build the thing I wish I had over here when I first moved back home. There is a profound experiential benefit to going away and then coming back. It’s the hero’s journey in a lot of ways. But we really don’t have that *thing* to come back to.

Creative work is particularly difficult. There’s not an abundance of opportunities, there is an incredibly high cost of living, and generally creative work involves a high initial investment to actually acquire the skills needed to do quality work. It’s hard work to get into in the first place and over here, it’s much more difficult.

Nowadays, there’s tons of opportunities that are slowly coming up. It definitely feels like a new era on the horizon. But there’s still that truth that creative jobs and careers here are mostly unsustainable.

So I guess that’s my “purpose”

It’s an observation of value -> creative work.

Combined with an objective problem that needs a solution -> it’s hard to do creative work *sustainably* in Hawaii.

And then on top of that, there’s a subjective nuance where I truly believe this place the people that live here have something profound to contribute to the global audience. Hawaii is one of the most isolated (geographic) locations on the globe. Despite this, we have an incredible density of diversity. It is a miracle that anyone at any given point in time all throughout history gets here at all. And that to me is significant. I feel there’s something important here that everyone can learn from. As well as how we make a place like this sustainable for people from here – in the creative sectors – that’s a problem I really want to solve.

And on top of that, there’s the historical issue of Hawaii as the home of Hawaiians or Kanaka Maoli. The illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian Monarchy. That generational trauma is still a current that flows underneath society here.

I am not Hawaiian, but my cousins are. There’s restoration that needs to be done. And while I don’t feel entitled to this place, I feel I need to do my part to make things right for everyone that is here. And the truth is we need more people to be able to have these conversations and engage in a way we all feel positive and restored about the present.

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 do a little of everything, but it boils down to two “categories.” Non-creative stuff and creative stuff.

Non-creatively, I do work for my dad’s construction management company. This keeps my health insurance active, but also helps him out. For this, it’s basically doing whatever he needs help on, which a lot of times is learning new stuff depending on the job. 80% of what I do is Drone Surveying where I am a FAA Part 107 certified drone operator. We use a drone to take progress photos of job sites. But also, I’ve done project management. A few years ago, we had a big job replacing half the island’s water meter transponders. I helped design the workflow process for our team and we doubled efficiency by the end of the project. Installers were averaging 25 installations per day, but by the time we were done, we were doing nearly 50 per installer.

Creatively, I am all over the board. It feel like the creative industries here haven’t *quite* taken off yet. And for anyone in the creative industry, you know how hard it is. My strategy is throwing out as many fishing lines I can handle and hoping something bites.

At this moment in time my “creative plate” is something like this:

1) HFC (Hawaii Filmmaker Collective) Writer’s Room Leader
HFC is a nonprofit here for local filmmakers. I run their monthly writer’s room where basically it’s an open space for writer’s of all levels to come and workshop their scripts. We have beginners that are just getting into screenwriting – usually these are people that have other roles in the industry (actors, producers, etc). But we also have “higher” level people looking to shop their work around. My favorite thing about creative writing classes in college was reading other people’s work and workshopping it. It’s the “taste” of a dish while it’s cooking. I am fortunate enough to do this for HFC, but with or without HFC, I just love reading other people’s work and helping them with their craft. Friends have said I give really good notes too and it’s a part of my process that I enjoy keeping sharp and continuing to hone.

2) Kuilei Cliffs documentary
Kuilei Cliffs is a nonprofit that does restoration work at a somewhat famous location. Their story is really cool and their mission is awesome. I’m working on a documentary for them to help capture, share, and promote their story.

3) WTF – narrative short film.
Recently, I helped write a short film that made it to HIFF (Hawaii International Film Festival). That was a co-writing experience and it was so cool to see that story come to life. The next step in my journey is having a fully written (by me) script come to life. I have a short film that I’m working called WTF or Whiskey Treasure Finders. Currently, this project is in development and I am attending a local film lab to help bring this project to life.

(The reason why this pre-interview was turned in so late was because Ohina Film lab just finished up this past weekend. I am tremendously sorry this took so long, but I am appreciative and grateful for your patience)

4) kallection
All of these projects are little nodes that are feeding into my main creative project / business I’m trying to build. Fiction, nonfiction, and education. It’s a work in progress, but I’ve written a little about it here:

– https://kallection.com/press-start

– https://kallection.substack.com/p/re-vision-september-2024

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

1) Open Mindedness
Everyone has something to teach you. Everyone. Read that again. Keep reading it. This applies to yes- everyone. Even people with totally different opinions and beliefs. Life is so wildly unique for all of us. We all have different stories and different upbringings. No one has lived your life. And you yourself have never lived another person’s life. Based on that, there’s always something someone else can teach you.

2) Learn from everywhere
I am a HUGE believer that you can learn important things from other disciplines. I think it was the dyson vacuum? That was innovated by some kind of grain silo. As well as engineers often innovate by viewing nature. Innovation, particularly disruptive innovation comes from different places that you might not have looked. This builds on the open minded thing. You have to accept that there’s unknown wisdom out there and then you have to look everywhere for it. Of course, there’s places that might not have gold to be mined, but until you check it out, you’ll never know for sure.

In my life in particular, I helped out with project management using my creative background. For a lot of people, it doesn’t seem sensible or objectively useful to have a CREATIVE WRITING major in the room for something that is more like engineering, but I feel what I brought to the table really innovated the process. And again, a lot of where my pragmatism and strategy came from / was built was things like playing video games. I remember my first “job” for inspecting the water meters. Experientially, I was thinking, “oh hey, this is really like playing the Legend of Zelda, but in real life.”

It’s that thing. Where important and useful skills and breakthroughs can come from anywhere.

3) Have fun!
The reason we got into creative work in the first place is because it’s fun. The reason we consume creative work in the first place, is because it’s fun. This is something I ALWAYS have to remind myself. There’s a lot of days where it feels like work – and then when it does, my output takes a dip. Both in how much I can actually produce as well as the quality of my work. The audience is keenly aware of how passionate the creator is, which means while creating you have to keep that spark alive and you have to be communicating it. That said, this doesn’t mean only work when you’re feeling it. You need craft and discipline to be a professional. You got to work when you don’t feel like it. But as much as possible, especially when it’s hard, it’s important to keep that connection to passion and fun alive. Because truly, that’s where the BEST most enjoyable work comes from.

What is the number one obstacle or challenge you are currently facing and what are you doing to try to resolve or overcome this challenge?

I’m at the point in my career where I am feeling confident about what I bring to the table. In terms of creativity and writing, I feel solid as an artist. I like the stories that I’m telling and I do feel like they’re good stories. In terms of the value and education I bring to others – through things like giving notes and workshops to friends/colleagues and to things like leading the HFC writer’s room – I am confident on that too.

I am *working* on making this make money for myself. I am not quite there yet.

This problem isn’t specific to me by any means. I feel the creative industries, world wide, are particularly ruthless and oppressive in that regard. “Starving artist” is a cliche for a reason.

But yeah! That’s just something I am working on and actively looking for ways to solve that problem. The work for HFC and friends – it’s all volunteer time. The projects I’m doing, all on spec. The short film + documentary are really proof of process stuff that I can *eventually* levy into more financially fulfilling endeavors, but it’s a lot of front loading.

I’d like to think I’m entrepreneurial and my finance sense in terms of investing is strategically there, but in execution for my own self/brand/business, I feel I need help. Hiring a consultant to help me “put it altogether” would be useful, but also need the money to make the money.

It would be nice to have a business partner or mentor that can really help me just direct the skills I’ve been building in a way that can leverage more money toward me.

Again, totally aware of that being an issue all artists face and it’s a problem I’m working on solving – but yeah a little guidance would be very nice too hahaha

Social media! Is also an area where I particularly struggle.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://kallection.com/ <-- website is still under construction
• Instagram: whatmykaisdoing
• Twitter: whatmykaisdoing
• Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/kallection <-- I haven't worked on music in a while, but it is a passion and if anyone wants to collab! LOL
• Other: https://kallection.substack.com/

  ^ that’s actually live.

Image Credits

For the first headshot/personal picture of me – “Kamy Arakawa”

For the BTS Photos – “Rina Osedo”
For the photo of me on the podium – “Anette”
For the Group Photo of me + friends – “Kamy Arakawa”
For the Outdoor / Volunteering Photos – “Kuilei Cliffs”