My alarm sounded at 5:20 AM on Tuesday, November 11. “The day is here,” I thought to myself. If everything went according to plan, I would wake up in Denver and go to sleep in Las Vegas, Nevada, taking another step toward my dream. I have been working toward this moment for about eight years and the dream has always been simple. I wanted the name Sky Welkin and the themes and illustrations behind it to resonate with art and design enthusiasts all over the world.
I was heading to DesignerCon, quite possibly the biggest art convention that highlights the intersection of art, toys, design, and apparel. I was not just going to DesignerCon. I was driving there. My Hyundai Santa Fe rental from Avis was already parked and loaded in my driveway. I got dressed, brushed my teeth, washed and moisturized my face, and ran through my mental checklist. When I opened the fridge I saw the iced coffee my ex prepared for me and the iced water she placed in a large Big Gulp style bottle. It reminded me of the grief from a breakup I did not choose and had been avoiding. That grief surfaced in waves during this passion fueled journey.
After checking my supplies for DesignerCon, I hopped in the car and headed to the gas station. Once the tank was full, I entered my friend Tre’s address in the GPS. “10 hours 37 minutes until Sin City.” The drive felt therapeutic and went by quickly in my mind. Traveling on I-70 West for most of the trip, I noticed unique rock formations and interesting names of small mountain towns as I made my way out west. While staring at the horizon and the plains, it hit me that I was on the first page of a new chapter in my life. In the last fifty days I received a job offer for a remote role that paid much more than my previous job, experienced a breakup with the partner I just celebrated a three year anniversary with, earned my UX design certification, took on two marketing clients, ordered plushies of Kumo from the WeeBees, got Kumo 3D printed and hand painted, and designed a booth for DesignerCon with my close friend Tre who lived in Las Vegas.
I got into DesignerCon by emailing the convention team and attaching a pitch deck I created. In many ways I felt like I was not supposed to be there, yet being there felt like divine timing. Tre, who has seen my journey unfold, bought 2x4s and pegboards and started building in his backyard. All I had to do was show up with product, artwork, and my vision. We were a small operation, but we made it work. After several gas station stops and phone calls with my friend Ruby, a neighbor from my time living in Thailand who now lives in Virginia, I crossed into Nevada around 4:30 PM. I pulled up to Tre’s house, gave him a hug, and greeted his family. The frames for my display wall leaned against the side of his house. After unrolling the turf he bought, I drove to Michaels to pick up spray paint.
. 
.
The vision was to have painted peg walls with my logo and a gestural mural. The floor would be covered in yellow turf to reflect the mustard colored grass the WeeBees roam in their world. After spray painting half of the rug, I called it a night and headed to the hotel Tre booked for me. He had complimentary nights saved up from gambling. The day caught up to me immediately. I showered, lay down, and the next thing I knew it was 7 AM on Wednesday. I knew it would be a long day. By the end of it I needed the walls fully painted and the turf yellow, which meant a lot of physical labor. After multiple trips to Home Depot and Michaels we somehow got it done. Tre and his partner Sonja made sure I was fed and taken care of while I worked in their backyard. I painted until 1 AM, ignoring the fresh heartbreak, the delay of my zines arriving, and the uncertainty of what DesignerCon would hold for me. What I did know was that this would be a story worth telling and that I had laid a solid foundation for my art and my world to reach this point.
Thursday was install day. A flatbed tow truck arrived around 1 PM and we lifted the boards onto the back. I caught four splinters in the process. I climbed into the truck with lightly bleeding hands and found myself talking to a Cuban immigrant about the American Dream. We had more in common than either of us expected. We wished each other the best on our respective journeys as we arrived at the Expo World Market Center. Getting the walls inside and standing upright was not easy and in hindsight it might be a miracle they did not fall over. After setting up for about three hours on Thursday, we were finally done and ready to leave and maybe enjoy a little time to relax.