Well, back in middle school, I realized that I had a talent for anything to do with the arts. I remember a friend's dad asking me to draw a design for him to use for his store, and that was probably my first ever art commission! I was so excited that I stayed up way too late drawing and re-drawing the design. There were a few odd pieces here and there, but it wasn't long until I got to test myself in the real world field of graphic design.

It wasn't long until I got caught drawing in my Social Studies 7 class by our teachers assistant, Mrs. T. She escorted me to the principals office, and I thought the whole way there that I was going to be in so much trouble. Much to my surprise, I was in for the confirmation I was desperately needing. She was bringing me to the office to sign me out for, what I now reflect on as, the turning point in my art career.

After a short drive across town, we had arrived! I still had no idea what was going on, other than we were going to meet someone. I ended up on the doorstep of a local graphic design studio that was owned by her brother-in-law! I didn't recognize any of the equipment or anyone there other than my TA (Teacher's Assistant), Mrs. T. I was so nervous...

She introduced me to Mr. T, and he looked almost as confused as I did, until she explained to him that I was a young artist that may benefit by learning a few tricks from him and showed him the pointillism chiefs head and headdress that I had drawn. He said, "wow! That would sure make a nice jersey." And I immediately understood what was going on.

Mr. T showed me software for scanning the picture I had drawn and taught me how to convert it into a vector image using lines and nodes... so many nodes... but I can't recall a time I had been more excited to perform such a mundane task. After all the hard work of vectorizing the image I was off to school with a new found dream.

That summer I joined the local First Nations employment program for Summer job placement, and as you may have guessed, I joined a team as an entry level worker in a graphic design shop. Sadly, not with Mr. T, but I figured getting my foot in the door would serve just as well. Unfortunately, this was a very terrible experience where I was not treated well by the employer, and I don't mean new guy hazing, this was my first professional experience with workplace racism (so for obvious reasons, I won't name the shop). I was terminated for correcting their mistakes on one of the signs made for my native community and was told to mind my own, because they are smart enough to notice the mistake anyways. Now, don't get me wrong, this is not a good thing at all, but I sure did take something away from this that made it all worth it - I realized that First Nations need someone that can take on their projects and complete them with actual integrity and not the attitude that they were being met with from that shop.

To this day, those two shops are my foundation enabled me to move forward. Since then, I've worked in a tattoo shop, expanding my art style, I've worked with other studios and I've turned down a few offers just so I can do this my way, with my goals in mind.

Thank you for reading this far, I hope that you have a story you'd like to share about where you and your business have come from, where you want to go, and why you do it!

I've never been good with endings, so I'll leave you with my favourite quote an old man told me, and where the name came from!

"Work toward what you want Monday to Friday, but remember, the weekends are for your dreams."

Seven Feathers got the name because I am from the Ktunaxa tribe and our flag has seven eagle feathers that hang from the banner. The seven feathers on the flag symbolize each tribal group that makes up our people. Each tribe is needed to keep us strong, and each of us has a role to play in order to see prosperity spread throughout our communities. I hope that someday I am able to assist more members of our tribe break the cycle of addiction and get into a career of their own - for themselves!