One day my mother brought me to paint pottery. I decided to choose to paint my favorite character Porco Rosso both to honor my family’s love of Studio Ghibli movies and as a way to honor the character.  I love the way Porco Rosso treats people with respect, be them friend or foe. He even acknowledges that he needs the pirates he fights against in order to live and do his job so he cuts them some slack and lets them go. Before I can paint though I have to draw out the outline using a pencil which will burn off in the kiln, then I can fill in the outlines with paint. I soon had an outline. It looked perfect aside from a few smudges from drawing with my left hand. The next step was painting and any mistakes would lead to noticeable irregularities in the end result. Pushing myself to make the first brush stroke after being so content with the perfection of line drawing was unnerving. After meticulously picking out proper colors and painting the outlines of Porco Rosso. “We have to leave, it’s almost past time the store closes,” my mom said. I hadn't even noticed that the younger kids had gone home. I had just barely finished painting and they would hold it for us until we could come back after they fired our pottery.  I reluctantly started packing up my paint brushes. Ultimately, it didn’t really matter if the plate came out perfectly because I enjoyed making it so much. So when I came back to find it had come out as I wanted it, I was overjoyed that not only did have a great time, but I had also been able to make something that was beautiful to me and my family.

– Elliot Dater-Roberts

Relationship:  Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more Great-grandchild of im/migrant or more