To me, a punk spirit is just living freely, disregarding societal norms and just being free to be themselves. - Dawn Okoro

It's taken me years to come to that conclusion, and there are still some times as an adult when those feelings creep in again. But I think just doing my art has helped me a lot, and getting my art out there lets me know it's OK just to be who I am.

Where I grew up, people heard of (Pablo Picasso) or whatever, but my family was kind of like, 'That's a nice hobby, but you need to go be a doctor or a lawyer or engineer.

When I watched the episode where Jennifer Beals said my name and showed my painting, I squealed a little. I’m happy to see some of my goals begin to come to fruition. There is so much more that I can do with art. I’m just getting started.