LIFE & ARTS

FROM FRONT TALENT

Shop in the fall of 2019 and began making amends with distanced friends, including Pool who began working at Lee's shop last year. He now works at Jerry’s Tattoo Shop and Calaveras Tattoos in San Antonio.

Pool said he saw a major change in Lee's attitude and determination to become a better tattoo artist after his involvement in Rissho Kosei-Kai.

“He has always had a good work ethic, but I really saw him applying a lot of stuff to tattooing that I had never seen,” Pool said. “I really saw him learn a bunch of stuff on his own about that, I really saw him develop in that way and I just saw him become a lot more mature and more insightful. Self-awareness is a hard thing to come by sometimes and I really saw a lot of that really grow in him.”

Clint Porter, a former tattoo artist at Jerry’s Tattoo Shop, became inspired by Lee’s passion for using skin and spirituality as a medium for art and felt that Lee’s passion for tattoo artistry spread throughout the shop.

“One of the things that I admire about Jerry is that he claims real estate on the skin,” Porter said. “He’s not afraid to take up a whole arm, leg or body for that matter. I’m not a big Japanese tattooer, but just seeing how he puts on his passion in the culture of tattooing is really contagious.”

In the future, Lee hopes to be able to leave the shop to his colleagues to revisit RKSA more often. For now he remains optimistic about the changes that come his way.

Lee had no idea that a tiny home on an acre of land would be the place of his turning point. At RKSA, Lee listened to sermons, analyzed stories from the sutra and participated in Hoza, a circle group that gathers to resolve personal struggles.

What started as Lee visiting at 10 a.m. Sunday mornings, observing every lesson with a sense of confusion, turned into a seven-year-long commitment to Buddhism and a new sense of hope.

“Once you understand what’s going on, they stopped and took their time to help you out, so now you’re expected to stop and help the next poor unfortunate soul that’s walking through the door,” Lee said. “Then when you start to meet one really hurt person after another, the things that are in your life that are bothering you really don’t seem as bad as they do.” Lee was starting to heal. He opened Jerry's Tattoo

Take Back the Night, MC'd by Ebony Stewart: 6:30 - 8 p.m. April 3 at LBJSC

Big Love by Charles Mee: 7:30 p.m. April 3 - 7 at Mainstage Theatre

Student Body President and Vice President Inauguration Ceremony: 3 - 4 p.m. April 11 at The Quad

National Transgender HIV Awareness Day, hosted by ODS: 11 a.m. - 2 p.m. April 18 at LBJSC

My Barking Dog, directed by Jane Johnson: 7:30 p.m. April 21 - 2 3 at the Theatre Center (Room 106)

Earth Day Festival, hosted by Office of Sustainability: 10 a.m. - 3 p.m. April 22 at Spring Lake Hall

2023 Choreographers Showcase: 7:30 - 9:30 p.m April 27 - 29 at Jowers Center (Dance Studio #178)

Gallardia Fest: 5 - 9 p.m. April 28

At RKSA, Lee also developed a love for traditional Japanese art. He had been interested in it before but found a new appreciation for the mythical figures that represented things like hope and protection. Tattooing these creatures also gave him the opportunity to foster his spirituality in his art.

At the end of March, Lee curated an exhibit in his studio of personal paintings including art that encapsulates his time at RKSA. Lee is still a member but has not been able to visit as much as he wants due to his commitment to his shop.

He said he is still doing what he was inspired to do at the temple: teach.

"The Temple told me over and over that I was an amazing teacher and I should be teaching people how to do things," Lee said. "I have now taught six or seven people how to tattoo now. I have also shown them a different way to their life than they had prior to meeting me. I try to make sure that every time I show them something like that, there's a really deep-rooted lesson involved."

He believes the most important lesson he has learned is that change will happen regardless, and it is important to keep turning the pages rather than fear the next chapter.

“Things are going to change, you don’t know which way they’re going to change, who you’re going to meet or where you’re going to go,” Lee said. “I could not have told you when I lost my job with Jason seven years ago that I would be owning my own tattoo shop and employing him. You never know which way the cookie is going to crumble.”

From Front University

The Common Experience team values students, and it has always communicated directly with them to cater to their interests and needs. Their long-lasting success, in part, is due to their endless student feedback.

Isabella Moran, a marketing senior, said she is sad to see Common Experience go. She said US1100 gave her the opportunity to make new friends who she still keeps in touch with.

“I like that we have that class just to get to know each other,” Moran said.

Moran also found the Common Experience events to be beneficial and intriguing. The most memorable event for her was attending the LBJ Distinguished Lecture Series in 2019 where Common, an Emmy, Grammy and Oscar winner, spoke.

“I thought it was really exciting that they got someone so well known to come to our school because that doesn’t really happen,” Moran said. “I found it very interesting just because it was another source of education that was, like, given to us, and we get those tickets for free since we’re students.”

Since 2005, the Common Experience has invited important and well-known figures to speak about various topics and experiences for its LBJ Distinguished Lecture Series. Past speakers include Maya Angelou, John Quiñones, Isabel Allende, Michelle Obama and Common.

Keke Palmer was set up to be Common Experience’s next guest speaker, Moran said. The event was called off just days before its announcement after the Common Experience committee was notified that this semester will be the program’s last.

Moran, who has worked with people involved with Common Experience, learned about the Keke Palmer event from Nielson in the Undergraduate Academic Center, the building where Moran works and Nielson's office is located.

“It would be a good idea to bring her because she’s doing very well in her career, and I think a lot of people can take away from that,” Moran said.

Unfortunately, students will not get that opportunity, but Moran is unsure if the calling-off of the event is related to Common Experience’s abrupt end.

Like Moran, Maria Reese, a computer science freshman, believes US1100 benefited her as a first-year student.

“It taught me about the campus,” Reese said. “I think it's useful. It taught me about resources. It taught me about a lot of resources.”

Reese attended her first Common Experience event, "Learning to Manage Your Stress," last Monday in LBJ. Nielson said spring events will continue to happen as scheduled until the end of this semester.

Nielson is proud of what she and the Common Experience Committee have been able to accomplish in the time they were given, but she wishes they had more of it. The team remains committed to doing everything it can in the time leading up to the program’s last day.

The Common Experience Committee will have its final meeting and reception on May 2. It will host previous event speakers, award significant contributors from over the years and celebrate the program’s accomplishments. The location is to be determined.

“There will be remarks at [6 p.m.], but there’ll be a come-and-go event from [5-8 p.m.] to remember and celebrate what we’ve done in the past 19 years," Nielson said. "2024 would have been the 20th year anniversary of Common Experience.”

Regrettably, the Common Experience will not make it to the outstanding milestone, but it has certainly left its mark on the Texas State community.

For a schedule of Common Experience events for the remainder of the semester, visit www.commonexperience.txst.edu/events.