October marks Long Beach Arts Month, and the Long Beach Post has partnered with the Arts Council for Long Beach to celebrate the image makers, the painters, the dancers, the designers, the musicians, and the countless other artists who make our city vibrant and cultured. Our homepage will feature an artist’s own unique interpretation of Long Beach daily, so make sure to check back every weekday to discover or rediscover a local talent.
Like many kids, therealneeks (aka Niko Dahilig) was captivated by his father doodling on napkins. And like many other kids, he wanted to emulate his dad because his dad, simply put, inspired him to be better. Taking a pencil and mimicking the lines laid forth by his father, therealneeks began looking at his surroundings from Tumon Bay, Guam, and an odd, eclectic array of characters began filling the pages that his pen hit: latte stones, Chamorro natives, Dragon Ball characters, and of course, monsters—or what he calls his neeks’ freaks.
At 18, he moved to Long Beach. Eschewing a full-ride scholarship for pre-med and grabbing the Bohemian life by the horns in order to attend art school, therealneeks did it all: multi-sport athlete, leading the vocals and guitar with his band the Hiroshima Heroes, hula, and art.
“I didn’t ditch the scholarship because I wasn’t up to the task of going through all the schooling, but I wanted to inspire people doing cool art,” he said. “It is how I feel when I walk around Long Beach; I get inspired. For this piece, I used a photo I shot and mixed it in with illustrated patterns and my neeks’ freaks. Long Beach is random in the most beautiful way. I mixed in my obsession with space a bit and paid tribute, in my way to the men and women of our armed forces with my fighter pilots. Keeping it island with the geek freak throwing up the shaka.”
Inspired in Long Beach, rooted in Guam.