“Once I have found something I want to paint, I am full of energy. When I paint the first stroke, I imagine I am slashing through the silence of the white canvas. With each color and line, I feel I am communicating with the image, until the finished painting expresses my thoughts and feelings.”


Sekti was born and raised in Jakarta, Indonesia, in a family focused on business pursuits rather than art. Every day in the sixth grade, he passed an art center on his walk home from school. He remembers how much he wanted to be on the other side of the gate that enclosed open-air pavilions where art students painted, sculpted, and potted. Even when it was vacant, he would pause under the huge shade trees to admire the art tools, and listen to the creek nearby. He knew that art was what he wanted to do.

Sekti had only been taking classes at the art center for one month when his father persuaded him to take advanced math classes instead. With the exception of an older cousin who once gave him a watercolor set, Sekti felt that no one encouraged his love of painting and drawing. Sekti earned an undergraduate degree in business rather than pursuing his artistic passion.

After moving to the San Francisco Bay Area, the birth of his first child inspired Sekti to begin painting in earnest. He paints in figurative and abstract cubist styles. Music is a favorite theme.