Beam will receive a dedication to volunteer service award at the 26th Richard G. & Wanda I. Baker teacher and volunteer luncheon Saturday, May 3, at Asiago’s Tuscan Italian restaurant in Westmont.

Beam, a Cambria County native who graduated from the Westmont Hilltop School District in 1991, is the lead graphic artist at CANA LLC, a Gainesville, Virginia-based logistics and analytics firm.

He amassed significant professional experience in the fields of graphics, design and illustration and has served the community arts center in numerous ways — from volunteering his time to teaching art classes for both children and adults — throughout the past eight years, according to Angela Godin, the center’s executive director.

In addition to his professional endeavors, Beam has practiced Tang Soo Do, a traditional Korean martial art, since he was 5 and has served as the adviser for a martial arts club at the University of Pitt-Johnstown since 1996.

Koa Beam sketches a drawing of Batman April 4 at the Community Arts Center of Cambria County in Johnstown. Mirror photo by Matt Churella

Godin said Beam is an “ideal human to be celebrated this year” because he helped the center obtain scholarship money for underserved children and youth in need and is always willing to lend a hand at the center whenever he’s needed. Beam will be teaching an upcoming summer camp for the center, she said.

Godin said the fact that Beam is able to showcase his skills and teach children how to draw their favorite icons and idols is “really special.”

“It’s really enabling young artists to be able to blossom and be able to really enjoy all the things that drawing and components of that really have to do,” Godin said.

Beam said he believes in the value of sketching and doodling for creative expression, stress reduction, enjoyment and catharsis, regardless of skill level.

“I’m a big proponent of just drawing for fun,” Beam said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s good because what’s good is subjective. I just think it’s cathartic.”

Beam said any time he can be involved with encouraging kids to find their passion through art, he’s all for helping out at the center.

He said a lot of kids don’t want to participate in certain activities and just want to watch him draw characters.

“I’m OK with that because maybe that will inspire them to then go home and get out their crayons and hopefully not draw on the walls but do something cool,” Beam said, adding, as long as people enjoy doing something, it’s time well spent.

Beam said children today are exposed to a lot of well-done artwork. That can be discouraging to some kids because they don’t think their artwork is going to be any good and so they’re afraid to try, he said.

“That’s the harder hurdle to overcome now because they’re afraid it’s not going to be any good. It’s OK for it to not be any good because eventually it will be awesome. But you’ve got to put in the time, you’ve got to put in the effort and you have to have critique,” Beam said.

Beam said he was encouraged to pursue art as a hobby when he was younger. His mother bought him paper and pens and his father gave him new sketchbooks to draw on.

Beam also had encouragement and mentorship from his elementary and high school art class teachers, he said.

Beam said he’s not looking to make a living off his artwork, but he has had some success in getting interior and exterior sketches published in books through meeting people at comic book conventions, like the Sci-Fi Valley Con event in Altoona and the 3 Rivers Comicon event in Pittsburgh.

Those conventions have led Beam to long-lasting friendships with people like author Brian Koscienski of Fortress Publishing, an independent micro-press publisher that has used Beam’s work for nine book covers.

Beam met Koscienski nearly 20 years ago at a Pittsburgh Comicon event, a convention that preceded the Steel City Con convention in Monroeville.

Koscienski said he and his writing partner, Chris, had a table close to Beam at the convention and struck up a conversation with him.

Koscienski said he speaks with Beam about once a month and they remain good friends.

“Whenever we’re at conventions together, we usually meet up for dinner,” Koscienski said, adding Beam gives the publishing company artwork for characters just because he was thinking about them.

“I think he leads by example,” Koscienski said. “He always has a pencil, pen or marker in his hand and is constantly drawing and very willing to take requests when sketching.”

Along with the recognition, Beam will receive a $500 cash award and a Waterford crystal bowl at the luncheon.

Mirror Staff Writer Matt Churella is at 814-946-7520.

The Beam file

Name: Koa Beam

Age: 52

Education: Westmont Hilltop School District, class of 1991

Career: Since high school, Beam worked several web development, graphic design and marketing jobs for different internet providers. He worked for Concurrent Technologies Corp. for almost 15 years before leaving in 2015 to work for CANA LLC, a logistics and analytics firm based in Gainesville, Virginia. He has been the firm’s lead graphic artist ever since.

Family: Galen Beam, father; Karin Beam, stepmother; Ruth Johnson, mother

Hobbies: 3D printing, painting and tabletop games