Jack Soren, a 2019 Graphic Design graduate of Brigham Young University–Hawaii, has transformed his passion for art into a career as a globally recognized artist. Raised on the shores of Laie in a family of creatives and entrepreneurs, his work spans Hawaii and the world, capturing the attention of major brands and communities alike. Beyond the brushstrokes, Soren is driven by something bigger: his faith and family.
Early Impressions
Growing up in Laie, Jack was no stranger to BYU–Hawaii. As a kid, he visited his grandmother Vernice Pere in the administration building, grabbed ice cream at the Seasider, and spent afternoons at the Gaming HUB.
Jack has Hawaiian roots on his father's side and Maori heritage from New Zealand on his mother's. His great-great-grandmother, Eliza Nainoa Salm, was the Honolulu Stake's first Relief Society president, established in June of 1935, and her legacy is literally set in stone, as the reference for the maternity scene sculpture at the Laie, Hawaii, Temple. “My family has been here for generations,” Jack says. “I'm just grateful to come from here.”
His grandmother, Vernice Wineera Pere, was a celebrated Polynesian abstract painter and poet; his father was a Hawaiian jeweler who ran his own business. “I'm the product of both families,” Jack says. “Creative arts on one side, hardworking business and restaurant owners on the other. My environment led me to what I do today.”
It's no surprise that Jack never stopped making art. While other kids left their markers and brushes behind, he never let go. By 15, he landed his first mural commission and realized art could be a career.
An Answer in the Making
Jack will be the first to admit that standardized tests were never his strength; artistic minds don't always translate well onto answer sheets. Despite this, he sent in his application to BYU–Hawaii and waited. He was admitted, something he describes only as a miracle. “I do think there are moments when the Lord chooses us to be in places, knowing that it's the right path for us. And that was one of those moments for me.” Jack says.
At BYU–Hawaii, Jack found professors in business and design who answered his real-world questions, like handling contracts, working with clients, and getting paid as a student. He also discovered a spiritual environment that deepened his testimony and kept him anchored. “It definitely kept me closer to the Lord, which I was super grateful for,” he says. “It really helped set me up for the rest of my life.” He met his wife, a girl from Arizona who came planning to stay just one semester and, as Jack puts it with a grin, “got stuck for life.”
By his senior year, Jack had a full-fledged career. When he walked across the stage in 2019, he held a degree in one hand and an active career in the other. “I burned the boats,” he says. “No giving up. We're gonna make this work no matter what.”
Painting Outside the Lines
Since graduation, Jack has gone from painting the walls of Urban Hawaii to surf contests on the North Shore, Japan, Europe, and across states. With a studio in Laie, he has built his network and found his tribe among the muralists and creatives who have become both mentors and collaborators.
A defining moment came when Vans invited him to design a poster for a North Shore surf contest. For someone who grew up watching those events, it meant everything. “I always wanted to be a pro surfer growing up because that's what everyone around me was doing,” Jack says. “That day, I felt like I reached the podium in my own way, through my art, through my passion, among all the artists they could have picked, I won that year.”
The experience reshaped how he sees success. “It might not always work out the way you plan it,” he says, “but you'll find your own authentic way to whatever it is you're meant to receive.”
From there, more doors opened. He designed his own Vans shoe, which was produced and sold in stores, painted large-scale murals across Honolulu, and worked with surf and skateboard brands he once admired as a teenager. Nearly a decade in, the projects keep coming, and so does his gratitude.
The Medium That Matters Most
But ask Jack about his greatest accomplishment, and he won't mention a mural or a brand deal. He'll tell you it's being a dad to his 3-year-old son and 7-month-old daughter. Fatherhood has changed how he sees art, faith, and his sense of purpose.
“Discovering my identity, not just as an artist, but the way God views me and the talents He's blessed me with, that's a valuable lesson I learned,” Jack says. “Knowing where you come from and who you are takes a lot of work to figure out sometimes. But God reveals it as you lean into your passion and as you lean into Him.”
Jack credits his professional success to the values BYU–Hawaii reinforced: honesty, gratitude, kindness, win-win thinking, and professionalism. “I always say, be honest in your dealings,” he says. “Those things really do add up. Clients trust you. People want to work with you. The values you carry determine the type of people and business you attract.”
Leaving a Lasting Mark
Jack's advice to current Seasiders is simple: include Heavenly Father in everything, not just the big life decisions, but the creative ones, the daily career ones, the scary ones. Jack says he has prayed his way through business problems, creative blocks, and uncertainty, and it has never failed him. “I've included Heavenly Father in prayer throughout my business career from the start,” he says. “I ask, what do I do next? What should I plan and prepare for? Really including Him in the details has guided me through this new phase of life.”
“Life is less scary when you don't have to walk it alone,” he says. “I have my Father in Heaven up there watching, saying go for it, I'm here whenever you need me. And honestly, that's the greatest advice I can share with students anywhere.”
For Jack, BYU–Hawaii gave him something no textbook could, the confidence to take his passion and share it with the world.
