I’m someone who’s always found solace in stories; in elementary school, I could usually be found in my own little corner reading a book or scribbling on a piece of paper. As I’ve grown older, that love for stories remains, but it’s evolved into a desire to tell my own.

I’ve worked in a variety of mediums—graphite, charcoal, soft pastel, acrylic and oil paints. I believe it’s important to have some grasp on the basic physical mediums in art, purely on a technical level, and because variety is important for growth. My chosen medium, however, is digital illustration. I greatly value flexibility in my process, and digital programs like Procreate and Photoshop give me that freedom while still allowing me to achieve a clean effect, much to the delight of my perfectionist heart.

Sometimes what drives me to create is as simple as “I like this idea, I want to show everyone what I’ve thought up.” More often than not, though, my art is a way to explore and express what’s in my head. I love picking things apart and then putting them back together, honing in on little details and dissecting their origins. It’s part escapism and part self-projection; most of my characters explore “what-if” personal conflicts in a fantasy scenario. There’s a certain level of abstraction in conceptual art that gives me the freedom to push ideas to extremes I’d never be able to in real life—alienation can be seen through the eyes of a haunted doll, grief through a reluctant vampire’s. Even when I’m delving into heavier subject matter, there’s an aspect of intrigue that keeps me pushing forward.

Something I often find myself asking is, “how do I abstract this specific personal experience into something more relatable while still keeping it true to me as an individual?” In an era oversaturated with generative AI, one of the most important things to me as an artist is creating something that I know comes from myself, and that connects with people on a deeper level. I believe that art is ultimately what makes us human, and I strive to convey that humanity in a way only I can.