My passion for art has shaped my entire journey. Art has always been more than a hobby for me, it’s how I express my anxiety & emotions. Through painting and working with charcoal, I found a way to express emotions I couldn’t put into words. My passion for art has shaped my personality in profound ways, by helping me cope with my anxiety and build confidence by creating pieces that not only reflect who I am, but also bring joy to others. One of the most transformative moments in my journey was starting my own pet portrait business. What began as a small idea drawing realistic pet portraits for family and friends soon grew into a fulfilling creative outlet when I signed up to be a vendor at my community park. I met old friends from camp, learned how to talk to people and express my passion. As my business grew, my anxiety did too. Every social aspect of commissions were so overwhelming. I struggled to talk to people, deadlines were triggering, and was constant thought of not being good enough was upsetting. This left me drained and emotionally shut down. Regardless of my struggles with social anxiety, working with painting and charcoal has also been deeply therapeutic. When I’m working on commissions or just drawing for fun, I feel grounded and in my own paradise. Whether I’m capturing the lively expression of a dog’s eyes or the soft texture of fur in charcoal, I find serenity in the process. Art has given me a safe space to manage my anxiety and focus my energy on something positive and purposeful. This scholarship is important to me because it would give me the resources and support to keep growing my skills and expanding my art business, as well as giving me the the support to peruse my dream to major in 3D animation and special effects. I hope to continue refining my techniques, explore new mediums, and eventually use my work to promote mental health awareness & inspire other people that share the same struggles as I do. I want others to see that creative expression isn’t just beautiful, it’s healing. With your support, I can pursue my goals to go to Montclair State University and continue using my art to inspire and connect with people in meaningful ways. Aswell as achieveing my longed for goal that I’ve strived for since I was twelve.

My name is Ava and my dream is to lead my own art business of animated movie's. The brands Disney Animation and Dream-works have always been two of my biggest inspirations. I aspire to make movies using two-dimensional and three-dimensional animation, and working my way up into owning my own business. A challenge I’ve faced is never having the money to practice my animation skills correctly. This didn’t stop me from making animations, so I’ve improvised with using the app called Flipa-clip, and ever since I found it, I’ve been non-stop animating clips, spending weeks to months working on two-dimensional animation projects and perfecting them to the best of my abilities despite not being able to use good tools. I would post these clips on ‘YouTube’ and quickly gained popularity and met many artists with a similar interest for animation. Their artwork motivated me to keep going showing me that everyone starts somewhere and that you can achieve great skills with a lot of practice and determination. Being accepted into countless animation projects such as ‘Starless night’, ‘Misfit Toys’, and ‘Ghost’, have given me great inspiration on what I truly want to advance in. Along with hosting my own animation projects and leading many young animators, this gave me a lead idea of my desired career. I hope to inspire others about my passion of art with these projects, I hope it motivates them to take initiative in their own work towards their own goals. Besides animation, I have always been passionate with drawing just about everything, but mostly animals have been more of my forte. I quickly advanced and started my own business named ‘Ava’s Pet Portraits’ and made thousands in sales for my realistic pet portraits and my pet caricatures. I’ve also showed leadership in my business by being invited to a special needs café named Bombers Beyond for ‘Pet Night’ and promoting my business by spreading the word and by drawing free pet portraits. Doing this not only showed me how to lead a business, but my work seems to touch peoples hearts. I only continue to improve and satisfy my customers, and would one day love to incorporate my love for realistic art and illustration into my animation. I’m a good fit for this scholarship because I am motivated, hard-working, aspire to do the best of my abilities, and am very passionate about art. I want to learn as much as I can about the animation for story making and special effects.