My favorite art piece I’ve ever created is a panoramic illustration titled, “DANCE!”. It highlights something that I believe universally connects every artist on a single thread: a creative endeavor. In my imagination, this fervor for art feels like an endless dance floor, where we are moving to the beat of a drum, dreaming, pondering, yearning and making. I stepped foot on this dance floor during my junior year of high school. I slowly grew a deep love for creating characters, stories, and worlds that were reflections of myself. What had originally been a hobby for me became my greatest aspiration, and I felt it gently hold my hand. The first step we took together was exhilarating. As ideas flooded my mind, color swirled at the end of my fingertips and I eagerly put pencil to paper. We waltzed together from dawn to dusk. I wished so earnestly to be one the greats, to reach for the stars, to make art that broke preconceived notions. But eventually, I realized that I had more passion than skill. I saw the creases and cracks in my progression and when I received a rejection from my dream school during senior year, the height in my confidence blew away. I stopped creating for a while and though I stayed on the dance floor, my body wouldn’t move. After my high school graduation, I signed up for art classes at another college and felt lost in my passion for my major. However, the semester began and my foundational classes such as Art History, Figure Drawing, and Painting opened my eyes to what I hadn’t seen before. My first philosophy class encouraged me to think critically about our human condition, the relationships we breed around us, and the meaning behind our daily “phenomenons”. So I took another, and then two more. It was through these classes that I learned: my future in art is so much larger than I thought it would be. I began questioning “What does my art mean to me?”, “What do I want to say with my art?”, and “How do I become better?”. The dance floor started shining again. I spent my days asking questions at my professors’ office hours, practicing outside the classroom, and drawing in my sketchbook everywhere I went. My interest pushed my growth. Finding my own identity and honesty in my work helped me mature, and I began feeling the rhythm on the stage once again. Alongside this, I met so many other ambitious artists, all dancing to their own beat on their stages. I’ve come to understand the communal joy we share behind it all. The thrill, the curiosity, the absolute child-like fun there is when putting pen, paintbrush, marker to paper. No matter how far or how little along the journey anyone is, this piece is a reflection, dedicated to all artists, to express the ubiquitous excitement all artists first feel. What a joy it is to do what we do! I cannot wait to keep dancing with you all!