Art has always been an escape for me ever since I was young. Growing up lower class dealing with Child Protective Services and being in and out of the court system, the only thing I had was my imagination to entertain myself through hard times. I spent majority of my senior year debating whether or not I should go to art school despite my financial situation. I was 18 at the time and had just moved out of an abusive household, if I was in school I was studying all day and when I was out I worked all night. Despite everything telling me not, too I chose Savannah College of Art and Design. There was never a time in my life where I wanted to be something other than an illustrator. I knew I couldn’t waste my life knowing I did not at least try to achieve that dream. As someone who grew up in the 2000s when queer media was absent I felt lost during my formative years with no guidance or connect to explain the identity crisis I was going through. All I had was my drawings to express myself with no limits holding me back, my solace was the characters and stories I made to comfort myself. In my high school years animated tv-shows like The Owl House and Craig of the Creek already had its run and though by that time I felt to old to sit down and watch those shows, I was surrounded by elementary and middle schoolers that finally were able to see diverse characters like them which made the fear of speciality in a world less daunting. Those kids got to grow up seeing their culture, race, and, identity expressed in a show that was made for them. The biggest criticism about children’s entertainment currently is that the industry is dumbing down stories believing that children do not yet have the capacity to understand meanings. When I was 8 my favorite Disney princess was Rapunzel from Tangled not because of her long hair but because she was going through an abusive situation similar to mine. We often forget that children learn from connections, being able to see their experience explained on the big screen not only comforts them but gives children situational awareness about their circumstances. I want to use my illustration degree to work in children’s entertainment so kids have stories to connect and grow with. I strive to help children see themselves in media whether it is by race, identity, queerness, and culture. To me art is humanity’s greatest importance not only for story telling but to express the individuality of every single human on this planet.

Growing up I never had money to afford consoles or a proper gaming computer. I spent most of my younger years watching people on YouTube play video games, arguing at the screen on how I would have grabbed the loot they skipped out on or chosen a different dialogue option. Video games were an escapism from the real world, where I was in and out of the court system battling legal custody with my grandmother and mother. At age 15 I got my first job and spent my first pay check on a PlayStation 5, spending majority of the COVID - 19 pandemic playing Read Dead Redemption II and Bioshock. At the time I started taking art more seriously and was planning to go to art school despite my financial situation. Spending days on long zoom calls for class to keep my 4.0, and at night would work to save up money for college. Rockstar and Fictional Games studio became a big inspiration during my junior and senior year of high school. I became enamored with their concept art and the expansive detail they put into projects like Bully, Red Dead Redemption, and Soma. I grew up watching Bully and thinking at the time it was revolutionary for open world gaming with an immersive and thought provoking story to since come out of Rockstar company. Then watching games like Soma and Amnesia come out, with Fictional Games studio creating alternate realty games (ARGs) to entice players. I learned games could be more than just things you play, that stories could be interactive in and out of gaming media. By age 18 I played Cyberpunk 2077, a love project for CD Projekt that even in 2024 continue to update their game regularly, even long after being forgiven for the nightmare that happened on release date. This game taught me that beloved personal projects still exist. Even in a system that pops games out left in right with no breathing room. When I graduated my senior year financially I was not ready for a school like Savannah Art and Design. I knew going in I’d come out with empty pockets but there’s a quote from Cyberpunk that keeps me going even when I'm stressed about the state of the world and my financial situation, ”Not a single thing in this world isn’t in the process of becoming something else. Likewise you. Never look back.” Even if the world is in chaos I have a dream that does not allow me to look back. Thanks to video games I’m going to Savannah Art and Design with the prospect of graduating with an entertainment Illustration degree and 3d animation with big dreams of being hired by the companies I grew up with to create stories like Cyberpunk 2077. In hopes to motivate and emotionally move players for many years to come.