Art runs through my family, thus it all started with my grandmother. From a young age, my grandmother always encouraged me artistically (she still does now, considering she has held onto my childhood drawings). She went to art school and graduated with a degree in Interior Design. I remember being surrounded by all of her drawings and looking at how they all came together. Each color, texture, and design, thought carefully and strongly. At that time, I didn't have the 'artistic gene' in my family, for that went to my uncle Marcus and my cousin Eden, who both were artistic in their own ways. Little did I know in 2012, that all started to change... In 2012, I started teaching myself how to draw, first starting with a Converse shoe. Of course, it was flat, but the number of details I put into it was strong and I truly felt within myself that I could take my newly discovered talent upwards from there. I suddenly jumped right into doing portraits (in graphite/fine art pencils), which usually is very hard to do at first. But over the past few years, I have grown to become good at them and continue to do so. Within those years, the idea of going to an art college hit me, and that's where I found out about CCS. The College for Creative Studies was a college I have known about since middle school, and I never thought I would be attending there right now. It's honestly a dream, but it is a lot of work. When being in a place where there are the best-of-the-best of artists, it can feel pretty intimidating and competitive. But at the end of the day, I am only challenging, and growing myself as an artist and not against other people. I hope for when I graduate in 2024, I can use my artistic skill to spread within the gaming field and within art education itself. I love playing video games and I hope to become a concept artist for a major gaming studio someday. I would like to create characters and environments that innovate the realism and depth of video games, that immerse players into them. I just want to create that nostalgia of playing a good game and be a part of that experience for players like me. As of right now, besides majoring in Illustration, I am also pursuing a teacher's certificate in Art Education. For me, I want to teach kids and teens the importance of creativity and that it plays a huge role within their own identity. I hope to bring more interactive and innovative ways of teaching into the art curriculum, by incorporating technology with traditional art and providing equity amongst my future students. Though there are many artists out there, with various talents and skills, what makes my gift different than theirs is that I have an eye for colors and shades. I have a fine accuracy in matching colors according to what I see and I don't have trouble mixing the exact color that I need for any artwork that I do. This goes in hand with my shading skills as well, being able to establish the right amount of shading to transform anything into 3D on canvas/paper.