My name is Rashaune Williams and I'm a traditional artist, digital artist, and animator. I have around 10 years of experience with traditional art around 2 years of digital art experience, and some experience animating. My passion, at 7 years old, for art first came from my mother who was a clothing designer and an artist too. She's an incredibly creative and talented person who inspired me to draw in the first place. I was impressed how she could look at something and draw it or draw from her imagination so easily, I respected that and wanted to be like that. It wasn't until I turned fifteen that I used my first digital art program. The first one I used was called "Krita," a free digital art program I have been using to make art and make animations. This art program increased my passion for art even more because I could work on the go, meaning I could drawing anything from anywhere if I can't make art traditionally, there was no boundaries. When I was younger, I didn't know that I would want to pursue education in the arts but it came so naturally that as I got older. I've been doing art my whole life and now I'm definitely sure that I want the arts in m life. I wanted to pursue it because art is incredibly powerful and influencial and it has the power to make a change and bring awareness to societal issues. The fact that art is so diverse, innovative, and creative is mainly why I chose education in the arts. On the other hand, my family encouraged me to keep making art, telling me different ways to do art, and giving me important information improve my skills. The other reason why I chose the arts is because I want to gain as much knowledge as possible. I want any knowledge I can obtain from what I learn from people, school, and research. In a digital art space, I think the first thing I would create are animations. Those Youtube animators like the Odd1sOut, Haminations, and Mike Inel have always been the biggest inspiration to me in creating digital art so I've always wanted to do them. For example, Mike Inel has a series of animations where he takes a cartoon and turns it into an anime and the quality, by one single person mind you, is incredible. Getting a digital workspace would be amazing because I already have planned for what I want to make. This space would be perfect for honing my skills. If I'm with other people in the space, we could exchange feedback on our work to improve even more.

The first catalyst to starting my music passion and journey was my first piano teacher at a place called "Piano Fingers" in Chicago. Although I can not recall her name, I'll refer to her as Ms. G. She was the first person to become my piano teacher and also the person who instilled a deep love and appreciation for the piano. However, due to financial struggles, I had to discontinue my piano classes at around 9-10 years old. Ms. G's teaching style was unique to me because she conveyed the beauty and gracefulness of playing piano. She taught in a way that exhibited a caring and gentle demeanor when teaching students and it never felt like she was getting impatient even when I was struggling sometimes during her lessons. She gave me unwavering support that propelled me further and further and further despite the struggles and setbacks I encountered during the lessons. Another influential figure on my music journey was my second piano teacher who I met in high school. I'll refer to her as Ms. P. She was a highly renowned and accomplished professional in piano. She was awarded many prestigious awards and met many amazing people on her music journey. Learning more and more about her background exemplified how success is possible and can be achieved through dedication and hard work. Ms. P taught me all that I knew about piano fundamentals, composition, and the historical context of piano music. In addition, she was given donations to Kenwood HS alumni to give all her piano students keyboards to practice with for free. All of her actions to help us succeed and come home to pursue our passion for music is something truly inspiring for me. She did so much for us, the only thing I could do was to push myself to excel in her class because I was grateful and it was my responsibility to make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Lastly, I would like to acknowledge the tragic passing of Corderius M. Webster who passed away too soon at the tender age of 19 while pursuing his passion for music. Their untimely passing is a reminder of how life can be taken away when we least expect it and unpredictably so. So using all the time we have on the planet, we should cherish every moment and thing we have and pursue our dreams. Corderius's story serves as a reminder and motivation that I need to keep pushing myself to work harder and recognize that time is a precious resource that shouldn't be wasted. Corderius's passing shows that life is fragile and empathy and compassion towards others are incredibly significant because we never know when it's our time to go. How I plan to make a difference with my music career is simply to spread good and positivity to the people who need it. I want to make music that inspires a drive, inspires people to explore new things and gets out of their comfort zones so they can improve something about themselves or expand their horizons. I want to address issues within my community so that people become more informed and inspire action rather than inaction in others through music.