ARTIST STATEMENT

   My work explores a world full of mystery and the unknown. In my concentration, I created pieces centered around cryptids, creatures that may or may not exist but have people are out there looking for them. I’ve been making art for as long as I can remember, and I keep at it as it is an outlet for the constant creative energy flowing through my mind. Cryptids in particular appealed to me because for some they are a symbol of our fear’s creativity, these monsters made to explain the unknown dangers of the world, but to others they are real creatures that often defy everything we hold as real and their discovery would push our understanding of the world only further.

   I represented both points of view in my work. The fantastical against the factual, for each view shows a little bit of both. Creating my art has always made me feel complete, and when I work with this concept I feel even better. Working towards an end goal of a book of these creatures has been a big motivation to keep going, and reading stories about them online and in horror books has been my main inspiration. Each piece would take about four to ten hours each, depending on the amount of detail required for the piece. My style, which is typically somewhat shaky but complete, is well portrayed in these pieces, showing consistently the best of this style. These pieces also allowed me to work in my preferred medium and style, in contrast to other pieces I’ve done for art classes.

   With these pieces, completed in the future and put together in a book, I plan to jumpstart a future in illustration using art to speak my mind and maybe even change the world, one day. I hope that starting with these simple wondrous creatures of pseudo-science, I can make it there one day.