ARTIST STATEMENT

   My work this year has been inspired by female heroes who have left an impact on the world despite the world holding them back. I wanted to focus on different kinds of heroes, such as well known icons and lesser-known underdogs. I also wanted to include both fictional and historical people. This concentration appealed to me, as a kid growing up in a world that taught us of male heroes who formed our world and never once spoke of the women who were often silenced by said men. I wanted to portray these women as regal, heroic figures in stained-glass style paintings.

I used symbolism in plants and crystals to frame my heroes and symbolize what made them in particular a hero. Anne Frank surrounded in innocence, colored with mostly browns and whites, Joan of Arc surrounded by courage and colored with blues, Malala surrounded by intelligence, colored with pinks, Wonder Woman surrounded by strength, colored with greens, Dana Scully surrounded by hope and colored with reds and Princess Leia surrounded by Justice and colored in gold. It was a challenge for me to draw them this way, the coloring style brighter than I'm used to and the lines steadier and neater than my normal style, but I embraced the challenge and saw improvement the more work I did. I would spend about eight hours on each piece, working on it in stages - rough sketch, detail sketch, line-art, refine line-art, then color. I found inspiration through pinterest and various places on the internet.

I feel the collection is yet incomplete - I wish I could've included more people from different ethnicities and backgrounds in my project and I'm considering working further on it in the future. I hope these works can inspire people to learn more about the women who helped shape our culture and history and have done so much for us as humanity.