Ever since I was young, I have loved stories. I would sit down with a book and immerse myself in its world, fall in love with the characters, and after I finished I would keep the adventure alive in my brain, following whatever whimsical path through my imagination it took me on. I would settle in with a movie, rapt through all its twists and turns, high on all the emotions transmitted to me by filmic language, and I would feel myself soar through worlds rich beyond compare, led by the tease of possibility, and fed by the works of countless storytellers. And though I have changed, grown, my passion for imagination, for fiction, has remained constant.

My body of work this year is a series of concepts for a story I have been mulling over for some time. It follows three central characters; Ezra, a thief; Yanni, a traveller on a quest; and Aiden, a lost prince. The three come together to look for clues and possibly a cure to a mysterious ailment that plagues Yanni’s home, and are swept up into the struggles of their world and come upon a dreadful plot that they must unravel. The artwork I have made across the year has helped me solidify my ideas and challenge myself to polish skills I will need in order to publish it as a proper webcomic. Though the works are far more abstract and lack the easy continuity a real story demands, they have helped me find and test the limits of my artmaking ability, giving me the opportunity to evaluate where I stand in how well I can communicate ideas. My artistic journey is far from over, but I can confidently say that I have taken good steps on my path to its fruition.