As a dependent in the military, I moved around a lot. Although moving has allowed me to gain different experiences and helped me to meet people all over the world, I lost a lot of people, and but also gained new perspectives. As a child, I felt isolated. This lonesomeness led me to draw myself and my ‘friends’ on paper. These characters were a self-expression, a world I desired to live in and experience—an adventure only I could experience in my imagination—all thrown on a blank piece of paper. I dreamed of my characters coming to life, moving, and talking, and expressing their emotions. I was left bleeding my imagination on paper.

The day I went digital, my entire world changed from a paper world to a virtual one. People in my life always told me that art of any kind is a bad idea for a career, not only a woman, but a black woman. Instead of tearing me down, I gained courage from it. Unwavering, I self-taught myself, attempting to ignore the negativity.

My works are often created digitally, whether it be illustration or animation. The stories of my animation and illustrations typically deal with the main character going through hardships and loneliness before coming to the realization that they are the star, and that they are destined to do something greater than themselves. And although my characters go through a period of adversities, they want to aid in saving the world in their own way. Most of my animated stories are designed like a lucid dream. Unlike the direction of life, this is a world I can control.

Imagine always being told you will have to work twice as hard because of your race, told that you aren’t allowed to indulge happily in your hobby, or that you are not supposed to like what you do. I grew being told that I will never amount to my white counterparts by society itself. I never for once thought that I was any less of a human being. Just living as a black woman, who is also into Japanese animation, I have faced countless of doubts coming my way. But I know who I am, and what I want to be. And that is an innovator, illustrator, and animator. I always say, when you can imagine a world on a blank piece of paper, that is when you know you are an artist.