who/what has influenced you & your art throughout time?:

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When we think of the history of our art, we think of two instances. One being saturday nights, staying up with my best friend and cousin Tobi at my yai’s house with snacks and our old TV playing Toonami. I remember watching Naruto every Saturday, never missing an episode and thinking all day every day of the week waiting for that next weekly episode. I also think of me and my friends passing notebooks of our role plays during middle school study hall, of my sister showing me her OCs and sending me novels over text about their stories. Every moment of our life was and is filled with creation. 

 

what are your biggest fears as an artist?:

 

The thing I fear most about being an artist is the symptoms of Dissociative Identity Disorder, predominantly the time loss. It happens less nowadays, but only a couple years ago I would check the date only to find that weeks have passed. Projects overdue, online friends worried sick, even though no one around me noticed a change. Our other fears are the failings of the human body. If something were to happen to my dominant hand, what would become of me? 
 

explain how you create, briefly: 

 

Ideas come to us as naturally as walking and breathing. The ideas drift into my head, and I don't draw them so much as I need to get them out of my head and on paper. If we don't draw them, they stay stuck in my head and pile up, blocking pipes in my brain and cluttering the halls. I create out of love of the world and the longing I feel to express myself. I’m not always sure how I create, sometimes I sit down with a cup of tea and start an idea, other times I’ll find art already half made from my system members, and I’ll simply color what's already there. Creation is to me as grass is to soil. No matter where we are, it will grow. 

 

how has your practice changed over time?:

 

Every day I'm learning new skills. I’m always watching other artists, learning from their work and implementing new tactics into my art. Just recently I started working in vector layers for my lines, studying color theory, and taking lessons on character design and panel layout for comics. I wouldn’t say my practice has “changed,” because more accurately my practice is always changing and ever evolving. The more I draw, the more I feel my world experience expanding and changing. 

 

What vibe do you hope people get from your work?:

 

I hope that when people see my art, they are reminded of their own love for the world we share together. I hope for my viewers to feel a sense of community and appreciation, a sense of hope even. There is an endless amount of negativity in the world, but there's an endless amount of beauty in the world as well. We as a system hope that our art can encourage people to put down the hate we all see every day on our phones and on TV and remember to look at the sky, look at the trees and birds, even the bugs in the grass. The world is so much bigger than the pain we are all facing. 
 

What is your idea of success as an artist?:

 

Success to us is to see other people smile, laugh, or cry at the things we create. Art is meant to invoke feeling, and we hope that people see our art and feel something that their daily life isn't giving them. It's not about how many people see my art, but what the people who do see it feel and think. My goal as an artist is to make the world an even slightly more pleasant space. That kind of success is something I plan to chase for the rest of my life.