While boredom may drive other teenagers to watch Netflix, play video games, or even pick up a book, I am driven to create. My creativity—a unique attribute in my family—never fails to trump my boredom. Whether I am in my garage pawing through scrap wood searching for my next project, sitting at my desk with a sharpie searching for blank spaces to fill in with doodles, or in my driveway using the wall as a canvas, my creative instincts never fail to relieve me from my stress. However, I never truly was inspired until my babysitter—one of my father’s highschool students—quickly sketched a realistic portrait of me. The moment I saw her drawing, I was captivated by graphite portraiture. The following Christmas my mother gave me my first sketchbook and a set of drawing pencils, and I immediately began practicing: bringing the sketchbook everywhere I went and drawing every face I saw. Five years later, I was introduced to the world of digital arts through an Adobe Photoshop subscription, and saw the endless potential for creativity. While the ability to realistically depict a subject with a pencil remains unsurpassed in my mind, Photoshop opened many doors in my creative realm, and the magnitude of tools it offers drives my inquisitive mind to create, learn and evolve everyday.  

I have always been intrigued by the history of humankind—namely evolution—and the ties to nature it has embedded into our identity. However, in an age of rapid technological advancement, I fear for humanity’s loss of it’s intimate connection to nature. Thus, I have decided to concentrate on portraying this profound relationship in my series of work. Rather than standing by as high-tech innovation disconnects humans from the natural world, I employ the fruits of our rapid technological growth (Photoshop) to emphasize the link that humans have with nature, and the individual subjectivity to experiencing natural environments.