Belong Zine Spread | Risograph
Featured in Orlando Zine Fest (2024)
Belong is an experimental zine about what that word means to each of the contributors. The Fishbowl was the affectionate nickname of the pocket of the design lab closed off from the rest of it by glass walls, after how you can watch students work tirelessly to make deadlines inside while other classes were going on. As we were all from the same cohort in UCF’s design program and the last to have worked in The Fishbowl before the design lab was renovated, I made a tribute to how I found community there by turning everyone into marine life.
What Does the Fox Say? | Screenprint Series of 3 (11"x14")
I think a lot about personhood. Being myself is a constant struggle between wanting to be liked without being too much. There’s this concept in psychology that says the psyche is divided into the Id (instinctual needs), the Ego (mediator between instinct and morality), and Superego (moralizer). This tension is why I’ve always enjoyed drawing animals. They exist outside the bounds of society, simply being without worrying about how they’re percieved. Perhaps this is why many people like to represent themselves as anthropromorphic creatures online. There’s a freedom in seeing yourself a little sillier, a little cooler, to snap your jaws without fear.
Close Call | Screenprint Edition of 12 (11"x15")
Featured in Forward Thinking: A Conversation Between Florida and Massachusetts
This was part of a print exchange exhibit with Mount Holyoke College where both groups made screenprints in editions of 12 around the theme of what it’s like to live in their respective state to foster understanding between the north and south.
As a born and raised Floridian, hurricanes have been a constant presence in my life. I often have the surreal experience of watching entire cities along the beach swept away from the TV, then my smartphone. Thousands of families have their lives destroyed by natural disasters every year that for me were just a few days of skipped school and lost power.
Hurricane Helene was another close call. I thought to myself reading its trajectory, “thank god that wasn’t me.” Then, I see through that little screen that the Appalachian mountains were flooded. An unthinkable calamity for how far inland it was.
The smartphone is a symbol of how easily we can sink into complacency by telling ourselves that these climate disasters are confined to the screen. Something to watch and say “oh, it’s over there.” Every year it gets closer, until you’re the one holding up the camera.
