BFA, Studio Arts (Digital Studio Practice with a cross-discipline in Print & Narrative Forms
Artist Statement
Much of my work is in printmaking, where I merge the language and aesthetics associated with the digital realm (such as glitch, metadata, etc.) with traditional printmaking processes. However, I am most interested in digital illustration and the stories that these drawings can convey, specifically in comics. I am drawn to comics due to the way that particular blend of text and image can tell a story.
Above Minimum Wage is a 115 page comic that I have been developing for the past two years. It is a horror/coming-of-age story focusing on the ways that financial anxiety can manifest in younger people. It follows the protagonist, Saoirse, during her last summer at home before college, as she works night shifts in an attempt to scrap together enough money for school. Also, her hometown might be haunted, but she is not sure about that one yet.
There were seemingly no coming-of-age narratives that I related to while growing up. They were either too fluffy, too heteronormative, or just too generally unrelatable for me. Growing up can be terrifying. And, the worries that manifest in teens when they start to reach adulthood, the stress over being in charge of their own finances and the terror of everything about their lives changing, was something that I, personally, never saw reflected in the genre of coming-of-age. I’m also aware that I’m not the only one feeling this type of pressure, especially with the added weight of the pandemic and all the economic ramifications stemming from it. So many people my age and younger share these fears, and I wanted to help create more media that reflects those anxieties and helps come to terms with the
