So, for your Senior Project, you’re doing a series of book covers of cult horror classics?

The book covers will all be cult or classic books. I just finished To Kill a Mockingbird, and right now I’m working on The Picture of Dorian Gray. And for my mini-series, they’re all going to be color portraits of cult and classic horror icons from movies and fiction.

I like that. Normally, I take a look at your work and I’ve noticed that you tend to favor black and white. So, it’s interesting to see you turn to the color series.

My book series is going to be completely black and white, and this is going to be the only pop of color there. I don’t do color very often, so this is my chance to do it and practice more with it because I definitely need practice.

What drew you to To Kill a Mockingbird and The Picture of Dorian Gray?

When I was thinking about it, I knew I wanted to do book covers specifically, just because I really like nicely illustrated covers, and my original thesis was just going to be book illustration. But I don’t like just doing one form of illustration.

I wanted to incorporate more of my interests, so when I decided I was going to do cults and classics, I wanted to do a series about “what is a cult classic?” and “what is just a classic?” Those two books fit really nicely into that, because they were both once cult classics before they became the classics that we know today. Also because of their content: To Kill a Mockingbird touches on serious subjects like segregation and racism, and The Picture of Dorian Gray touches on homosexuality in characters, and those things were very taboo when they came out.

To some demographics of people, they’re still considered taboo.

Oh yeah, definitely. To Kill a Mockingbird is still on banned book lists across America. There are still schools that can’t read them because they’re on banned book lists.

When you make your art, what themes do you like to express? We talked a bit about this already, and it seems like you’ve always been drawn to the cult and horror.

I was introduced to horror really early on. Back when my cousin was babysitting me, she would sometimes invite her sister over. Her sister was really into horror, so when she came over, she would always bring horror movies and anime to watch. My very first introduction to horror was the 2006 Wax Museum remake when I was eight. I was terrified of it, but at the same time, I thought "huh, I actually really liked that, I'm going to explore that more." 

When I started drawing, it was mostly dark, emo stuff. I wasn’t even emo at the time, I just thought it was a cool style to draw in. But when I started drawing more seriously, I wanted to make myself more marketable, so I stopped drawing mostly horror and angsty stuff and started drawing in a more mainstream style. Because, you know, I wanted to make money.

Freshman year I did a lot of work with ink, and while it wasn’t necessarily horror, it was still a darker style with really crisp linework. Horror has always been in the background of my life, so it’s second nature, I guess.

I totally respect that. It shows your artistic voice, as well, it always ends up coming back to horror. I really admire your crisp lines and attention to detail.

Yeah, I definitely think that my linework specifically has always been inspired by books and old, old book illustrations like Wizard of Oz. The style is similar to those old linocut blocks. And I’ve always thought that was interesting, because I never noticed it until just recently when people pointed it out. I’d be like, “Oh yeah! I guess it is.”

On the topic of inspiration, who are some of the artists that have inspired you?

In freshman year, they were heavy on us to consider who inspires us, and I hadn’t thought about that, so I was like, “oh geez. Who am I inspired by?” And I was just kind of picking and grabbing people from memories. I never got the chance to dive into who I was truly inspired by until about sophomore or junior year where I discovered that I really like Charles M. Schultz’s linework just because of how expressive it was, and so I put him down. Jaw Cooper for a little bit. Kerb Crawler because of his dark and NSFW aesthetic. It’s close to my artwork’s aesthetic and I definitely took influence from him on the darker side. I like Mary Syring a lot, she’s a very sweet lady. She actually talked to me on Instagram for a little bit. Sweet, talented, she has beautiful work. And obviously my friends here. They’re huge influences.

It’s great that you’ve stitched together this quilt of new influential artists that you’ve met through your college experience that are leading and not necessarily changing your tone, but just channeling it, you know? That’s very cool. It’s great that we get inspired by people.

It’s refreshing, especially because throughout most of my college years I was basically told to become marketable, since illustration is a tough industry to get work in, so from the get-go you’re told you need to make marketable artwork, which means changing your style sometimes. I was trying different things in freshman and sophomore year, and I really just wasn’t happy with how anything was turning out.

I started finding my footing again during my junior year, but I still wasn't happy because I was like, "I really miss doing my other stuff." I would get praise for one piece that was a little bit closer, and people would tell me "we really love seeing that, you should do that!" So I would be put in this box where I do want to please, but I also want to make sure that I can make some money off of my work in the future. At the same time, I want to make sure I’m not depressed making art that I don’t like.

That’s the hardest struggle of any artist. I feel the same way. It’s always hard facing imbalances between what you’re being told and what you want to keep, to stay true to your voice but to still be marketable.

Exactly.

What is your studio space like? Do you have your senior studio, or are you doing things from home?

I do have my senior studio, I’m actually in there a lot. I utilize that space as frequently as possible. I have all of my inspiration right there in front of me. I dry flowers as a hobby, so I have some hanging in my studio. I have a couple of pieces from friends  hanging, some postcards, just some little botanicals, all little knick-knacks that I feel inspired by. There are Lots of fall colors. I have candles, I have little birds, and just a bunch of woodsy things that feel like home. I live in the woods, so it's home sweet home.

It sounds like nature is a huge part of everything. 

Oh yeah. I’ve been trying to get more into my family history. We’re very Irish, and way, way back in our line there were Irish pagans, before we converted to Christianity. I want to connect more with that, because witches, ghosts, and stories like that are a big part of my art. I like knowing the history behind my family, our heritage, our lineage, and just the whole scope of the idea of witchcraft, how we got the idea of witchcraft, and what it actually is within the different religions and societies.

What are your plans after college?

Any time someone asks me this, I always say that I just want to be able to live in the woods completely off of my art. That’s my ideal future. But, realistically, I’ll hopefully get a desk job doing designs. I did at one point apply for some teaching jobs. I wanted to teach at IAD for a bit, but they’re currently not taking anyone. I’m also thinking of doing some small freelance work, and I hope that eventually that will be my go-to, but my main goal is just to be able to live at home, do art, and maybe go into a job once a week.

I think college was such a good experience for me. If we compared my art coming into college to my art now, it’s like night and day. I always hate that I feel almost conceited when I say it, but I always tell my friends that I’m the one that’s grown the most out of our group.

It seems like you’ve spent a lot of time branching out and trying new things. 

It's definitely been a ride, trying to figure things out. It's always been there in bits and pieces, and I've finally put it all together in a way that makes sense for me. I have a basement full of art that I did when I was in high school, where I did a little bit of everything, because that was what you did in high school art classes, you did everything. I have a bunch of old ink drawings because ink was always something I loved. I was always good at drawing but not so much painting, which is something I wanted to explore more coming in. I still haven’t as much, but I paint from time to time for me, just as a fun thing to do.

Do you have any advice for people coming into college? Especially for someone who has a similar situation to you.

I never knew what I wanted to do until I was a senior in high school and decided that I wanted to pursue art. If people don’t know what they want to do, they’ll often return to their hobbies. So we see a lot of freshmen come into art school being like, “I really didn’t know what I wanted to do, but I like art, so I decided to do that,” and then they drop out within a month. One piece of advice I would give is to never just go into college without knowing if you actually want to go. You’re not going to be any worse off because you didn’t go to college, because let’s be honest, we don’t need college anymore. But I know personally, without this college, my art wouldn’t be as advanced as it is

I would also say that when you do come into art school, you need to have the hunger to grow. You have to want to get better and do better, or else you stagnate. You stay in the same place you came in. I see people still that are in the same place as they were when they were freshman, because they didn’t have that same drive that a lot of other people do. But, it’s a burnout job. You’re constantly burning yourself out creatively, emotionally, mentally.

If I’m having art block, I go for a walk in the woods. Or I hang out with my friends and see what they’re working on. It’s always good to see what other people are working on.

It wasn’t until I was talking with another artist that I am very inspired by, and she told me, “you know, you just have to go back to what you love.” I thought, it can’t be that simple though! But it really is. You have to be able to just take a seat and re-pace yourself. Why do you like doing what you do? What inspires you? Just do that. 

I understand having that burnout. But you just have to keep pushing through it and try, because it really is worth it in the end. This all was worth it.