The greatest part about art is that it’s a universal language. People from all over the globe are drawn to the idea of creation, there is history of illustration, story, and dance from every culture that has ever existed. In the digital world we now live in, it has never been easier to be able to consume art and media from different cultures. Access and connection has even birthed innovation with people of various backgrounds coming together to create.

Creating universes in media means creating characters who have unique stories that make them feel real. To relate to the audience, a character must portray a realistic depiction of a person that resonates with the consumer. In Landlord Therapist I was tasked with a team to address a social issue. The issue my teams and I centered on was housing discrimination and the various communities it affects. Off the bat we have to include diversity in our narrative in order to accurately portray this issue.

In order to address housing discrimination we had to do tons of research and reflection from sources like articles to spoken word from peers. We specifically made it a point to make sure these characters felt real and relatable, and not like caricatures or stereotypes. Doing this work was honestly one of the most enjoyable experiences from this project, through this I was able to make connections and expand my knowledge beyond what I knew.

Because of my experiences both personally and in the world of art, diversity is something that I’ve committed to throughout my journey as an artist. Taking this into my personal work, illustrations such as Liminal and Happy Halloween depict my own original characters who are noticeably different in terms of ethnicity and skin tone. I’ve done so much work to undo implicit biases that come from the messaging from our society and the existing media that have done more harm than good to different communities, and I want to actively work to make sure I’m not contributing to that problem when I create.

When transitioning to a professional sphere, diversity is a strength that helps you better work with others and opens your horizons to a wider set of creative possibilities. Some companies see it as a selling tactic especially in the field of video games and animation, but it is so much more deeper than that. Diversity is the reason a kid like me saw myself doing art in the first place and the thought of me contributing to diversity in the art field is something that always inspires me to create.