I am a digital illustrator and love to design characters but I'm multimedia. Painting, drawing, printmaking, and even ceramics helped me grow as an artist and make me a better designer. I gravitate toward digital illustration because I find the most malleable and experimental of all the mediums. You can push and pull the pixels as if a lump of clay or wet paint and in doing so, discover. But there is nothing like stepping away from the screen and just making with your hands.

Everywhere. Walks through my city, a brick wall, I've even seen characters in the shadows of my popcorn ceiling. I also find its important to study the masters and the designers who came before. But I have found the greatest source of inspiration are my peers and the students I mentor at NDSU School of Design. Watching the evolution, the process, the ideas, and the community drives me to create and keeps me far from any creative burnout so to them I say thank you.

If I was to win the $25,000 I would put some toward my student loan debt, some toward my savings, but without a doubt I would travel a little bit and invest in continuing education. I don't have the desire to go to grad school but learning from other artists is the only way to grow, learning never stops.