My favorite kind of art to create is maximal mixed media: layered visual worlds where image, animation, video, soundscape, and writing all become part of the same living organism. Most of my work comes with a written confidant — a piece of creative writing that gives the viewer a contextual spine, something to hold while the image begins speaking in its own strange language. I think of it as Optical Writing: artwork that can be read through feeling, memory, association, and attention before it.

Religion, fashion, women, history, mythology, dreams, and waking life. I’m inspired by stories, memory, science fiction, technology, philosophy, space, aliens, dystopian futures, and nostalgic pop culture. I was born into chaos, so I learned to find order inside it — turning intensity, obstacles, and strange beauty into art. Being able to wear my heart on my sleeve and create partly to expel negativity. My mood is inspiration.

Winning $25,000 would help my family breathe after years of survival mode following my dad’s death and the difficult circumstances that came before it. My life has often felt like a dark comedy: painful, surreal, sometimes absurd, but somehow still moving forward. I would use the money for basic stability first — the kind that gives a person room to think, heal, and builld and then invest in my creative future: better materials, projects, exhibitions, the kind of art that I’ve always created.