What is your favorite type of art to create?

Abstracts and Zentangles. I love drawing all the different designs and seeing what other people see in my artwork. I also love using bold colors that pop against black backgrounds. I enjoy doing big sweeps of colors and blending them together. I even draw people in an animated style, even anime characters and combining them with the zentangle as part of them.

Where do you find inspiration?

My emotions. Whatever I’m feeling at a particular moment or what music I’m listening too, that helps to shape where my painting goes, what colors I use and how it looks to me. I also look at everything around me, from a paint splat on the sidewalk, to the color of the sky, to foam in the bathtub. All these different shapes and colors inspire what I put on paper or canvas. My biggest inspiration is stories. From anime or anywhere, I see the picture in my head and try to get them out.

What would you do with $25,000?

I would create a book of my best art with short stories and poems that talk about each piece. I would also buy a house with a garage to make my art studio so I could paint freely without limits or worry about the mess. Finally I would put some away for my future and treat my mother to something special. She’s been my biggest supporter and I want to show her how grateful I am for believing in me.