The town I live in has many interests, but something it lacks is a passion for art. It’s tough for artists to live in a place where they can’t express themselves very easily. Not nearly as many people care about the arts as they do in the big cities. I can’t necessarily socialize about my passion because very few people consider it interesting in this town. People are mostly interested in farming and sports.

When I draw, I am able to escape reality and the repeating routine of every day. It’s like living in a world I made up in my head, as if I can feel the prickled ground when I run barefoot through the great pine forests of my imagination. My back tenses up as I jump off a cliff and go into flight, and I can smell the salty ocean from where I stand on the shore. Sorrowfully, I realize that the multiple lives I live in my head are not like the one I experience in actuality. No one else can truly experience this great, indescribable feeling art gives me. People think art is just another painting on a wall, but I can explore the landscape within and meet the people and creatures that live there. I know I’m not the only one as authors, movie directors, and other artists know exactly how it feels to be in my situation. I draw to show people what I experience and help them experience it for themselves. Unfortunately, most people look at the work of art for five seconds and go on to the next as if nothing’s there. Either way, I can always visit my past worlds through the memories of my art.

My passion has advanced to the point where I have created worlds for characters and have produced stories behind them. The whole idea of creating characters and developing their anatomy and personalities really amuses me. I even have a little bit of an attachment to some of them since their emotionally scaring situations relate to mine. For every world I have, there is life living in it, and with every life comes a story. I hope that one day my worlds will show up on the big screen, but I honestly doubt it because there are so many people out there with the same goal. Plus, I’m all right with the possibility of just helping them out in filmmaking and animation.

Many people don’t know that an artist has to be smart and extremely observant. In order for something to really come to life on a piece of paper, I have to research and study life itself. I might even be considered a creepy person for studying others’ facial structures or causing awkward eye contact. If I want a character to be afraid of something, he or she needs to look afraid. Other people wouldn’t be able to sympathize with the character’s situation unless I draw it correctly. If I want a character to be of a different race, I need to study his or her culture, physical traits, and how he or she differs from other races. Even if I create something completely out of my head, I still need to create a bone structure and imagine how its body moves and develops or else it might as well be a disgusting blob smeared on the page.

When I see a blank piece of paper, my heart lifts, and I feel warmth in my chest. There’s so much joy in drawing, and it always finds a way to cheer me up. If I feel emotionally unstable and can’t get a grip, it’s like I can forget it all and live in a world inside my head where the problems of reality fade away into nothingness. I can just transfer the pain to the piece of paper with the simple scraping of pencil lead and floating eraser shavings.