I wish I could tell you I developed this approach to make some quick cash because “story” is trendy. But the opposite is true – this is lifelong, devotional work for me.

I’ve been writing poetry, essays, and stories since I could hold a pen to paper, used to lock myself in a room to draft scenes with colored pencils, and have always loved the stage (even when the stage was a cute brick ledge in front of my mom’s fireplace).

All I needed was a blank piece of paper or a microphone prop and I was happy.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, I ended up attending a specialized arts high school (*cue the theme song from Fame*) and won the senior art award for mixed media, despite being highly sensitive and missing 30% of my senior year thanks to massive anxiety. Still, my nerdy obsession with art history developed into an even nerdier infatuation with drama, comedy, and the classics, followed by an incessant drive to become a visual storyteller in all of my work.