In 2014 I was discovering my thesis for my Master's project in illustration. Why art? What was the great story I wanted to share? Well, As I sat in my studio space at the time, I started sketching the trees in my backyard and the details of how much life was lived in them became more clear to me every day. The more I studied the trees, the more life I saw. And just being able to sit there and watch the birds and the squirrels and the stories they were telling, I could see the beauty in the familiar; the little details that make life beautiful, in the simplicity of the wildlife in my own backyard.

And through the squirrels, I found the profound truth that every one of us, though mundane and expected, has something beautiful to offer. And the more illustrations I did with the squirrels, the more joy I found myself bringing to others. The squirrels connect with people in a way that portraits cannot. It takes the identity of specificity that a human portrait isolates, and opens up the artwork to anyone who wants to connect to it. A squirrel is just that, a squirrel. A highly expressive, commonplace animal that everyone's seen or heard of ( although I recently learned that is not actually the case - there are some areas of the world that do not have any kind of squirrel, though quite rare it is.) and can often be categorized as a nuisance, or pest. We sometimes view each other this way, and I knew then that I wanted to use my squirrel art to show that perspective can change how we see the world. 

So here is a story about a common nuisance, contrasted against the beauty of lights and glowing sources of brilliance. By juxtaposing these two radically different sources of imagery, I hope to illuminate the reality that each and every one of us is unique, special, and have a light to offer to the world that can make the world a better place, no matter where you're at, and where you come from.