I am passionate about being an illustrator, and love the fact that I can enjoy using different mediums. Being an illustrator opens up opportunity to explore diversity in my artwork and to learn techniques at a professional degree. With that being said, I  produced three common themes in my work that explore new challenges in my style, and encourage myself to be adventurous.

The first theme is called “Life”. These are watercolors that are of reference to Dementia. The few types of work, “Child” and “Dreams of Romance”, and “Love of a Companion”, represents who they were at a point in their life. Dementia is a non-reversible disease that is caused by Alzheimer’s. With growing old, 1 in 10 people over 65 will have this disease. This affects so many lives. Families suffer both physical and emotional stress when dealing with a loved one that has Alzheimer’s. The day-to-day caring can take over someone’s life, and often families do not know what to expect. There is seemingly little reward for their efforts as sufferer of this disease are unaware of what is happening. There is grief associated with the loss of the person they know and in many cases, guilt. I wanted to focus on the elderly who have this disease and what must be going through their mind as the disease progresses.

The second theme in my work is called “Different Faith”. With  these sets of illustrations, I wanted to paint something that is universal to us all. A component that is universal is religion. I wanted to paint the major religions in the world, which is Catholicism, Judaism, Islamic/Muslim, and Buddhism/Hinduism.  According to David Barrett et al 2001, based on the population of the word, 33% are Christians, 21% are Islamic/Muslim, and 20% are Hinduism. I also wanted to depict a “figure” that is common around the world, and my first thought was an animal. The animal I chose was rabbit.

            The third theme in my work is “Animals throughout history”. History is an important feature for an artist, because it helps with understanding mediums, learn about great artists, learn about techniques and the methods adopted to preserve art items, culture and traditions, and concepts. History shows the level of human understanding, which reveal how people and societies have actually functioned, and their thoughts about the human experience in other times and places. History is important, because without knowing the past, a person can’t move into the future. Animals behave in ways peculiar to their own identity, and their independent actions impact human history (Kalof & Resl, 2007). For this I chose these illustrations that have a humorous animal quality about certain time periods in history.

            Art has helped me get in touch with what I love, become more patient, flexible, diverse, and adventurous, and connect things in the world.  Being an illustration artist helps me have a broader perspective on life and pay close attention to detail.