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Tell us a little bit about you and your background. My first introduction to art was watching Studio Ghibli movies with my family. My mom thought it was very important to keep my sister and I connected to our Japanese-American culture. I spent my childhood drawing my favorite Pokémon and characters from Cartoon Network or watching my mom work on her paintings. I loved to draw, but it wasn’t until I got to college that I realized I could have a career in digital art.  I immediately fell in love with animation in digital art, and COVID was the perfect time to hone my skills. I first attended Pace University for Art before transferring to UMass Dartmouth CVPA where I majored in Animation + Game Arts. I got to learn 2D and 3D art and animation specialized for gaming, and I really found my niche in background and prop design.…

Tell us a little bit about you and your background. I was born and raised on Long Island, and after high school, I moved to Orlando to study Computer Animation at Full Sail University, where I earned my Bachelor’s degree. I’ve been working in 3D animation for about eight years now, but art has been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. I drew constantly as a kid and spent years as a traditional artist before pivoting into digital and 3D work during college. Before joining One River, I was working full-time in management in Florida, but I returned to Long Island to spend more time working directly in the arts. I’ve now been with One River for about six months as a Director, and it’s been incredibly rewarding to combine my love for art with a leadership role that supports creativity in others. Outside…

Tell us a little bit about your journey as a young and developing artist. I started making art by learning from videos, but my grandma says she is the one who originally taught me. When I was young I would make art with her. She would always see me making these drawings and paintings, and said that they looked like the Mona Lisa! I have been making art ever since then. I live in Colombia, and I visit my aunt and uncle in the US over the summer, and come to make art at One River when I stay here! Which has been your favorite project to work on at One River and why? I really like the one I’m doing right now. It is from Street Art Galaxies. [For that project] I am doing my best friends’ cat if she was the sun. I think that sounds so weird,…