 Well, growing up, I grew up in a very creative household. My mother was a dancer, and my father was a musician. And I always took art in high school and elementary school. I loved art. But when I graduated from high school, I was very drawn to anthropology. And I decided to attend the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada and study anthropology there. But within my first year, I realized that there was this major hole in my life because I didn't have any creative outlet. So I started taking visual arts classes at University of British Columbia. And the increased university level of art, I realized that art is really the best way of communicating my ideas and my passions. And while I have a very large fondness for anthropology, I realized that art is really truly what it is for me because I think there's no better way to communicate what you think about the world and what you think needs to change. I'm very able to develop my ideas intellectually, but I still have a lot of work to do with developing my craft. And I think visual arts schools really fully integrate you into the visual arts world. And I think that also, living within a visual arts community, I'm able to see the artists around me and be inspired by those people who are making great art around me. So I think new media is one of the most exciting media out there right now. It basically means anything that is on the computer that isn't graphic design. I think it's the possibilities of new media are absolutely endless. And when I came into Mecca, I decided that new media was what I wanted to focus in. And I became more excited about it because I learned about this interactive component. The viewer can interact with the media and determine the result of the art because of how they interact. So I found gaming a really exciting platform to develop conceptual ideas because it's such a give and take relationship. So I've broadened my interest to interactive media in general, as well as video and digital photo manipulation and everything like that. I often say that I am a thinker, not a maker, which is very different than a lot of people here because I'm very conceptually driven. So for me to make a piece of work, I decide on the concept and I do a lot of writing and mind maps and flow charts and everything like that. And then I try to figure out how that I can conceptually present this, present what I'm trying to say. I think what's important is to learn how to present what I'm trying to say, but without being leading, but definitely fully embodying my concept. For me, my art is very political. I focused on feminist issues, particularly I'm looking at the gender binary and wishing to debunk that gender binary myth, as well as the sex binary myth. So I think it is important that my idea does correctly translate. That's why I'm in art school. I need to learn the best ways to correctly translate my concept. And I think my concept is definitely the most important thing about my art. But I think that being said, that what makes art powerful is when it's universal. So I want every viewer to understand what I'm saying, but to take it on with their own experience and have it directly affect their daily life. Displaying new media is particularly difficult because, for example, displaying an interactive game is not as simple as painting on the wall. It can be just setting up a computer, but then you have to figure out how to set up the computer so that people aren't going to open up a different window, or you have to figure out how to display it nicely. And it really is a lot of problem-solving. I'm very used to looking at the social world around me and applying a critical lens and questioning our assumptions and the stereotypical values that we operate within. So that is a lot of my inspiration. From daily interactions, I have, to my friends' daily interactions, two things I read about in the news. And also just having discussions with amazing professors like George LaRue and Elizabeth Jabar about the concept of the world around us and really just, they help a lot to expand my idea. So discussion also brings a lot of exciting results to my work. I think I would like my art to grow by becoming more sound conceptually. I really want to have each piece speak to a very specific incident in theme. I want it to be broad and have layers, but I also want to be able to really funnel focus. I also think, because I'm in new media, technology is a really important way for my art to grow. Right now I have a very basic level of understanding of all the software I am working within, but I'd really like to grow it and learn very more complex interactive possibilities.