I was not a cute kid. This is a safe space to admit I was downright ugly, and not in a cute way. I was decidedly odd, other, a changeling.

Any clothing I tolerated on my skin was selected for maximum cartwheel stretch or maximum artistic expression, I spent hours cleaning horse manure and hunched over a computer making horse art, horse websites, and cashing in on those Neopets points. Like any insecure young artist, I felt my work was never worth sharing, and kept it hidden in the dark far too long. I dropped out of fine art school, went into corporate sales, and travelled a path that didn't leave much room for creative expression. Somewhere along the line, I found a mentor, and lost her. Maybe one day I'll write about it.

Abandoning one's inner artist might be fine for a neurotypical person, but it was also a road to abandoning my inner child; ultimately, the art eventually erupted out of me all at once after a decade of being walled away. I wanted so badly to let my art be seen, have it reach others and help them be seen the way my favourite works have done for me.