Toxic Cherries

This was a project I made during my senior year at Northern Michigan University. As a part of the curriculum, all art students had to participate and complete the Senior Exhibition course. This was like our thesis project before graduation. Each student had a full semester to work on and create an original piece, that would then be showcased in the art museum on campus. Unfortunately, I was a part of the course during the height of covid, so we were unable to have the annual in person art show, but I still value that time and I learned a lot. 

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I decided to create something that I have always wanted to try! I wrote & illustrated an original graphic novel. I used Adobe Illustrator for all the illustrations, & Adobe Indesign for the written pages. For my senior thesis piece, it was important to me to go outside of my comfort zone and do something that I have never attempted before. 

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Growing up I always loved to write fictional stories and draw, but I never married the two before. At the end of this project I felt that things had come full circle and I finally was able to bring two of my passions together as one. 

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The story itself, is about a group of women who just graduated college and each of them go through a period of self struggle and self discovery. One of the women gets a crazy idea that she thinks will solve all of their problems, which is to turn their friend group into a roller derby team. After some arm twisting and motivational speaking, she convinces the whole group. They start training and playing like mad, and each of them discover something about themselves that they didn't know they had in them. I wanted this story to be relatable, but also fun and silly! Roller derby is such an underrated sport and they do not get enough credit, so this was my way of paying homage to the ladies of this badass sport!

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