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I read that you\u2019re self-taught. What was your route to becoming an artist? Did you have a creative childhood? And was there a moment that made you realise you might want to be an artist?\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n
As corny as it is to say, I feel like art found me. I was a very flamboyant, queer and animated child. I didn’t have many friends, and I began drawing imaginary characters at a very young age for solace and companionship. I was always inspired by things that were out of my reach. I grew up in a small rural town in central Florida, but was always fascinated by the luminescence and luxury of the \u2018golden era\u2019 of hip-hop and R&B, so I would be inspired by music videos, magazine spreads and CD covers. Growing up with TV shows like <\/span>Proud Family<\/span><\/i>, <\/span>Little Bill<\/span><\/i> and <\/span>Static Shock<\/span><\/i>, I always knew I wanted to create cartoons. But I was interested in making specifically black-queer cartoons, to fill the void of representation in the cartoon world. <\/span><\/p>\n I feel like art found me<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Part of your very multifaceted output is comics, which are arguably the visual mode most connected to storytelling. I wanted to ask how important narrative is to you?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Comics to me are just analog animations, storyboards as people call them. Through storyboarding, I get to combine my love for drawing and documenting by building a narrative. This narrative-building connects me back to the child version of myself who wasn’t always happy with their real surroundings, so decided to create their own ideal surroundings. Some call it escapism, but I don’t know, I like to think this all ends up becoming a roadmap to manifestation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In another interview you said, \u201cThroughout the history of cartoons we\u2019ve seen Black characters be depicted either negatively or as the minority of the cast. I\u2019m working diligently to change that.\u201d Do you think of your work as political?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n Well, that depends \u2013 how do you define political? I\u2019ve come to learn that people from different classes, races, backgrounds, and privileges all have different meanings of the word political. For me, as a bigger-bodied Black-trans person, I don\u2019t really see how anything I create can not be political. My identity (whether I want it to be or not) is at the intersection of THE most marginalised communities across the global human race.<\/span><\/p>\n You have a very distinctive aesthetic \u2013 how did you know you\u2019d arrived at your \u2018signature style\u2019?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n All of my cartoon characters are Black. Therefore our skin glows in ways that read as both iridescent and cartoonish. Growing up I struggled to understand the beauty of having dark skin. I was often told I was \u2018too sweaty\u2019 or \u2018too oily,\u2019 and as a result I avoided sun or any form of perspiration to prevent looking \u2018too shiny\u2019. But, illuminating my characters in this way helped me accept the beauty and power in melanated skin. It\u2019s a sentiment that carries through in all of my work: Taking something painful, and transmuting it into something iridescent.<\/span><\/p>\n I\u2019m really interested in how community comes into your work. You\u2019ve described the characters in your images as \u2018fan art\u2019 of your friends, and you\u2019ve worked with artists like Kelsey Lu. For you, how important is it to be part of an artistic community?\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/everpress.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/11\/terrel-5-1.jpg\")
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