DLANOR
“once I entered high school I started refining my original character I call sage. Sage is basically a combination of all my interest, they are who I want to be , they are the person I think of when I’m imagining all the things I can’t do in real life ! But now anime is a huge inspiration for me so when I see a character I’m really into my first instinct is to draw them, so in a way I’m reliving my childhood with drawing characters. But for the future I’m thinking of ways to insert my original character into my interest in anime.
“Fashion was what really solidified sage especially through highschool since that was something that I studied. During that time I was obsessed with primarily drag and supermodels so those were the main influences with sage. But now I value androgyny and try to take more anime influences when it comes to sage but I’m still in the developmental stages of figuring that out. Since time has gone by it’s only normal that my inspirations change and with that my art evolves. But the one thing about sage that always stays the same is that they are always a visual representation of what I wanna become. I view them as a doll most of the time, someone I can dress up or make them do things that I wouldn’t be able to in my life.”
“I really enjoy using organic shapes when designing to create illusions with the silhouette, I also enjoy experimenting with the idea of 3D printed garments since it’s something I think is gonna become way more prominent with us in the future.”
“I think of the 3D printing idea more of like how soldiers wore armor while it being in the body is more of a print in the fabric.”
“I really like how the patterns are like optical illusions and how they mess with the eye. The fun part about designing with them is picking and choosing where to have this illusion on the body. When I started realizing more about myself, illusions kinda become a metaphor of the effect I hope to have on people in the future. Illusions are confusing but also captivating at the same time, they play tricks on people’s eyes and I think all of those things are so cool. I wish to have that same effect on people when they see my appearance but until I’m able to do that I find closure in doing it with my art.”
“I feel like in my imaginative world I’d be some type of Chameleon or shape shifter. I’d wanna be visually my perfect interpretation of androgyny which is something I think isn’t as linear as it seems, to me it’s something that often changes”
“I feel like social media is like a double edged sword when it comes to creatives posting. Like on one hand it’s a great way to get art seen my a bunch of ppl that’ll appreciate it and that drives people to creating more big on the other hand it can lead to a lot of unnecessary anxiety and stress since likes and views can make you feel like your art isn’t good enough or your not working hard enough.”
“Well since I was little I always knew I was a little different and I think every queer kid had that feeling growing up but the way they react is very different from each other. For me it caused me to try to be noticed as little as possible. I think subconsciously I knew that I didn’t want to give up the things I loved like dolls and drawing and stuffed animals which were seen as inherently feminine so I decided to take a approach that wouldn’t get me noticed for these things. Growing older it was hard to break out of that habit it kinda felt like I was a mouse but once I got to high school and met other ppl like me there wasn’t a reason for me to be a mouse anymore. But after my first semester of college I started thinking more about my identity since non binary people were everywhere in media during that time even in the animes i watched so that’s what drove me to the conclusions about my identity”