Meet Dorathy Anne Carver — better known as Dora — the young protagonist of my original short story Spell of the South. The story unfolds in 1913 in the fictional town of Roadsway, Kentucky — a small, majority-Black community where Dora’s father pastors the church. In the wider world, the Great Migration is reshaping the South, jazz is rising in the cities, and Louisville pulls at small-town imaginations like a magnet. Dora is a talented singer with second sight — a gift her father fears comes from the devil — and she longs for the wider world beyond Roadsway. She’s the first character I’ve developed end-to-end from my own writing into illustration.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

From the Spell of the South storyworld. A demon holds a woman’s face as she grips a cross, apples and a human heart stacked beside her — drawing on the African American folklore of striking a deal with the devil at the crossroads.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

December 22, 1913

Dear Auntie Eula, Uncle Benny, and Cousin Joy,

I hope this letter finds you in good health and safety, as I have sent this letter on the day of your departure in hopes it might meet you as you arrive.

Miss Annie May at school is helping me write this, she seems quite pleased that I’ve taken an interest in my studies. She’s a tall lady, stern, but smart. Momma says I should be grateful for her, seeing as it’s hard to find a teacher as good as her outside the city, but she really just seems like a know it all. The other students at school say she’s “thin and tall as a willow” and I guess I’d agree. She towers over nearly all the other teachers at school. What’s school like for you, Joy? I’m sure you’re fitting right in,  you were

A figure painting from a freshman drawing class at CCS, based on a live model. I worked the study in blue and green hues to explore how color carries mood.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

A vivid pencil drawing from my freshman drawing class at CCS. The apothecary interior features a wood-grain table, fluid-filled bottles, book-lined shelves, a pinned corkboard, and a window seat where sunlight flows through sheer curtains.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

The cover of my Wonderland card series from my freshman year at CCS. The composition layers Alice and a rabbit, a woman holding a baby pig, a large keyhole, and bottles into one scene — a tableau of iconic Wonderland imagery.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

The White Queen, from my Wonderland series. Two portraits mirror each other in playing-card layout — long white hair with a transparent crow on her arm, and a shorter curly bob — exploring two facets of the same character.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

The Red Queen, from my Wonderland series. Two portraits mirror each other in playing-card layout, both holding a transparent heart — one laughing, one serious — capturing two emotional sides of the same character.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

The trickster card from my Wonderland series. Two foxes face each other in playing-card layout — one in plain form, the other costumed as the White Rabbit — a wink at identity and disguise.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

The Caterpillar, from my Wonderland series. A hybrid figure — man’s face, white hair, red eyes, transparent wings — smokes quietly, holding the unsettling stillness of transformation.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

From my freshman year at CCS. A gold-eyed figure holds their hair beside a stacked column of botanical and insect forms drawn from Asian languages and imagery — a piece rooted in my early childhood in Singapore.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

From my freshman year at CCS. A bustling scene from an alternative magical universe, where characters with glowing features trade potions, dried goods, and boxes of fruit — a study in composition and the small stories inside a crowd.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

From my freshman year at CCS. A woman in a space suit drifts unconscious against a bright yellow starburst — white hair, yellow eyes, a moment suspended between stillness and explosion.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

From my freshman drawing class at CCS. A still life of a water-filled bottle, a skull, and a crow on draped stands — gray pencil throughout, with red outlines on each subject pulling them forward from the page.

College for Creative Studies – 2024/25

From my senior year at Shrine High School. A figure rests on blue fabric, one hand over the left eye, hair glowing gold like tendrils — a piece exploring concealment and inner light.

Shrine High School Art – 2023/24

From my senior year at Shrine High School. An insect-faced humanoid holds a low crouch — left hand on the ground, right hand raised — a study in tension and the moment before motion.

Shrine High School Art – 2023/24

From my senior year at Shrine High School. Three gray-toned views of a winged humanoid with pointed ears, posed against three yellow rectangles — an early character study working through silhouette and presence.

Shrine High School Art – 2023/24

From my senior year at Shrine High School. Inside a sunlit clock tower hung with chains, a hooded elder meets a troubled young girl in a NASA shirt — the modern shirt anchors a scene that otherwise sits outside of time.

Shrine High School Art – 2023/24