From my sophomore storyboarding class at CCS and set in later chapters of Spell of the South.

Dora, now performing under the stage name Cathrine, has risen to fame by giving everything to her career and keeping fiercely private, until a man who loves her presses closer than she permits. The scene opens at her dressing table with the first words of the exchange — ‘You don’t know’ — her guarded expression carried in the mirror.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

The shot holds as the line completes: ‘…anything about me.’ Repeating the composition with only small shifts slows the pacing and keeps the tension in her stillness.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

The suitor appears in the mirror behind her as she turns — the reveal staged entirely in the reflection, her emotion breaking the held frame: ‘You’ve known me only three weeks.’

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

Cut to the reverse angle — a close-up on him as he answers, ‘Three weeks? Cathrine,’ — shifting the scene’s weight to his point of view for the first time.

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

The closing two-shot: he sits beside her and reaches out while her crossed arms and turned body hold him off — blocking that carries the emotional stakes as he says, ‘I’ve known you my whole life.’

College for Creative Studies – 2025/26

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.

Featured in the May 2026 Student Exhibition at the College for Creative Studies

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

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

Shrine High School Art – 2023/24

From my senior year at Shrine High School. An early expression exploration across three facets of Jade — confident with glowing gold marks at her forehead and eyes, concerned, and playful in a jester costume.

Shrine High School Art – 2023/24

From my senior year at Shrine High School. A lineup of five original characters in different stances against a green background — an early character lineup, exploring silhouette variation and design consistency across a cast.

See my most developed character work, Dora, under Drawings, Storyboards, and Short Stories.

Shrine High School Art – 2023/24

From my senior year at Shrine High School. A character-in-context study mapping Lynx across multiple settings — heroic, civilian, and professional. An early exploration of visual consistency across contexts, including a Spider-Man-inspired bodysuit, a fashion designer look, street clothes, and a close-up.

Shrine High School Art – 2023/24