My name’s Alanka.
I have a huge obsession with Taokaka. She’s a cat/human character in an Anime based Japanese video fighting game called Blaze Blue. She’s the only thing I know how to draw really well.
Alanka’s lifelong interest in Anime has led her to pursue a degree in illustration at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design. She will be graduating high school in two years.
Hi, My name’s Sam.
I brought my hair, which is no longer attached to me.
I started growing it because I was into the heavy metal scene. I mean, if you don’t commit to having the long hair, then you’re not like metal enough. I had it for about ten years and I cut it a couple of years ago. It was down to my waist. It wasn’t a particular day when I decided to cut it off, I thought about it for months.
I just remember the funniest reaction I got was from my childhood friend, John, who when he saw me for the first time with short hair, didn’t say a damn thing. And I was like, you’re not going to say anything? He’s like – “I don’t know, I knew you before you even had the long hair so this just looks normal to me. So no big surprise, buddy!”
I kept the cut hair because it’s important for me to remember that everybody identified me by the long hair for basically as long as I had it—and I did as well. But when I felt ready to grow into somebody new I was sort of held back by it. So, when I cut it, It felt like a burden off, both figuratively and literally. That much hair weighs a lot!
It freed me up to grow into the person that I am today, to meet my wife and head on out to start a new life in California.
Bonjour, je m’appelle Anais.
I am 13 and I live in Paris. So, I make these creatures, I think just for fun and I have lots of them and they’re all different. From the point where I start thinking of a character, I kind of imagine it’s accessories. There is always something that will go with them. And generally, the accessory will define the creature’s character and body shape. I call this one Music. He’s an intelligent dragon. He likes rap, Eminem actually. Of course he likes to wiggle his tail and dance. I chose to make him orange, one of my most favorite colors. I will make art my whole life. I will work as an artist because I really don’t want to be in an office.
“Hi, my name is Doug and I want to talk about something and someone that changed my life.
My wife and I met in ninth grade. I was a troubled kid. It was back in the late ‘60’s and at the time I was hanging around with a bad crowd. I was 14 years old, selling drugs and the outlook for us at that time was pretty poor.
My girlfriend’s mother, who turned out to be my mother-in-law, and has since passed away, took me under her wing and showed me a different way of approaching life. We hear how people around you can influence the way and direction of your life. She did that. She just always took the time. It changed the way that I thought about myself and turned things into a positive light.
For me, this needlepoint captures the essence of basically who she was and the quality of time that she put into things.
In retrospect I see where my life has gone, taking me from someone who basically would have been a real loser in life to someone who can say, I’m proud of myself. I have accomplished a lot of things. I’m still married to her daughter and her father is still with us. We have a nice family.
All of this, pretty much, because of my mother-in-law who did this needlepoint.”