Dear SafetyWing,

I was asked to link to a piece of content or artwork that I am particularly proud of. Here are two submissions: one commercial, one artistic, that represent the two sides of my talent pool.

It would be great if you had a look at both!

I. Content

In my work as a Creative & Marketing Director at Émai, I combine my skills in photography, storytelling, copywriting, and marketing in order to create the ads that have contributed to making Émai into one of the most famous restaurants in the area, now known and loved by myriad influencers, families and couples who trust in us to provide our signature, breathtakingly beautiful dining experience. My Facebook ad sets often perform very well. I am displaying the one below as it is my latest work, though it has not been launched yet; I am happy to provide links to past ad sets if you’d like.

II. Artwork

Forests of Siberia

Graphite on Paper, 11" X 8.5", 2016

I am particularly proud of this artwork because it is one of the most emotive pieces I have created, as well as one of the most technically proficient (often mistaken as a photograph.) It was inspired by a story of a 3-year-old child, Karina Chikitova, who got lost in the forests of Siberia for 11 days. It was only when her puppy came back home and led her family to her location that she was found and saved. She did not want to speak of the time she spent in the wilderness, except to disclose that she had survived by eating wild berries and drinking river water. The reason I felt moved to make this drawing of her was because of the bottomless mystique I felt looking into her eyes. What did she go through? What were the narratives and thoughts moving through her mind, as a 3-year-old child only beginning to develop her faculties for language and symbolism? Would this experience have changed her as a person? Her piercing eyes tell a story that will never be told, speaking to the inherent and ineffable mystery of each human life and human existence at large. We are, in the end, unknowable creatures, with unknowable stories, strung together by experiences too large to ever be able to talk about.

This piece therefore stands as my study on portraiture and both the fragility and resilience of human beings. It loosely represents a departure in my artistic direction from conceptual art to fine art, from intellectual symbolism to the power behind the pure expression of emotion, of music, poetry, and philosophy in visual format.