Issue I: The Looking Glass

Gallery of Photography & Artwork- Jonathan Dier/Jannes Erasmus/August M./Erika Lynet Salvador/Kalli Amelya/Ellianna.

Jannes Erasmus, Look At Me, 2023. Photograph.

About the Contributors:

Jannes Erasmus is a photographer/artist located in Big Bend, Swaziland, Southern Africa. He has had no prior publications, but his inspiration for his pieces comes from African nature and music.

Jonathan is a 16-year-old high school student from Ventura County, California. He enjoys sketching, drawing, painting, and musical arts. For this piece, named “Bubble Girl”, he was inspired by the vibrant colors of exotic fish and the vibrancy of ocean life.

Erika, an 18-year-old native of the Philippines, is an incoming college student in the USA. While currently in a gap year, she has veered away from STEM fields and has fully engaged herself in artistic endeavors, including writing, painting, and graphic design. Because of this, she is contemplating whether to continue with her initial plan of pursuing a major in Mathematics.

Ellianna is 14 years old and a high schooler, located in New York. She has a passion for art and literature. She plays piano and loves to play for family and friends. She has a love for reading as well as a love for anything student-made!

August is an aspiring author and illustrator. His work has been published in *Celebrating Art* with high merit. They have written and self-published several zines which they sell locally. She is especially interested in comics and sequential art. He is endlessly inspired by the Midwestern and Appalachian culture he grew up in, as well as queer identity, religion, and the places those identities overlap. More of their work can be found through their Instagram, @ches_in_wonderland.

Kalli Amelya is a Somali-Cambodian artist based in Ottawa. Currently studying at the University of Ottawa for her BFA, she uses painting, photography, and drawing to explore themes of identity and the notion of bodily memory. She finds inspiration through the banalities of life and the subconscious. These are often expressed through a synthesis of abstraction and portraiture.