I’ve always been a fan of gentle renditions of the Grim Reaper. His scythe, like a shepherd’s cane to a lamb, reels people back to peace. I like the idea that, even if someone passes feeling like no one else in the world ever knew them, he would take a few moments to honor their existence before taking them away. In this hypernarrative, as the Reaper, you can find pieces of yourself in 23-year-old RJ Castillo's final moments and the memories stored within his childhood room.

"Unwell" begs the question: "At what point does a smile become a grimace?" At what point does over-emulation create inauthenticity? Hoping to create an uneasy experience for the viewer, this work synthesizes surreal art, AI generated faces and expressions, and pitch distortion. The faces and smiles seem real and authentic, until the computer effect goes too far and the characters lose their humanity. I wonder at what point our innocent explorations into AI will start to do the same.

My first ever p5.js sketch is inspired by my siblings' and my inability to pay attention at Sunday mass. Much to our parents disappointment, we were often like balloons: childish and hard to keep down. Though we got better at sitting still, we still find our minds wandering, our heads drooping, and our nostrils flaring in an attempt to communicate through morse code.