Alexa Barco

I was born in Los Angeles California on October 21st, 1999. Drawing has always been a means for me to express my interests and visualize them how I wanted. From doodling dragons in elementary school to making super cool heroine characters in middleschool, my art was always pretty self-indulgent. Sword-wielding elves, winged warriors, rabbit magicians; I drew what I thought was cool and wanted to see more of, and I never gave it much thought beyond that. Eventually, after years of intense focus on art education and a lot of soul-searching, I realized how much my artwork spoke for my own experiences in ways I didn’t notice for a long time. The sword wielding elf struggled with expectations and did her best to be precise and strong, the winged warrior felt trapped even though she could touch the sky, and the rabbit magician was still comfortable being her bumbling-self in a world of more refined practices- all of these characters are pieces of me. It took me so long to realize that, and what’s interesting to me about it is how despite being set in fantasy, these stories always come back to my reality. I think that’s the greatest magic about art, to be able to breathe life into believable characters and narratives by making them a part of me.