Enter the Dream
SAMSARA
An animated art book about death, surrender, and rebirth.
RAW Artists Detroit / St. Andrews Hall / 2019
Animation / Poster Design / Book Design / Exhibition Work
Samsara is a personal animated art book, poster series, and exhibition project created for the RAW Artists Detroit showcase at St. Andrews Hall in 2019.
The project explores the cycle of death and rebirth through surreal collage, motion, typography, and spiritual symbolism. Originally envisioned in a dream, Samsara became a visual story about transformation: the first desire to change, the fear of destruction, the need to surrender, and the transition into a new life.
Role
Animation, Art Direction, Poster Design, Book Design, Exhibition Work
Year
2019
Show
RAW Artists Detroit Showcase, St. Andrews Hall
Format
Printed book, animated images, posters, live showcase
RAW Artists Detroit $420 raised
I was selected by the RAW Artists team to be part of their Detroit showcase at St. Andrews Hall. One requirement of the showcase was selling 20 tickets to participate, which became its own challenge as the event approached.
To close the gap, I created a Facebook event and fundraiser for the art show. My goal was to raise $400 for the remaining ticket sales. My network showed up, and I exceeded the goal by raising $420.
Chapter 01: Destruction / Daring Escape
This opening sequence frames destruction as the beginning of transformation. The surreal city, cliff, moon, and ocean create a world that feels unstable, beautiful, and dangerous. It asks whether the viewer is willing to lose the old self in order to become something new.
Chapter 02: Astral Palace
Astral Palace represents fragmentation and overstimulation. The red tunnel becomes a psychological space: part portal, part warning signal, part internal maze. It marks the point where the outside world becomes too loud and the self begins to split inward.
found myself inbetween losing who I was and holding on to who I am to become
Chapter 03: Eternal Surrender
This chapter is about release. The reaching hands and circular portal visualize the tension between holding on and letting go. The mirrored portraits push that idea further, showing the self split apart, dissolved, and rebuilt through surrender.
“The path of surrender was the only way to dissolve my ego.”
Chapter 04: Head Space
Head Space slows the project down. The palette becomes softer, the figure becomes smaller, and the environment becomes fog-like and internal. This chapter visualizes the mental space between who I was and who I was becoming.
Pastel fog, repeated silhouettes, and floating architecture create a dream-state between confusion and calm.
Chapter 05: Phoenix Rising
Phoenix Rising is the turn. After destruction and surrender, the project shifts toward resurrection. The phoenix becomes a symbol of survival, spiritual awakening, and the ability to rebuild from what burned away.
“Because you, like a phoenix, know how to rise and resurrect.”
Chapter 06: Nutopia / Arrival
Nutopia closes the sequence as an imagined arrival point. It is not a perfect world. It is the first glimpse of a new internal landscape after destruction, surrender, and rebirth.
The Visual Language
Samsara uses collage as a way to build impossible emotional spaces. Architecture, bodies, portals, landscapes, and symbols are combined into dream environments that feel both internal and cosmic. Motion extends those images, while typography gives the work a voice.
Collage
Surreal environments built from layered architecture, landscapes, bodies, portals, and spiritual symbols.
Motion
Animated stills that pulse, drift, rotate, dissolve, and shift between states.
Typography
Compressed, stretched, fragmented, and cinematic type used as emotional narration.
Share This Story
Personal work as a complete system
Samsara matters because it shows a side of my practice that exists beyond client work. It is emotional, symbolic, animated, printed, exhibited, and self-promoted. The project gave me space to build a world from memory, dreams, fear, surrender, and rebirth, then share that world with a live audience.
This is the kind of work I enjoy making: narrative-driven, surreal, personal, and immersive.
