Abstract
A story of two captives caught in a dystopian city and how they fight for freedom. Sorensai our main protagonist is caught in between the grasp of his father’s clutches and being a part of the industry’s “entertainment”. He has tried to escape many times all to end in failure, slowly breaking down his will and leaving him to accept his fate of death within the city. Shakai,our second protagonist is heir to the city after his father passes, in the meantime he is taught to act and think just the way his father does. Shakai grows a disdain towards his father and how he treats the people of the city, but finds himself to be very weak against his father’s power and actions. Leaving him no choice but to obey and go with the flow. These two protagonists are held against their will by their father’s own ambitions and power, through a chance encounter at a party, they meet one another. Through this meeting they form a bond together that begins as a friendship and later evolves into a codependency with feelings of attraction and conflict. The two harbor one another and shoulder each other’s hardships, only to come together to form a master plan of escaping this city one day. But, will their bond for one another be strong enough? Or, will their father’s get in the way and get rid of them for good?
Artist Statement
Riley Clark is a Portland-based artist who studied at Pacific Northwest College of Art. He enjoys creating dark yet cute illustrations that play with the push and pull of neon colors. Many of them can be defined as, “Lisa Frank, but make it Goth”, with their bold colors and lines that resemble make-believe creatures with bodies of rabbits or cats. He also enjoys creating artwork on the other side of the spectrum that contains heavy ink work and dark colors with melancholy emotions and darker subject matter, usually used for his storytelling in his comics and manga.
Riley first took a passion for art through some of his favorite children's books, such as “The Little Mouse, the Red Ripe Strawberry, and the Big Hungry Bear”, “Is Your Mama a Llama?”, and “The Velveteen Rabbit”. Through these books, Riley was inspired to replicate detailed creations about animals and their experiences through life and their personal turmoils. Personifying animals with very human interactions and experiences have given Riley new ways to view the world around him and how everything can be connected to another, even through life or death. Through his detailed creatures with intricate backgrounds of life and experiences, he wishes to share the truth of emotions with no barriers. Using the materials of watercolor, ink, and digital Riley hopes to print these ideas out in the physical formats of his own Children's books and Manga.
