2021 Senior Exhibition Artists 2021 Senior Exhibition Artists: Rain

Self portrait, 2021, digital illustration

2021 Senior Exhibition Artists

Rain

Art + Design: Illustration

About Rain

Rain is an Illustrator of all thing horror and fantasy alike. Raised in Burma, he was never one to be fully exposed to art. Coming from a family of anything but artists, Rain is working towards breaking the stigma that exists in the Asian community that making it as an artist is just impossible. Pairing with a catchphrase, “I do the art” he strides towards his goal of working for Wizards of The Coast as a Magic the Gathering artist one brushstroke at a time.

Statement

As someone who is improvement driven, I am always challenging myself and adapting to different challenges that each piece provides. “If I’m not remotely facing some sort of wall that I have to breakthrough, I’m not going to improve” is the mentality that I have developed entering my senior year. Channeling the horrible abyss that is my past, my art took a turn from a cheery lighthearted anime-inspired imagery to straight up horror and dark fantasy. I have always been interested in horror movies even though I could not handle them. There would be occasions when I would be painting a piece and scrapped it altogether since I was becoming more uneasy with each brushstroke. Horror has a certain power over the viewer and can stimulate their senses unknowingly, think about jumpscares for example, one would be teeming with anticipation and anxiety of when it might occur. The same way stillness with a touch of horror can invoke unease, I’m using my horror pieces to invoke the same feeling I had my entire life of unease onto the viewer. However, going from straight horror to tamer fantasy-inspired illustrations opened new breathing room in my mind and elevated me further in my pursuit of making my name known across this world as fantasy art is a form of escapism into a world that belongs to me without the nuisances that comes with the real world.