Faulkner recites to me the mantra that inspired this series: “There’s still weight in the weightless, no need to wait for the waitless, there’s still fate for the fateless, there’s no taste in the tasteless, if there’s anything to face, face this.” He explains this mantra at length, relating the first phrase to the work above to the far left. Faulkner goes on to explain the importance of including love, compassion, and sensitivity in his art. “I’m a very sensitive person,” he explains, “very understanding of my emotions. That’s one of my defining traits as an artist, being an open book for the world.”

Faulkner then gave me some insight into what his life has been like the past couple of years. After having a great personal and artistic year in most of 2019, he fell into psychosis toward the year’s end. ‘It was a wild experience,” Faulkner tells me, “I was in and out of the hospital a lot…The same day I got released from the facility in North Carolina, my mom picked me up and we headed straight to Florida. I missed my friends all the time, I couldn’t do much or go out much because my whole perception of reality was off.” He explains that it took most of 2020 to get himself back into a creative zone, but he’s now feeling good about himself and his art again.

 “I always feel like there’s something I should be doing. Right now it’s a balance between school and art, and finding time to get into that [art] zone,” he says. Lately, he’s been doing a lot of drawings of popular characters, a lot from Anime. Faulkner is also exploring a more “painterly” style of digital work. “I try not to undo a lot, I try to just be more careful with my strokes and treat it as if it were a painting because at some point I gotta learn how to paint.” A couple of these more painting-esque works can be seen below.