It was during my Studio Art degree that I learned about the Portuguese artist Paula Rego, which changed my life and the entire way I approach creativity. Paula Rego would physically create the scenes she wanted to draw, sometimes going as far as to build props and costumes from scratch. Why was this so pivotal for me? Well, that would take me some time to discover. Sometime while I was majoring in graphic design that I did finally discover what it’s called: Aphantasia, a disability with which people are unable to visualize things in their mind. It took me until that moment to realize that the massive struggle I had creating sketches wasn’t my fault, but rather because I have nothing to sketch off of. With this discovery came frustration but also relief, because finally I knew what was wrong, and my next step, as always, was to find out how to remedy it. So if you don’t see sketches in my process work, that’s because there often aren’t any. Rather than conjuring up an image in my mind and then jotting it down, I sometimes will either create something as a reference, either with physical objects or with a combination of image, or I will enter my ideas into Adobe Firefly and hit “generate” until I get what I want. These ARE my sketches. I can conceptualize just fine—I am great at coming up with concepts—they are just not visual. I have never and will never let this slow me down though, as I now have an arsenal of tools and techniques to get me past the ideation phase. My name means “Victory,” and I am a champion and an overcomer.