about

I'm Ali James Ngaruiya, a senior at Sandia High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

I started drawing when I was eight. My humble beginnings as an artist were copying the cartoons and anime I watched on TV. I always loved storytelling, and felt that my art was the best way to explore the places I wanted to go, things I wished I was doing, and ideas I couldn't stop thinking about.

Now I work in painting, digital art, comics, drawing and screenwriting, and almost everything I make starts as a story. The one I'm closest to is Wings, which has grown into a screenplay, a short story, and the illustrations you'll find on this site.

Wings is about hope. The idea came to me while I was listening to "Subterranean Homesick Alien" by Radiohead. It's about what happens when something you believe in, that no one else does, turns out to be real, and about staying true to what's important to you. It's also about lineage, and having a connection to your ancestors and family even if you've never interacted with them.

While my short story, I Have Wings, is still unfinished, it is the story that is most important to me. It's about the idea of home and where you truly belong, chasing something you feel you've lost, and feeling like you're in the wrong place. It's also about staying authentic by not always filtering your emotions. When Maria cries, it's seen as taboo in Etheria, but where she's from, it's something everyone does.

Some of the artists who inspire me most are Aya Takano, Ernie Barnes and Yoshitaka Amano. Their art speaks to me because it speaks to the images in my own head and feelings in my own body better than I could describe them with words or images yet.

I want my work to do for someone else what theirs does for me: take feelings and ideas and turn them into places you can walk into.

I haven't figured out how to fly yet. I'm still learning, and every piece on this site is part of that. For now, I'm drawing the wings.