When junior Kayla Griffin was younger, she read stories of Greek gods. As she read she wondered how they would look, so she decided to draw them as she imagined. This helped spark her love of drawing she possesses today. 

It wasn’t only the books about Greek mythology that inspired her, Griffin also likes to read fantasy stories and draw her favorite characters. She says that this helped her visualize the story.

“You know when you read a book and it’s kinda like you’re watching a movie? Like if I draw the character, then I can see it better,” Griffin says. 

Maya Bilyeu-King, Griffin’s friend since kindergarten, says those book’s characters improved and influenced her friend’s drawing. “On her wall she has these paintings she did, like Annabeth from Percy Jackson and Lucy, which is the main character in Lockwood and Co.,” Bilyeu-King states. “I think all of those things influenced her as she grew up, and influenced her art and creativity.”

Griffin loves these stories, but for the most part she sticks to creating her own characters.

“I like to make really weird characters, like fantasy characters that would be like demons or gods or angels or fairies or something. And then dress them up in crazy things and give them a good personality and backstory,” Griffin says.

Griffin loves to create these new characters, but finds it easier to draw them rather than to write about them. She creates these backstories, but it’s mostly for her own imagination and less for an actual story. She says this is because she likes seeing the after product of her work, and that can be harder to do with writing.

Bilyeu-King says that she believes Griffin would be amazing in a job doing animation.

“I think that she can definitely do it with her art style,” Bilyeu-King says. “Honestly, she has a great imagination too, so she could have a whole story line and characters also.”

Griffin agrees with her friend’s idea of a career path, saying, “I feel like I would just be disappointed in myself if I didn’t try to do a career in art.” 

She also has the motivation to accomplish this dream.

“Even if It’s hard, I have to try. Or I’ll end life being like ‘why didn’t I do that?’ and that would just suck,” Griffin said.