TokyoStrange, or Kayla, loves the idea of sitting in a café in Tokyo and being “immersed in [the] culture and inspiration” bustling around her. Although she focuses primarily on digital art, she is also interested in ink illustrations and someday hopes to try oil painting because she loves how it “has so much more depth and character” than other mediums.

She shares that she’s never based one of her designs on a dream because she sees her artwork as an “escape from all of that.” Instead, she finds inspiration from the world around her like t.v. shows, manga, and music. She reveals that “sometimes a particular song can put an image in my head of this character or this scene that would go perfectly with the music” and it motivates her to create something new and unexpected.

TokyoStrange loves the idea of living in a sci-fi fantasy world that has a “touch of magic and otherworldly powers.” She even jokes that if she could have a superpower, she would love to control the weather because a storm is “a disruption from a normal day and sometimes that disruption creates inspiration.” She adamantly believes that any disruption from the norm should be embraced. In fact, she admits that we are “all a little weird and wonderful” and that “if we were all cookie-cutter human beings, this would be one boring planet.”

TokyoStrange wishes that she could own the original woodblock print “The Great Wave Off Kanagawa” because she finds that looking to other artists, like Hokusai, can help improve her own art. She encourages others to “follow other artists” and to actively adopt new styles and techniques because it keeps art fresh and constantly evolving.