Hi, I’m Aidyn Garrison, sometimes known as Aido! I’m an artist, content creator, musician, and aspiring filmmaker. Ever since I could remember, I’ve been creating art and knew that’s what I wanted to do when I was older. Born in a small Missouri town, I grew up on a variety of different shows, movies, and comics that inspired me. From the art of Jim Lee to the animation of Stephen Hillenburg, the artists of my childhood have influenced me to develop the artwork I make today.
Nowadays, I’m continuing to advance my portfolio and my artistic skills. I’ve been attending Mid-America Nazarene University for two years as a graphic design major. I’m also trying to advance myself as a musician. I’ve been a percussionist for 9 years, and I’m currently learning guitar. But that’s now. What’s the overall goal?
My overall goal in life is to create art that resonates with people, and the format that I want to achieve that goal in would be animation and filmmaking. As mentioned before, I take a lot of inspiration from artists from my childhood, not just from their artwork, but from the way they make people feel something. I believe that’s so powerful: to make people feel emotions. Either joy from a comedy, suspense during a horror film, tears from a touching scene, or any type of emotion that you can feel—just from someone’s art. For example, in my favorite movie of all time, Pixar’s Soul, Joe Gardner dies the moment he achieves something amazing. Later in the film, when he talks to his mother about his career as a jazz musician, he tells her, “I’m just afraid that if I died today, my life would’ve amounted to nothing.” Honestly, never in my life have I related so much to a character. Personally, that’s my biggest fear. And for a film to make me cry every single time I watch it, just because I share the same feelings as a character, says how powerful storytelling can be. And that’s the kind of storytelling I want to do.
“What makes your art different from others?” is a question that I’ve been asked before, and it’s not an easy one to answer. Some artists may say they’re more technical than others, or maybe some would say they’re more experimental. But for me, I’d say I believe what makes me different from other artists is the dedication I have to pushing boundaries and storytelling. I love the different ways that animation can tell stories and the messages you can tell within those stories. And honestly, I want to create stories with topics that may be uncomfortable to watch—not because of politics or anything like that, but from exploring feelings of loneliness, grief, self-worth, etc. These feelings have, of course, been explored in many films, but I want to share them from my own personal experience and how I deal with them. Art isn’t the only thing that is subjective.
Thanks for taking the time to learn who I am and what I want to do! Feel free to reach out with any comments or questions you may have via my Contact Me page. And, if interested, follow along with me on my journey as I make my dreams a reality.