Xala

This is a visual story called Xala, a piece I created to explore themes of light, loneliness, and the power of being seen. You're looking at the moment where a celestial being—a sun spirit named Xala—descends to Earth and crosses paths with Ima, a young girl who has just entered the foster care system. Through their meeting, the story becomes one of mutual healing, where light isn’t just something celestial, but something that can be shared, sparked, and created, even in the darkest places.

I wrote, illustrated, and developed this piece myself. One of the main challenges was translating the emotional complexity of grief and separation into something magical but still grounded in truth. I wanted Xala’s siren song (what I call the “song of the fire siren”) to serve as a metaphor for joy that radiates, disrupts, and awakens. It’s not just soft or pretty, it’s powerful and elemental, like sunlight on your skin after a long winter.

At its core, this piece is for anyone who’s ever felt adrift or swallowed by their own emotions. I designed it to feel both ethereal and deeply human. It was important to me that Ima’s journey didn’t end with being saved, but rather with discovering that she could generate her own light. That joy can be loud, blazing, and wholly yours, even when you’ve been through something hard.

This was a solo project, but one deeply inspired by the stories I’ve heard from others and the inner child in me who once needed this kind of story.