I said, 'you know, it's the best when art does useful stuff like that.' And he was really patient with me and he said, 'well, you know, when art does useful stuff, as you say... that's actually Design.'

I was interested in people's stories and this would become a theme for me. I was just interested in, not so much what they looked like, but what they do, and what's going on behind that facade.

This is probably the first and last time that we'll see anything like this--all four of Bendigo's major Dragons together. These three Dragons came out to meet this new Dragon to show him his new home . . . It was such a moving experience, and all of this was from stepping into a shady van. You've got to follow your wonder, right?

I had been told all my life that a) either Hong Kong had no real culture, or b) even if it did, it couldn't be translated elsewhere. But this entire city is living proof that it can. The love for it was just transporting.

I saw all the people; and really it was the people, which transported me--like I could not believe that somebody else had seen the wonder in Hong Kong's culture . . . people from all over the place, but they're so serious about it, they know everything about it, they're deeply, deeply committed.

Twelve members of their family . . . spent the entire year making all of these scales from scratch--so that is the real art . . . This is the dragon as it was as it was just being made, and I thought it was so wondrous that this amazing transcendent thing was being made in such humble premises.

And what makes an Imperial Dragon is each of these individual scales, and they're made like this... by a guy like this... In a tiny 300 square-foot shop in Shau Kei Wan, a 125 meter dragon sprang forth... Each [scale] takes about an hour to make. And there are 7,000 of them.

All these masters fled to our tiny island city, and they started to flourish because they were all together, they were all learning from each other ... so the art elevated to this new level; and even today there is no place like Hong Kong in terms of making dragons and lions.

If you would just . . . engage it, there's no telling what it will lead to , where you will end up, you might end up in an Australian country town where everybody loves being Chinese or taking part in Chinese culture!

There is no telling what will happen when you follow your wonder, when you are curious about things--and you engage with that thing that you were always curious about on the edge of your experience or the edge of your knowledge.

I would encourage you: When your metaphorical shady, unmarked van arrives--you should get in!

You'd be surprised at the wonders on the other side of pain. I hope today you are all reminded of how wonderful you already are.

I hope my artwork helps you all see how wonderful and how beautiful Baltimore is, and reminds you that we don't have to settle for the reality that we've been given. We can create our own.

Your path to a more wonderful life starts with the work that you do on yourself.

All of the positive changes in my life started with the change within me.

I see so much of our youth discounting their dreams and imagination simply because of their surroundings.

I started off only doing self portraits. Then I was able to start illustrating the power that I see in others. Because I know how magical I am, I am able to see and exhibit how magical we all are. And same thing goes for my environment. I am able to take Baltimore and see beyond the hardship and struggle, and things that need to be fixed, to create new realities filled with magic and wonder.

Because I am empower myself, I am able to empower others.

I became a protector of my energy.

I transformed my feeling of loneliness into an opportunity to focus on myself, and foster my love for myself.

I learned that what you say becomes what you see.

The same way I nurture her magic, I had to nurture my own. I had to tell my self over and over again: I am powerful, I am beautiful, I am magical, I am gifted, I am wonderful. I do that process day by day. My sense of possibility expanded. I was able to imagine and dream far and wide.

What she is says about herself is ultimately way more powerful than anything anyone else can say about her.

At that time all the music I was listening to, the food I was eating, the social media content I was digesting--all of these things that I was feeding myself left me feeling sick, alone, lost, and out of love with myself. I was depressed.

Before I could create the artwork that you see, I had to do some serious inner work. I had to tune into my own power, into my own magic, into my own beauty. And that truthfully wasn't easy. It was a process of being in the dark and having no other choice but to look toward the light.