AVATAR THE LAST AIRBENDER - NESS

Personal Project: Designer and Illustrator | 2020

Avatar the Last Airbender is a TV show created in the early mid 2000’s, created by Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko. Culturally it had a significant impact on America and the rest of the world. Many children grew up to love to show, as it also resonated with adults for its more mature content. It was able to teach fundamental values to young children and anyone who watches. Regardless of the notion of a hero or a villain it’s show features themes of redemption. It’s about understanding who you are and making the right choices for yourself, truly expressing your identity in the most authentic way possible. 

-ness is a concept I made during my undergrad. It really digs deep in identity and intersectionality, all related back to how so many perceptions can make up one person. The meaning of -ness comes from the suffix ness which means it’s a consent state of being or denoting quality. Example women-ness, good-ness, black-ness, kind-ness. -ness focuses on the state of being within peoples personal identities. -ness incorporates the ideas of intersectionality as one person is not just one state but multiple working together to form one. It explores how different states of being can be changed over time and the resulting effects.

Each individual chose which bender they believed themselves to be and I drew them accordingly. I wanted to mesh to ideas that interested me together creating this illustrative identity publication.