Page 45 - Solstice Art & Literary Magazine 2021

SNAPPY
SHIEVITZ
ARTIST PROFILE
I’ve always wanted to become a trail- blazer for those struggling with identi- ty by creating stories, illustrations, and characters that people can connect with. I never had that as an LGBTQ+ kid growing up. I had to forge a name for myself through years of self discov- ery. As I found that name, I found my artistic voice. My name became a state- ment, my passions an enduring flame, and that tiny voice a dragon’s roar. My new name is Snappy, and it’ll soon be on the cover of Drakestarr Island, on a BA from Columbia College in Chi- cago, and in the credits of the greatest animated films you’ll ever see.
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there anymore.
His instructor walked over
and handed him a sheet out of his notebook. “Well done. I honestly wasn’t expecting you to get it, but you passed. Take this to the Head- mistress, would you?”
Ozzy didn’t take the paper. He was still staring at where those intelligent eyes should’ve been. The instructor was calling Borum up for his exam.
“Where’d it go?” Ozzy barely realized he’d spoken until the in- structor responded.
“Where’d what go?”
“The serpent, where’d it go?”
Another exasperated sigh. “It was only created for the purpose of the exam. It’s fulfilled its purpose, and now it’s been unmade.”
Ozzy didn’t respond.
“It was artificial, Edegar. It
doesn’t make a difference whether it exists or not.”
“It does to me.”
Borum reached them, shoul-
dering past Ozzy. “Are you going to cry for your monster friend?”
You’re the monster.
Ozzy plucked the paper from the instructor’s hand. “Good luck, Borum,” he said. “I hope you need it.”
He turned his back on his classmate and walked away for the first and last time.
AMATEUR SUMMONING • SNAPPY SHIEVITZ
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