Artist Statement

Abigail Owens

I have been working on my sustained investigation for many years and I haven't even realized it. When I was very young, I played Wizard 101 in my free time. I loved the magic school system, and began to think of my own magic school system, perhaps for my own story or game. As I grew up, so did my idea. From 12, to 8, to 10, until finally settling on 7, one for each color of the rainbow. As that system developed, the story and world of my idea developed as well. Each color started out as a school of magic, with each element still having an impact on the current colors: Fire for Red, Earth for Orange, Electricity for Yellow, Wind/Plants for Green, Ice for Blue, Shadow for Purple, and Poison for Magenta. As I thought of how each color would affect the characters, I moved away from the school of magic approach, and applied each color to a kingdom, with the color influencing the culture, looks, and mood of each. That led me to my essential question: How does color theory affect characterization and setting? I've worked different personalities into each kingdom. The Red Kingdom is aggressive and courageous, The Orange Kingdom is traditional and strong, The Yellow Kingdom is eccentric and innovative, The Green Kingdom is Just and Fair, The Blue Kingdom is adventurous and excitable, The Purple Kingdom is shy and seclusive, and The Magenta Kingdom is noble and sociable. When I was thinking of all of these kingdoms, I had another thought: The Rainbow. In a world made of color, The Rainbow should be important, and I worked it into the setting. In this world, The Rainbow Kingdom is an Atlantis-like kingdom in the center of the world, and all of the other kingdoms generate from there. In the center of the Rainbow kingdom is the Fountain of Life, a core of light and water to give the entire world color. That brings us to the villian. The villain draws upon the Void, a dark power of grey, to turn others into monsters. Motivated by control, the villain wants to take control of the entire world, and turn it into a dark land of black and white. That fountain is what keeps the grey powers at bay, filling the world with hope and light. However, that fountain was destroyed by the dark forces, and everyone in the Rainbow Kingdom fell victim to the Void, except for one. The main character of this story is Iris, the sole survivor of the void attack. Her quest now is to restore each part of the fountain, with its parts scattered across the 7 kingdoms. She makes new friends across each kingdom, but is confronted by the Big Bad of the series, the corrupted Prince of the Rainbow Kingdom, Jet, and the Bigger Bad, the mysterious discoverer of the void. The story focuses on themes of love, friendship, and keeping hope in the darkest of times.