Meet Oliver!

Oliver has been a part of YAC since 2016 and is a full time artist right now!

Oliver + YAC.

Oliver already knew what YAC was before he joined. It was a place where he would feel safe, with people he would relate to. Everybody came in with their own walks of life but at YAC, everyone felt like they would fit in. It has always been a good and safe place! At YAC, Oliver met his best friends and figured out his style. Meg and Marcia gave him so much hope!

“Nobody says no. Everybody embraces you, makes you feel like you matter when you’re there. It’s all about making young artists feel comfortable and letting them create what they love.”

Life right now.

In the midst of the pandemic last year, Oliver was bummed because there weren‘t many job opportunities. Now he feels like he can’t keep up with the opportunities! It's scary and exciting, but he finally has the opportunity to do art full time. It's been a unique situation but it's been good. He’s been able to have good independence and is continuing to find out who he is.

Goals, hopes, and dreams.

He wants to be in a place where he can be financially stable with the art he creates and be able to do the art he loves: animation, music, film. That’s the dream. Oliver also wants to be in the position to help others in any kind of way—mentoring people, making profits for a cause, and spreading a message by reaching people through art, like storytelling.

Some words of advice from Oliver:

“Stress and anxiety are always going to be there, but don’t let the hope die. The things you will stress out about are going to change but you just gotta get through it.”

You can keep updated with Oliver's work here on Instagram @ollieloko