Many Young Men and Women living in hoods Across America suffer the absence of a path or toolkit for survival. But sometimes that toolkit is there, but they just need a guide, or an angle to show them to it. In the Art of Life, the characters Chay (Kristoffer Smith) and Cheyanne (Joy Taylor) are looking for a way out of the suffocating pain and misery of their surroundings, but they need a plan. As both develop their artistic skills, their future prospects grow brighter, even if their present environment maintains darkness.Will they be able to escape to the light? In this story, which blends the magic of cinema, animation, sketches, paintings, and music, we learn that art is all around us, and realizing this could help make survival more vividly apparent to those trapped in the dark.

-Brentin Mock