Cass Mallari

My investigation asks, “How can I portray the struggles of being a younger sibling based on my experiences?” Throughout this series, I depict two siblings: Aster, a young teenager, and his elder brother Markos, a renowned and respected figure. After Markos grows up and continues on with his life, Aster is left with new expectations and responsibilities, despite always being behind his brother, away from the spotlight.  

When I first began planning, it was between using my original characters’ story in general versus my own struggle with identity and how it changed throughout my life. I decided to use both, giving me freedom to use objects and characters from the story to symbolize people and things in my life to relate back to me. I chose these two characters because they are both princes, which helped emphasize the feeling of being put on a pedestal and the idea of peer pressure, shown by the grand crown and the figures that make up Aster’s fears of eyes on him, inspired by my own fears. I used a crown to symbolize responsibility, expectations, and even self-worth, all things that Aster at first struggles to feel deserving of.