Who is Zoë?

Zoë Peters (She/They) is an illustrator and artist from Claremore, Oklahoma. Growing up in a Catholic family and being a part of the LGBTQIA+ community created inner turmoil and conflict in the early years of her life. In college, she was able to explore her true self, where she wanted to be, and who she wanted to be in life. Her work tells a personal story through fantastical creatures and unimaginable horror. She hopes that her work sparks intrigue and conversation amongst the viewers and reaches the audience with a compassionate fire to look into themselves. Zoë is a college student at Rogers State University currently pursuing her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. Her goal is to tell her story, thoughts, and opinions on society and the world around them through her work. Zoë is currently working with various mediums both digitally and traditionally to create art pieces, character designs, and storyboarding for future projects involving her creative writing skills to publish a graphic novel.

When not creating art, Zoë loves to spend her free time with her favorite hobbies which include, biking, hiking, reading fantasy novels, listening to music, watching her favorite YouTubers, and playing video games. Many of her favorite creators include but are not limited to; RubberRoss, DougDoug, CDawgVA, Grizzy, Markiplier, Asu, & Kurtis Conner. A major goal for Zoë is to work for one or more of these creators as a thumbnail artist and/or video editor (someday being a creator herself is not out of the question).

Why I Create…

My artwork explores the inner depths of the human soul through my personal experiences and provokes social commentary with controversial subjects through different narratives in each piece. Through twisted creatures and roguish monsters, I give the unnatural terrors a new light of discussion and empathy with subjects that are personal to me and everyone. With the intertwining of digital and traditional mediums, I combine pen and ink, graphite, charcoal, and any mixed media to roughly mark the surface of the paper to show the representation of the scars we carry from personal experiences or trauma. Growing up in tumultuous times and battling my inner demons, I felt the calling from a young age to make art for people to relate to and hopefully feel less alone in their struggles. My influences can be tied to the likes of Manga Artist Junji Ito and Artist Yuko Tatsushima. The expressionism in my extreme emotion and fantasy is portrayed in much of my artwork.

Why ZoZo?

I have had a lot of nicknames throughout my life and of these was the nickname ZoZo. Many associate ZoZo with the Ouija Board demon, however, this ZoZo is much nicer and more respectful than the legend claims to be. I have always associated it as a cute nickname for myself as it seemed very fitting for someone who creates darker art. ZoZo acts as an alias or online persona, that I go by instead of my actual name.