My name is Nicole Ellen Pinto, and I am a bigender artist that studied Studio Art at the University of South Florida. I usually go by Nicky. My main areas of focus are both digital and traditional mediums of art in order to animate two dimensional drawings. I have always found that through pencil and paper I can express myself, which is what lead me to pursuing the arts. While I excel in traditional and digital artwork, I also have passion for acrylic and oil paints that sometimes leads into my artwork. In addition, I desire to experiment with three-dimensional printing models or figurines to bring to life my ideas and original characters. I am self-motivated by music and writing in order to format my ideas for animation.

My main areas of focus include romantic comedy, action, and relationships. Yet, while these are standard areas of interest, I like to demonstrate and push boundaries surrounding gender and sexuality, as well as physical and mental illness. Through the fantasy worlds that I have created, I try to construct different unique stories that focus on these struggles, while drawing from my real-world experiences. Especially involving gender and sexuality, I strongly focus on making a point to express emotions or situations I have faced in dealing with identifying as being different from everyone around me. I feel like my work strongly focuses on gay male figures or pushing feminine parts of the male figure because I have felt out of place being in my own skin in these areas. Being a non-cis gendered person, I feel these boundaries of gender and sexuality are not challenged enough, so I make art that emphasizes these extremes. My characters are merely reflection of myself, exaggerating parts of my personality in ways in which I hope my audience can relate. I hope that these characters will help reach out to others who struggle daily with mental illnesses or disabilities, or who are trying to understand their own gender identities. I want my characters to be inspirations and guidance to those who need it the most. If laughing, crying, or enjoying my artwork helps someone cope with their struggles, I feel like I have accomplished my goal. This, in turn, can create a community, where people with common beliefs can come together as a “fandom”, and support each other through my artwork.