TWENTY-FIVE
CONFESSIONS, VOLUME I
A self-published art book & love letter to my younger self
Year: 2022
Tools: ProCreate, Adobe InDesign
Writing was always my own form of release before I knew that journaling was actually therapeutic. I had also found out recently—that writing to your current self as if you were in the future, was super therapeutic and helped distance yourself from what you were feeling.
When I was twenty-five, I felt very lost (as most young adults do). I thought at the time that I should’ve been wiser, richer, and successful because that’s what we’re told once we hit adulthood.
Finding my place in the jungle that was Manila, I felt like I was drowning in my own shortcomings and failures. But I wrote in my own journals anyway, hoping tomorrow was gonna be different. I kept it there for a while up until I came back to it at the age of thirty.
A lot of things had changed and the problems I had then were not even in the same category of problems I had at thirty, in a good way of course. It made me grateful that I kept this piece of frozen time and most of all, grateful that overcame a lot of things since then. That’s when the idea hit me. I’m not the only one who goes through this, why should I keep this to myself?
Enter Zolo,
the protector of little forest creatures
Zolo is a mushroom learning the ways of the forest & the earth through the Mycelium Masters. All his hopes & dreams feel so close but being an apprentice isn't exactly what he expected. He runs into a lot of obstacles and he feels like all his hard work isn’t showing for anything.
In my exploration of creativity, I had unknowingly created a character that was a reflection to my internal struggles in my early-20’s. I thought, what better to represent my writing than a cute character whose journey also reflected the sentiments of today’s youth.
Combining my background in publishing, writing, and illustration, I created Twenty-five in late 2022 as a mini art zine that blends short confessional writings with black & white illustrations featuring Zolo.
It was my first step into self-publishing and storytelling through zines, both exciting and a bit uncertain since it was something completely new to me. I released limited copies at art markets like BGC Art Mart and Komiket, and the response was unexpectedly heartwarming. Many younger readers resonated with its honesty and quiet introspection, encouraging me to continue the Confessions series in the future.