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MIDAS WOOD
Midas Wood (any pronouns) is a queer and neurodivergent illustrator, writer, animator, and photographer. They graduated from the Maryland Institute College of Art in 2025 with a BFA in Illustration and a minor in Animation.Most of their art is informed from their experiences with queer identity and mental health. The main subjects in their work are animals and nature, with their main genres being horror and fantasy.
They are currently working on a graphic novel series titled Wild Thing.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Art for me has always been intertwined with writing. Behind every image, there is also a narrative. Though I’ve been drawing longer than I’ve been writing, I feel like my art compliments my writing, not the other way around. I'm most interested in writing from the perspective of animals, as what could be going on in their lives is more fascinating than writing about a life that I already know.
I explore dark topics such as mental health, trauma, abuse, oppression (particularly queerphobia), religion, and death through horror stories about animals and nature. I prefer to write my tragedies about animals or mythical creatures rather than ordinary people, because I find allegory through anthropomorphism to be more interesting and richer in symbolism. Rather than delivering the story plainly through human characters in human situations, I believe there is more for the reader to explore and analyze when looking at human suffering through the eyes of the unhuman.
By making work about suffering, I explore both outcomes where my protagonist heals versus where my protagonist continues to suffer. I believe dark stories that serve as cautionary tales are equally as valuable as dark stories which end with silver linings of hope. I think it’s important to emphasize that there aren’t always happy endings, especially in real life (as unfortunate as that is), but they can still be attainable even when all hope seems lost. Sometimes, the only way out of a bad situation is through it, and the only way to defeat your inner demons is to learn to sit comfortably with them.
Tools of the trade: Adobe After Effects, Adobe Animate, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe InDesign, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Premiere Pro, Procreate, Procreate Dreams, TVPaint