*Surviving* Artist

My name is Philippe Holland. I'm blessed with a happy life, a beautiful daughter, and the talent to draw. I might not be the best, but I always try to do mine.

I was born in the Ivory Coast in West Africa, but moved to Philadelphia at a very early age and essentially grew up there. Fortunately for me, growing up I had many different friends with different interests, so my interests vary more than most; NBA/NFL, manga/anime/general TV, Marvel/DC, etc, and I have no idea how many TV shows I've watched. I'm a Steelers fan, & I don't claim the Sixers but being from Philadelphia, I do follow them closely. I'm a huge fan of Attack on Titan, Death Note, & One Piece, among many others. I always recommend Breaking Bad, but I like Prison Break & Dexter. I've been moonlighting as Spider-Man since I was about 9 years old.

Six years before that however, I drew with red crayon all over my grandmother's wall, and since then I've been drawing. I took a few breaks here & there, including a recent 5-year one. This was partly due to an incident of police brutality I experienced; I narrowly survived, yet walked out of it mostly whole, which I'm still grateful for. I was shot at 14 times in a case of what was claimed to be 'mistaken identity', and was hit in the eye and leg; besides some obvious aesthetic effects, I suffered some broken facial bones, a cracked skull, & a severed femoral artery. I was told aside from a possible loss in vision in my right eye, that there was a chance that I might not walk again. With a great support system & general God-given strength, I was able to avoid the worst prognostications about my future health and eventually get back to a full, healthy life.

Four years after this event however, and four years ago as of right now, I had my first daughter; I had been fascinated with and wanted children since I was in high school, so the birth of my first daughter was particularly emotional for me. These days, parenthood takes up a good amount of time; I also bartend, have interests in real estate, and read as much as I can, in the pursuit of bettering myself.

I recently began drawing consistently again for the first time in years thanks to an old friend asking me to design characters for his project, & from there my desire to draw again grew.

This time however, I plan on not only sharing my art with more than just close friends on Instagram & other platforms such as this one, but also sharing the process. I'm used to taking pictures of my drawings as they progress, and now decided to take the next step and record the entire process as I get better and draw more complicated things. I look forward to not just the work and the journey, but for people to see and enjoy whatever I end up putting out.