A Trip Through Trio Valley (2021)
Trio Valley is an interactive world building project I completed my senior year at GVSU. This based on a conceptual idea that’s been brewing in my mind for years. My goal for this project was to create environments that a viewer would want to explore with their eyes. Every nook, cranny, and peculiarity would be a point of interest, and looking at the artwork would raise the question, “what would it be like if I were really here?” I wanted to focus on detail to make this world feel personal and intimate, a place with signs of human activity. At the same time, I wanted to add some quirky aspects to make the viewer question the logic of these places, and the culture of its inhabitants.
Buried deep within thousands of acres of woodland lives a prosperous community of witches: a town called Trio Valley. Separated from the rest of society, these people thrive using only what remains of their hundred year old town, the resources of the forest, and whatever treasures particularly adventurous people collect from the outside world. This resulted in a diverse community, with sensibilities stemming from multiple eras. Almost every family owns a business of some sort, whether it be a witchy convenience store for passersby, an in-house library with books stacked to the ceiling, a shop filled with strange oddities, or a soup-slash-potion store. These people are witches, but their lives are tinged with a sense of normalcy… even if it means using the occasional spell or two.
