We recently connected with Madison Stroik and have shared our conversation below.

Madison, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

If you know anything about me, one thing is very clear: I love fish. Any chance to rant about my favorite aquatic organisms I will always take. But another thing I love is, of course, drawing. I like to create stories and characters and build worlds out of my art.

So the only logical conclusion is to combine those two interests.

I had an assignment to create a character and design a character sheet. I hadn’t thought much of it at the time, but I had an idea to create a cute little pirate otter, aptly named Pip. It was a lot of fun to create him, and I loved the direction he was going in. At the time, all I knew about him was that he was following his dreams of becoming a pirate by any means necessary, and was always overenthusiastic about any adventures he went on. It wasn’t much at the time, but he started to grow on me, and I realized that I wanted to do something with him.

Another assignment I had was to create a simple paper animation out of cut out parts. And of course I always had to make my assignments with a fishy theme, so I quickly drew up a cartoony epaulette shark (my favorite type of shark, they’re so cool!), and animated him crawling up onto land. At the time, I gave him the name Gary.

I’m not entirely sure where it came from, but there was one visual I could never get out of my head when it came to Pip. It was a shot of him looking up and realizing that his ship that he had so many new adventures on was now somehow stuck inside a bottle with him inside.

It led me to some questions. How did he get in the bottle? What did he do to deserve to be put into the bottle? How does he get out and how does it get resolved?

From there, more concepts and ideas started to form. I redesigned Gary, also renaming him to Scallop, and made him Pip’s best friend. He was a skittish little shark who was always the voice of reason and brought Pip back down from getting too crazy with his adventures.

But what sorts of adventures would they go on? What was the goal for Pip after becoming a pirate?

It made me think back to the bottle he will end up in and the metaphors that could be used with that. What if he was actually bottling his emotions up? And the bottle he ends up in is a physical representation of that?

So, I decided that his goal was to find the Key to Happiness, a legend passed down among pirate generations. But what he needs to be happy might be closer than he realizes, and the Key might not work how he thinks.

More characters sprung from this concept. A grumpy redtail catfish anti-hero (redtail catfish are another one of my favorite fish). A giant blue heron queen. Another pirate otter who inspired Pip’s dream and mentored him when he was younger. A puffin who works at Pip’s favorite food stand. A bratty manatee villain. And perhaps the weirdest one my mind could come up with: a villain siphonophore (look it up!) who uses a viperfish carcass as a prosthetic face.

As all these characters formed, the world became more fleshed out. I wrote out a couple of episodic ideas for what types of adventures Pip and Scallop would go on while sailing the seas. It explores themes of environmental conservation, self-worth, and of course, managing your emotions. I named it Bottle it Up and I love working on it. It combines two of my passions and allows me to create a story where I can sprinkle in my favorite fish facts. On top of that, I get to tell parts of my own story through these characters and how they deal with what life throws at them, albeit in a much more fantastical way.

Any time I get, I always love to share this story with friends and family, who have been nothing but encouraging and have given me many new ideas for where to take this story. The story has had many different iterations and new concepts over the years, each one feeling better than the last. And to think it all started from an assignment that I had no intentions of doing much with afterwards.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

Hi! I’m Madison Stroik and I’ve been drawing my whole life. When I was younger, I would watch collaborative animations on YouTube and I immediately knew that I wanted to have a part in it. So, at 11 years old, I started animating. Ever since then I’ve been constantly working to try and improve my work and hopefully one day bring my ideas to light.

Even though I have many aspirations for the animation industry, I am not pursuing a degree in it. I really love animals and fish, so I’m currently getting my degree in marine science at University of Delaware.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

A long time ago, during COVID, I was in my last year of middle school, looking for a high school to go to. I applied to many places, but there was one that caught my eye: a boarding school dedicated to art.

I was never the adventurous type, not one to take any risks. So the prospect of leaving home for the first time, during a pandemic no less, was terrifying. But the idea of having dedicated art classes every day really intrigued me.

Long story short, I got accepted (with a huge scholarship that really helped) and packed my bags to go to Walnut Hill, a boarding school 300 miles away from home. I have always been quiet and shy, so the first year was really difficult, especially with the procedures in place to avoid COVID infections.

After the first year, restrictions lessened up, and I thought everything would be more normal than it was freshman year. But that summer, I started having health issues. I couldn’t stand without feeling like I just ran a marathon, walking was impossible and I was constantly dizzy and out of breath. That summer was riddled with doctors appointments left and right, but nobody could say what was wrong with me.

I had to go back to school the next year without any idea what was happening and while battling this mysterious illness. It was very difficult, and the nurses at my school got to know me well. One day, on the walk back to my dorm, I had a hard fall and passed out. My parents had to rush up (as much as possible with a 6 hour drive) to take me to the ER. There they did tests, and I finally got my diagnosis: dysautonomia.

I had never heard of this before, and it quickly became apparent that most doctors hadn’t either. There is no cure, and little treatment.

Over the next few months, which eventually turned into years, I had to battle this illness without much help. I had to go to school 6 hours away from home. I had to participate in 3+ hour long art classes. All while not feeling well. It looked like a condition that I would have to deal with for life. And every time some new, unexplained symptom came up or I had yet another doctor’s appointment, I had to go back home, which was nearly every other week at this point.

I had to consider dropping out multiple times- just go to a school near me so that I could deal with everything going on. But I had worked so hard to get there.

I wasn’t going to give up. I had pushed and worked very hard to get through and graduate on time. Walking the stage felt like a relief. I survived. I made it through everything. And it was looking like I could finally pursue my dreams as an artist.

But of course, things still didn’t end up how I had expected.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

Even though I’m currently very happy in my career path in marine science, that isn’t always what I expected to do. If you had asked me what college I would go to while I was applying in high school, I would have said with 100% certainty that I would go to an art school for animation. I even got into a couple of really good schools with amazing programs.

I had also applied to a few schools for marine science, since that was something else I was considering. I wasn’t super serious about it, though. It was more of a back up option, and all the colleges I applied to for it were the lowest on my list.

But, after receiving my acceptance letters (and a few rejections, ouch), one big obstacle became apparent: money. Every artist knows that art colleges are very expensive, but I was encouraged by my parents to still apply just in case financial aid and scholarships would lessen the load enough. I did get some aid, but despite all my bargaining with the schools, I wasn’t able to get the cost down enough for me to be able to afford it. So, I had to seriously consider my back up options- options that weren’t even on my radar.

I also had to study a lot to try and get into the math program that wouldn’t set me back. Because I was so convinced of going into animation, I didn’t take any more advanced math classes in my senior year of high school. I dedicated that extra time to working on my application portfolios, rather than learning subjects that would be crucial in a STEM major.

At the time, it was a very disappointing reality. My hopes and dreams felt like they were all thrown out of the window, and I was left scrambling to pick up the pieces. How would I make a career in animation now? What was I going to do?

I decided that I’m not going to give up. I’m still working very hard on adding to my portfolio and resume on top of my academic studies. I even took a year off to dedicate time to studying animation. I also have a ton of friends who are interested in art, and more recently I gathered them all together to start working on a short film to add to all of our resumes.

It’s been a lot of challenge and hard work, but I am dedicated to following this path. Now, I also have more options in a career I’m still happy with if anything doesn’t work out. And hey, maybe learning more about fish will inform my aforementioned project even more!

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.msglider.com/portfolio/