This is a weekly series where we feature our incredibly talented Adolescent members and their work! Sign up here to join the Adolescent Membership and be part of the @ family!

This week’s Adolescent Member Crush is Riley Halliday, a multimedia storyteller, photographer, and website designer based in Massachusetts. Her mind is plagued with memories of Webkinz, computer games, videos from the ‘90s and early 2000s, and dogs—all of which play into her photos. Read below to learn more about Riley’s work with her twin sister, how she’s passing the time while quarantined, and how the internet really affects her art.

Adolescent Content: Is there a goal behind your work?

Riley Halliday: The fundamental goal of all my work is to show others that art can be made anywhere with nearly anything. I'm big on scrappy work that has that sense of home. Overall, I like the combination of mystery and comedy. Even when I make work that I consider deeply personal and serious, the colors, styling, and whimsy usually conjure a smile or laugh. In all seriousness, I like the idea that art that comes from dark places can create quite the opposite experience for a viewer.

Adolescent: Why did you opt for blue light in this shoot?

Riley: I find colors tend to flow and leave throughout different periods of my life. In 2014, when I began photography, the big thing on Instagram was creating bluish and moody pictures. The past couple of years I've been into reds and bright colors. Right now feels like the perfect time to go back to blue. We’re all stuck in our homes creating that moody work again. I think trends always come back around, but this time blue seems more important than a trend.

Adolescent: How do you think the internet influences you and your work as an artist?

Riley: I think the internet has made my work more curatorial and editorial. I pick and choose what I share online for sure. With that said, I think it's important to keep up with personal practices. I have hundreds of photographs I've never shared that I've taken on a very low-quality camera. This work means the most to me.

Adolescent: How has being quarantined affected your creativity?

Riley: Honestly, I've had a very strange year. I've been running around, working odd jobs, and kind of avoiding making art at all. Of course, the circumstances of this quarantine aren’t something to be grateful for, but I do feel like I have a second to breathe. I'm away from school, I'm away from “daily life,” and I feel like all I can and want to do right now is make art again—to find that sense of home in my little apartment.

Adolescent: Do you prefer shooting self-portraits?

Riley: I usually shoot pictures of my twin sister—we work together on much of the photography. Parker does makeup and styling, and I shoot! Sometimes I shoot self-portraits. I did this mostly throughout high school because I was afraid people only wanted to model if I took pretty pictures they could post on Instagram, which is understandable. I love people though, and hope to work with more in front of the camera in the future (once this quarantine clears of course).