Ali Holmes (she/her) is a non-fiction comics and book artist and art educator based out of Bellingham, WA. She received her BA with a double major in Visual Art and Sociology from Whitman College in 2016. She received her MIT from Western Washington University in 2020. She received a Comics Certificate from the Sequential Artist Workshop in 2024.
Ali has always loved art and at age 3 when asked what she wanted to be when she grew up, she said she wanted to be an artist. Well, her 3 year old self wasn’t wrong. Ali chose to be an art major at Whitman College not because it was practical (she was advised this was, quite impractical) but because she found herself living in the art building after taking her first art class, Introduction to Book Arts. At Whitman, Ali also read her very first graphic novel, Maus, by Art Spiegelman. Prior to this experience, she had never heard of this genre. This book blew her mind and to this day remains a favorite.
Ali decided to become an art teacher in 2018 when teaching wheel throwing in Mashiko, Japan. While translanguaging between Japanese and English, she realized what she really wanted to do–teach art.
In 2021, Ali had a seizure while teaching. She rewarded herself for having a major medical event with unknown underlying causes by signing up for an online art class with Shay Mirk. This class blew her mind; she fell in love with Shay’s style of teaching but also the work she was able to make during these classes. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the work she knew she wanted to make.
In 2024, Crucial Comix was born. Ali is currently a comics teacher and a volunteer comics editor with Crucial. She loves this work more than anything.
Ali has a taught a lot of different kinds of art to a lot of different kinds of people. One thing she really loves is helping anyone of any age find their artistic voice. Ali firmly believes that anyone can be an artist.