When apocalyptic stories dominate headlines and popular culture, artist Abigail Roscoe is telling a different kind of story.

Her transmedia project, The Sixth Sun, draws inspiration from Aztec cosmology, where previous worlds known as “Suns” rise and fall in cycles of destruction and rebirth. Instead of treating the end of the world as inevitable, Roscoe’s project explores a different possibility: what if the cycle can be broken?

The project blends illustration, storytelling, music, and world-building into a narrative set in modern Mexico City. At its center is Temo, a musician navigating identity, creativity, and survival while encountering mythological forces that begin to reshape his understanding of the world.

For Roscoe, the story is deeply personal.

Creating Art While Navigating Disability

Roscoe developed The Sixth Sun while facing profound personal challenges, including chronic illness and progressive vision loss caused by glaucoma. The condition eventually left her blind in one eye, permanently changing how she works as an artist.

Rather than stepping away from her creative practice, she rebuilt her process and continued developing the project.

Tasks that were once intuitive became slower and more physically demanding. Illustration, writing, and visual design had to be adapted to new limitations. But instead of halting the project, the experience reshaped its themes.

Transformation, resilience, and adaptation became central to the story itself.

Roscoe has described the experience of continuing to create through illness as a reminder that artistic work does not exist separately from life’s challenges.

For many disabled artists, creativity is not simply a profession. It is also a way of navigating change.

Reimagining Mythology for a Modern World

In Aztec cosmology, the universe passes through cycles of creation and destruction. Each era is known as a “Sun,” and each eventually collapses before a new world begins.

The Sixth Sun reinterprets that mythology through a contemporary lens.

The story imagines a world where ancient gods begin to re-emerge while humanity faces environmental collapse and social uncertainty. Yet the narrative resists the idea that disaster is inevitable.

Instead, Roscoe focuses on the power of creativity and human connection as forces that can reshape the future.

In a cultural moment often defined by climate anxiety and pessimistic storytelling, the project intentionally pushes back against the idea that collapse is unavoidable.

A Multidisciplinary Creative Project

Roscoe describes The Sixth Sun as a transmedia project, meaning it unfolds across multiple creative formats.

The project currently includes:

• illustrated storytelling and concept art

• narrative fiction

• original music and audio production

• voice acting and collaborative sound design

The project is produced through Coyote Studio, a creative hub founded by Roscoe that brings together artists working across disciplines.

Despite operating as an independent production, the project involves collaboration with professional voice actors, musicians, and audio engineers.

That collaborative structure reflects Roscoe’s belief that storytelling can be a community effort rather than a solitary one.

Disability, Adaptation, and Creative Process

One reason the project resonates with disabled audiences is Roscoe’s openness about the reality of working through illness.

She has documented how losing vision changed her workflow, forcing her to rethink how she approaches illustration and storytelling.

For many artists, disability can disrupt established creative habits. But it can also open new ways of thinking about process and perspective.

Roscoe’s work demonstrates how artistic practice can evolve alongside changing physical realities.

Instead of presenting disability as an obstacle to creativity, The Sixth Sun positions it as part of the lived experience that shapes the work itself.

A Story About Refusing Hopelessness

At its core, The Sixth Sun asks a deceptively simple question:

What do we do when the world feels like it is ending?

Roscoe’s answer is not retreat or resignation.

It is creation.

By blending mythology, disability experience, and environmental storytelling, the project offers an alternative narrative to the dominant cultural mood of crisis.

Rather than predicting collapse, it explores the possibility of transformation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Abigail Roscoe?

Abigail Roscoe is a Mexican-Canadian multidisciplinary artist, illustrator, and writer based in Vancouver, Canada. She is the founder of Coyote Studio and creator of the transmedia project The Sixth Sun.

What is The Sixth Sun?

The Sixth Sun is a multimedia storytelling project combining illustration, narrative fiction, music, and voice acting. The story draws from Aztec cosmology and explores themes of resilience, identity, and environmental change.

How does disability influence the project?

Roscoe created the project while navigating chronic illness and vision loss caused by glaucoma, which left her blind in one eye. The experience shaped both her creative process and the themes of transformation within the story.

What is a transmedia project?

A transmedia project tells a story across multiple creative formats rather than a single medium. In this case, The Sixth Sun includes visual art, music, narrative storytelling, and collaborative production.

Further Reading

• Original press coverage of The Sixth Sun project
  https://www.openpr.com/news/4411581/the-sixth-sun-disabled-artist-abigail-roscoe-reimagines-aztec

• Additional reporting on Roscoe’s project and creative process
  https://www.coinprwire.com/newsroom/mexican-canadian_artist_abigail_roscoe_turns_lived_trauma_into_a_powerful_act_of_creation_with_the_sixth_sun-19473

• Official project site
  https://coyote-studio.com

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