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Originally, I titled this piece Held for a Moment. This never felt quite right. Of all the pieces that I created in 2025, this one was one of the most vivid in my mind and the most confounding. When I drew Uncontained, I was actually starting this image. In my mind, I saw hands delicately holding an iridescent bubble (like the bubbles in the original animated Cinderella from Disney). Inside that bubble was a galaxy. A rope was tied tightly around the bubble and was pulling it

A powerful abstract image created in the moment with almost no forethought, Uncontained is pure emotion. I had planned on drawing the image that I will describe next, Hiraeth, but as soon as I began to sketch the central circle this image appeared to me. Rather than ignore it and continue with my original thought, I decided to explore it. After a full week with my extended family, this was what exploded out of me. Initially, I attributed it to an explosion of creativity. Up u

I have pre-written a lot of these blog posts. Before I post them, I review what I wrote and add more context if I've had more thoughts about pieces. I'll put the original write up in quotes, because much has changed since I wrote this a few months ago. “I have recently hung this drawing on my wall amongst several others and I felt my eyes being drawn to it more so than most of the others. This tells me that there is more to learn from it. My husband and I often have conversat

Not every battle can be won, so sometimes the best thing we can do in life is retreat inwards, toward what feels meaningful, and allow a new path to emerge. I, like most people, have always wanted magic to exist in the world. In the shower, I used to watch the stream of water flow from my hands and imagine that I was in control of the water. Sometimes I imagine waking up to discover that I have the ability to make trees grow just by extending my arms, letting the magic of nat

In the Grip is a natural continuation of those dark, existential feelings. It is an expression of what it feels like to have everything you’ve worked for slowly stripped away. Simply put, it’s soul sucking. At a certain point, it becomes so overwhelming that you begin to give in. The once fiery anger fades into a quiet sadness and reluctant acceptance. I’m not typically one to give up when things get hard, but after exhausting every avenue, what else can you do? It's not a fe

Compared to my other work so far, Into the Void feels like a departure. Stylistically it nods to Vision of Time and Space, but the colors are brighter and the spiral creates a sense of chaotic movement. With Vision of Time and Space people spot the eye first and then the nebula. Into the Void is what, exactly? To me it feels like the opposite. Nebulae are clouds of dust and gas that form when stars die and later recombine into new stars. They are the phoenixes of the universe

Life is funny, though it certainly didn’t feel that way at the time. Looking back, I can see how lost I was, and how relentlessly the universe seemed to push me toward deeper self understanding. I had finally begun to make progress and find a sense of comfort when another meeting at work caused everything to unravel. Have you ever needed to maintain a calm, professional exterior while feeling absolute rage inside? Throughout the meeting, I suppressed my emotions so intensely

Days after my last vivid dream, I was surprised by another... I was riding in a car with my husband, who was driving. I looked down at my left hand and noticed a black growth beginning to form. I told him something was wrong and that we needed to go to the hospital, but he was unconvinced. When I looked again, the glossy black mass had begun to spread, forming vine-like tendrils that crept up my forearm from the palm of my hand. I insisted that something was seriously wrong,

Many of my pieces emerge from waking dreams, visions, or images that surface during quiet contemplation. A few have come from my nightly dreams. Around the time I created this piece, my husband was studying the work of Carl Jung and had become fascinated with dream interpretation. Unfortunately, most of my dreams fade the moment I wake, leaving behind only fragments and impressions. This one, however, remained strikingly vivid. As I remember it, I stumbled out of my childhood

Between larger pieces, I was practicing with smaller projects, a couple of which stood out. First, The Artist’s North Star. This piece came to life in a moment of weariness, when my energy was low and my larger visions felt just out of reach. My husband encouraged me to try something small and simple, just to keep up my momentum. I grabbed my oil pastels, set up my lapdesk, and began drawing intuitively. It felt relaxing to mix and blend the colors, letting the image emerge o

In 2012, while I was in college, I stood at the edge of what felt like an artistic awakening. I had a vision of a single hand reaching up from a sea of people. At the time, I was experimenting with color and acrylic paint. The idea of rendering an entire crowd quickly became overwhelming, so I chose to blur it into abstract, flesh toned forms rising from the bottom of the canvas. This allowed all of the focus to rest on the hand itself, strained and powerful against a red bac

About a year ago, I was talking with a friend who shared a dream of opening an art collective. I was, and still am, struggling with my current work situation, so the thought of working for myself was a very enticing idea. I decided start down the path of opening an art collective and invite artists that I knew who had also put their art on the back burner to join. I signed up for a small business workshop, wrote a business plan, opened a Go-Fund-Me, found a great location, an

Inspired to continue listening to my intuition, I decided to try meditation. I sat beneath a fir tree, looked out over the field in front of me, and then closed my eyes. I had no expectations for the experience, yet within seconds a story began to unfold behind my eyelids. That moment inspired three works of art and the story that follows: “Under a darkening sky, in a barren field, a black bird appeared—quiet, watchful, drawn by something unseen. It moved with purpose, search

My husband and I began dating in high school, and it quickly became clear that we had found a life partner in one another. We spent countless hours sharing our hopes and dreams for the future. In 2014, we welcomed our daughter into the world, and in 2022, we moved across the country from Florida to Washington State- two things we had dreamed about. Though life has not unfolded exactly as we once imagined, we have experienced every chapter side by side. The idea for Vision of

Over the course of the following month, I moved from excitement and hope for new beginnings to being completely crushed. I was passed over for a work opportunity that had been promised to me, something that had supposedly been in development for years and would have significantly improved my family’s quality of life. More than the loss itself, it became painfully clear that despite my dedication and passion, my role was considered less important. I don’t feel it’s necessary t

As with all art, the symbols within this image, and the image as a whole, invite many interpretations. When my husband first saw it, he said, “You created Nox.” In Roman mythology, or Nyx in Greek, Nox is born from Chaos and is the goddess of night. While this was not my original intention, I’ve come to love that interpretation. I believe Awakening emerged from my own internal chaos. Just as Nox is the personification of night, this image feels like the personification of my

I have always loved art and felt deeply fascinated by it, but only recently did I begin referring to myself as an artist. For a long time, I felt like an apprentice, or even lesser, a pretender, and therefore unworthy of such a title. This shift in how I viewed myself began with our move across the country. The place we moved into was roughly a third of the size of our previous home, so much of what we owned was sold or given away, including nearly all of my art supplies. I n