Artist’s bio

My passion for painting has been with me since the age of 10. I remember informing my mother that I was going to move to Italy to become an artist one day after school in 4th grade. I was raised In Iowa, and i received my BFA from Pratt Institute In Brooklyn, NYC. I recently finished a course studying frescos while in Florence. I am currently based in Oakland, California.

I am an abstract painter. I'm fascinated by duality and how to bring opposites together. I draw inspiration from the constant dance of balancing fluid and solid. Fast and loose, slow and planned. This has inspired me to take an abstract approach to art. My primary mediums are oil and encaustic. I layer soft fluid shapes over more structured ones as I explore beauty and function and study how they intertwine.

Series one, FORM + FUNCTION, is deeply inspired by the quilts my grandmother has been carefully crafting all my life. Every time we visited her, the dining room was converted into a quilting room during the day and back at night. The colorful patchwork scraps came from old family clothing. Each quilt has a memory "this piece came from a dress your mother wore when she was a girl." Her style was always fast and loose, designed for efficiency. She has taught me so much about imperfection and how to dance with that.

Series two, FLOW + STRUCTURE, is my most intuitive exploration. As a creative and dislexic to function in this world, I have had to build many structures, and although they help, they also dampen my ability to stay connected to my gut knowingness. This is about an invitation to become quiet, bring myself back to my body, accept my flow as it is and tap into that gut instinct and let the shapes come out of me

Series three, PATH + PURPOSE, is about trust. The constant effort to believe in our way. I've had such a wandering path in my life with so many switchbacks. This is an exploration of how to follow your true path, not the expected path. And the deep trust you need to cultivate to do so.