SEPTEMBER, 2026 | Portfolio
Throughout history, art has functioned as evidence. It preserves the values, fears, beliefs, power structures, and everyday realities of the people who made it. From cave paintings to photographs, propaganda, quilting patterns, personal writings, and objects of remembrance, these fragments become a collective memory of humanity. They allow us to look backward and ask not only what happened, but who was seen, who was silenced, and what communities chose to protect, resist, or remember.
My practice is rooted in the belief that artists are observers of their era. I use my work to document a visual reflection of the present—to create an archive of what it means to live through this particular history. I am interested in recording the experiences, struggles, and acts of courage defining our time. When individuals cannot safely tell their own stories, art has a responsibility to ensure those narratives are heard. When systems attempt to render a population invisible, artists must make their experiences impossible to ignore.
Through the deliberate use of dimension, text, contrast, and color, my practice seeks to confront systems of silence and amplify voices that are marginalized, overlooked, or suppressed. I view art as a site of interruption—an opportunity to disrupt habitual ways of seeing and create moments of awakening in which viewers are invited to pause, question, feel, and reconsider their relationship to the world around them.
OCTOBER, 2024 | Portfolio
My professional career began as an art educator supporting students with emotional and behavioral disorders. Many couldn’t align with societal norms and were often discarded because they couldn’t fit the mold. Their stories were imprinted on me.
As my teaching philosophy evolved, I transitioned to a choice-based art program. Our classroom functioned as a studio space and students were regarded as artists. This model offered them real choices for responding to their ideas, interests, and feelings through the creation of art. The classroom culture shifted and community organically rose to the forefront. Through this process, children chose forgiveness and kindness over resentment. I witnessed joy shine through grief, and love win against hate as art transformed pain into healing.
In 2021, I developed postpartum depression and was later diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I was lost and had forgotten who I was. I began therapy and found a human who mirrored my magic. I returned to what I knew made me feel like me, creating. I started to reflect on who I was taught to be by listening to who I am.
I understand the power of art and the healing it provides. I witnessed it with my students and feel it deeply within myself. In creating these pieces, I grapple with my feelings toward societal, cultural, and historical issues that my mind can't fathom and my heart can't handle. My artwork is the product of a process, an extension of what I feel. It is a documentation and a memorialization of our time.
I imagine what the world would look like if everyone were given a mirror to see the love within them. That is the world I work towards.