I am a completely self-taught mixed media artist based in Jacksonville, Florida. I started drawing at the age of 13 to cope with my mother's death. The Ram Dass quote that "we are all just walking eachother home" is a philosophy I hold close to my heart, especially when it comes to sharing my art. In my teenage years I failed out of mulitple classes and frequently skipped school so I could sit around drawing and listening to music. Eventually I made it to college not to study art but psychology. At this point in my life I thought I needed to "grow up" so I stopped making art and tried to be an adult. Boy howdy did I try. I got an office job that paid nothing, I moved in with my boyfriend and got a degree in something sensible (psychology oh how you misled me as a career prospect). This was a time in my life I was truly genuinely lost. Art went from being a refuge to being a trigger for intense shame and self-doubt. No art was made by my hands from 2006-2016. I had already been lost but when I stopped making art I threw my compass into the void. For those ten years nothing I seemed to do mattered or made life feel worth living.THEN I FOUND A MEDICATION THAT WORKED FOR ME. And within 3 months I was going to buy a sketch book and some micron pens at the age of 28 so I could sit in a starbucks and draw something. I can't begin to describe the depth of dread and fear in my heart to do it. I know to anyone who hasn't experienced the severing of their soul from life maybe I seem dramatic. What can I say? I am a dramatic person I've lived a dramatic life and lots of dramatic things have happened to me. So sue me! You're reading an artist bio what did you think was going to happen here exactly? You're in my domain now and god bless you if you've gotten this far in my bio.
ANYWAY -- I did manage to draw something that day, a raven, and broke down publicly in a Starbucks in South Korea in 2016. I wasn't even embarassed because I was like I had finally gotten to throw up some of the poison that had been making me sick the last decade. It took another 3 years to admit I wanted to devote my life full-time to my art. As an act of love and dedication to heal myself to give back to myself what had been stripped away.
--Fast forward tape sound - I started really working on improving my skills in 2019, and started painting summer of 2020. Along with further tweaks in my medication and my skills really started to soar.
I fall in love with art more and more every day. I am beyond grateful, beyond blessed that this has become my full-time income and life-long passion. I know not everyone makes it. Not everyone makes it. And I don't know what the future has in store for me. I have had to reckon with the fact that sometimes my emotions will just have their way with me. And every time the wave comes I just have to surrender and pray I will make it through again. So far, I am still happy, still passionate and still here.
Please feel free to share your story with me if you feel so called after reading mine. I love meeting kindred spirits.