recent work

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artist statement

Art is a very physical experience for me. When I get a spark of inspiration, I feel it deep in my body. It feels like a focus-flow, tingling in my brain and butterflies in my stomach mixed with a physical pull to create something. I get a knot in my chest and my breath catches. It almost feels like falling in love.The act of Creativity feels like pure potential. That burst of inspiration drives my entire art process. I lean into my intuition and playfulness through the forms I create, the materials I choose, the colors I use. I'm constantly trying to reconnect with raw emotions, an authentic sense of self, and self-discovery. I focus on the feeling and process of creating art, even if these raw emotions aren't literally portrayed in the final piece.Music is critical to my process and can vastly change the outcomes of what I'm working on. I often use music to find inspiration (and motivation) when illustrating. As a result, I'm constantly looking for new, unique music to listen to. I frequently gravitate back to songs that express deep, raw emotions, describe events and feelings that feel authentic, and that have a tendency to catch my breath on the first playthrough.In the past, I've had a tendency to make art feel like a chore — I went into my art practice to develop a skill rather than as something that humans just do. I find that this makes art-making feel dull. Because of this, I'm always trying to maintain a sense of child-like wonder when I create: playing with colors and materials, working with elements of nostalgia, playing with physical mediums, imagining magical worlds, finding elements of whimsy, fantasy, myths, and folklore, and getting lost in nature and the natural world.I'm frequently inspired by the natural world around me. I've always had a fascination for plants and incorporate botanical structures into most of my pieces. I love folklore from all countries and grew up absorbing faerie books. Today's world often feels too rigid, too linear. whimsy makes everything more fun.

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my process

I've been fairly consistently obsessed with drawing portraits since September 2024. Prior to this date, I almost never drew people (because drawing people is hard). After a long hiatus from drawing anything, the only subject matter I felt compelled to draw in the pit of my stomach was portraits. There hasn't been much else I've drawn since.I usually start any portrait drawing session with a warm-up activity. Right now, that involves a quick portrait sketch in pen or some other un-erasable material in my "junk" sketchbook. This is a small 9" by 6" Bee Paper Company sketchbook that I've had for 10 years (spoiler: I've never finished a sketchbook). I find some portrait photography on Pinterest that I'm inspired by, I pick my materials, and then I draw without erasing until it looks good enough. If I want to spend more time or if I'm feeling less confident, I'll use yellow, pink, and blue/violet to create layers and give myself extra time to get the shapes right. If I'm feeling bold, I'll just use a black pen.Once the sketch is finished, I move directly into making whatever conceptual piece I want to sketch out. My ideas are often fleeting, so I need to get them sketched on paper within a few days of writing them down in my Miro notes app. After it's sketched, sometimes I'll go directly into finishing it with markers, colored pencil, paints, or whatever I feel like that day and other times I'll leave it as a sketch to come back to in the future. I always scan my sketches before I commit to additional media so that I can re-work it digitally in the future as well.

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my tools

This changes based on the piece I'm working on, the textures I want to create, my mood, and what I might want to experiment with in that moment.

For semi-daily portrait sketches
Tombow ABT water-based markers. If I'm doing tattoo freehand inspired sketches, I use 985 (yellow), 803 (pink), and 407 (blue). They don't bleed through the paper, so I can use both sides of the page.ballpoint, gel, or other fine-point black pen. seriously. some of my favorite sketches are using just a fine-point, black pen.prismacolor colored pencils. I use these if want to work with finer details in my sketches, but still prevent myself from being able to erase and try to make it too perfect. for my tattoo freehand inspired sketches, I use spanish orange, pink, and violet from a basic pack of 24.

for sketchbook pieces
Tombow pencils (6H, 2H, HB, F) and kneaded eraser for the initial sketch.Ohuhu markers mid-tone packprismacolor colored pencils basic pack of 24.gelly roll white gel pen for adding white details on top of black inkhiggins water-proof black india ink for adding black backgrounds around sketches or painting with ink.liquitex acrylic ink in iridescent bright gold and iridescent rich copper. For some extra sparkle.Occasionally: rustoleum decorative paint pen in an unnamed gold color. black posca markers in 0.7mm, 0.9-1.3mm, 1.8-2.5mm, and 8mm. assorted Folk Art acrylic paints. Windsor & Newton Prussian Blue watercolor (the only watercolor tube I have because it's the same color as cyanotypes).

digitally
iPad with Procreate. I mostly use brushes from The Rusty Nib brush pack from True Grit Texture Supply.

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