I am an artist currently living in Wilmington, NC. I work primarily in acrylics and mixed media, but also dabble in illustration and pastel.

Ever since I was a little girl, I loved to draw and color. I continued to draw and color throughout undergraduate and graduate school but ultimately chose medicine as my career. I sometimes worked seven days a week, taking care of other people but neglecting my own needs. For years, I didn’t draw, color, or paint, at least not with any intentionality. But in 2018, at about the same time I turned 50, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I knew I had to make some changes in my life. While recovering from surgery and during radiation therapy, I started to draw again, this time with more focus. I spent hours drawing elaborate and intricate illustrations, and once I healed, I felt a strong pull to start painting again. The pull has become a fundamental need as I actively seek opportunities to carve out time in my studio despite still working full-time in a medicine-adjacent discipline.

Painting is meditative practice for me. I can easily get into a flow state and spend hours lost in my studio, not using my thinking brain, but instead feeling and letting go and being transported. I paint what I feel about open spaces and closed spaces, about how I experience the world. I like exploring angles, shapes, and perspectives. I enjoy experimenting with color: what color looks the most energetic next to another? What color creates disharmony when applied next to a peaceful color? I will paint on small surfaces and large surfaces. I will paint with acrylic paint and gouache and acrylic markers, using brushes, spatulas, and anything else to create texture or layers. Sometimes, however, I choose matte over texture. I have the freedom to play, like the little girl I once was. 

I don’t begin a painting or a series with any idealistic or political agenda; rather, the action of painting is simply an extension of my feeling brain, and I want to leave space for the viewer to come to their own conclusions about what a piece means. I don’t name my paintings with kitschy, poetic, verbose language. I want to give the viewer the same freedom I feel when I paint. I want to know, “How does this make you feel?”