about me.

If I could only paint one subject for the rest of my life, it would be the human body. At the age of 4, I was sketching every person in my family, complete will all ten fingernails - usually painted. Before I started any formal art training, I tried my hand at portraiture and loved it. I couldn't believe that you could recreate someone's likeness on paper! When I hit the age of art education, every chance I got I would put myself back in the figure drawing seat. There was something magnetic about it for me.

As an adult I am still fascinated with the beauty and intricacies of the human body - the way it moves, and bends, and slumps, and stretches. I love that every body on this planet is different, and that it houses an entire universe of unique experience inside of it. I love that no matter your size, age, or ability there are things that only you have, out of the whole world's population.

That fascination with the body followed me into fashion design, which I studied in college. I've never been able to shake the feeling that clothing should honor the body wearing it, not force the body to fit the clothing. So much of what's on the rack is built for an imagined "standard" shape that barely exists in real life - and I could never find pieces that actually flattered the body in front of me. Now I make custom clothing instead, cut and fitted to the person wearing it, so the garment becomes another way of paying attention to a body's particular shape, movement, and story - the same attention I bring to a canvas.

What I wish for our culture and our world is that everyone was more able to see that in themselves. What I hope I am able to spark in my viewer - whether through a painting or a piece of clothing made just for them - is an appreciation for our bodies - what they're capable of, how they look, and how they've carried us through life.