There are many methods to awaken more fully in the present moment. My body? It went nuclear. I’m talking explosive bloody shits 20 times a day. Any joy, focus, or serenity chiefly upended by panic running to the bathroom. The pain of the present moment brought me to my knees. If not from my gut, then from the fear and uncertainty. 

When I healed, I was no longer just sitting in class, working on a painting, or observing light. I was catching myself as an active participant in the divinity of fleeting moments. The totality of the present would dawn on me as I witnessed everything co-occurring around me, and realized everything that had to transpire up until these moments— moments which left me brimming with tears of gratitude and awe.

The paradox of these sacred feelings lies in that they were inextricable from the worst. A more refined definition of purity emerged in my mind–one that encompasses chaos and multitudes. I had questions about the nature of consciousness, how it exists within us, outside us, and between us, how we constantly shape and are shaped by experience, and what the implications of that might be.

My work follows this rich intensity of feeling and curiosity towards humanity, juxtaposing form, vibrancy, and harmony against emptiness, darkness and chaos. I echo gratitude through joyful color and sprightly movement–reminding the viewer of dance and celebration. Symmetry, and transformation allude to rebirth and awakening. Fluid shapes that enmesh, open into caverns, and disappear reference the interconnected flux of life and consciousness.

I anchor my work in these themes while designing through intuitive guidance, play, and experimentation. There is often a lapse of time between finishing a work and understanding it. You needn’t derive the same meaning as I have. Rather, we can co-construct a more expansive meaning about what we are looking at. This speaks to my goal of providing a gateway for awareness, a space for you to contemplate and open up–just as you might do when going for a walk-noticing the forms and colors, and what responses you have to your observations.