About the Artist

My love for painting started with my artistically inclined mother. I felt the need to pick up her art supplies wherever I found them, and she only encouraged my curiosity buying me my own art supplies as I got older. Nothing felt off limits to me. My parents made sure that I felt supported in anything I wanted to do. I went through art classes in middle and high school, mesmerized by the bright colors and images I was able to bring to life that had previously existed only in my head. My love for books began with my parents as well, reading Harry Potter to me every night before bed. I became fascinated with the idea that a magical world could exist beside our own, and from there became an avid reader.

During my years at Berea College, I majored in Studio Art with minors in English and Art History. I was taught to use oil paints to carefully render still lives and the human figure. I quickly became dissatisfied, however, because in these painting classes I was discouraged from bringing to life the magical world that had fascinated me so much in the books I read. I learned to use bright, somewhat surreal colors, and a bit of distortion to make my carefully rendered figures look more fantastical. Fighting through this restriction of subject matter is one of the things that has helped shape me as an artist.

After my time at Berea had ended, I entered the Hollins MFA program in writing and illustration. I’ve always loved writing, and have always dreamed of writing my own books full of the magic and whimsy that I had read about as a child. Currently I’m working on writing and illustrating my MFA thesis, a young adult fantasy novel complete with princesses, witches, magic, unlikely heroes, and smashing the patriarchy.