I love building my houses from repurposed materials but I think painting them has become my favorite part of the process. I’ve missed painting. I find myself feeling frustrated when I attempt painting on traditional flat painting substrates like canvas and wood but I love painting these weird 3D paper and found materials structures. I’m enjoying exploring form and color unburdened by narrative. Weird, right! Who am I? 

Storytelling, though always an important part of the creative process for me, seems to be taking a back seat to the materials and color right now. This is, admittedly, a strange direction for me to be moving but I’ve decided not to fight it. The stories are still in me but strange times call for strange new challenges and directions. My main objective seems to be just to get out of bed and keep moving most days.

I have been incredibly blocked for months. My life and brain and body have changed and old approaches to making are failing me. I don’t know where I fit in the local art community, my family changed shape and our country is upside down and backwards so I’ve been struggling a bit, making a lot of bad choices and art as I try to figure out what’s next for me. I’ve been all over the place, as you have witnessed, scattered and frustrated. I’ve needed time to bang around and make messes. I’m still banging around. I’m feeling better in my new skin/life but the outside human world is freaking me out so I’m still struggling and experimenting. 

This period of reinvention I’ve been in for the past 3 years is far from over. I’ve given in to the demands of this period of shedding and growth and stopped beating myself up because I can’t find my way back to who and where I used to be. I’ve given myself time and space to explore so I can find a new visual vocabulary in this current messed up state of (human)being. I know crazy times compel some artists to move toward community but I’m feeling drawn to natural world and the solitude of the studio where there is no pressure to perform or compete or share. I’m savoring this period of experimentation and even appreciating the failures. It’s a weird time. I’m just grateful I’m still compelled to make.

Originally posted on Instagram on April 1, 2025