My Process
My work begins with an emotion, memory, or experience I am trying to understand. Music becomes the first guide. I choose a song or instrumental piece and listen to it on repeat throughout the creation of a painting, allowing sound to shape the colors, marks, and movement that emerge.
The inks I use are handmade from natural materials gathered during hikes, from gardens, from kitchen scraps, and from the places I travel. These materials are transformed into pigments that carry both color and story.
Research & Inspiration
The materials I gather are more than sources of color. Each plant, flower, berry, bark, or mineral carries its own history of meanings and associations.
Drawing from traditions such as the Language of Flowers and other symbolic systems, I research the cultural stories connected to the materials I collect. I keep a log of each ink’s source, creation date, and symbolic meanings, then consider how those meanings connect to the music and emotion behind each piece.
Sonic Experience
Music is central to my practice. My listening ranges from 80s synth-pop and New Wave to jazz, ambient music, classical compositions, and instrumental soundscapes.
The music guides each painting. It may be chosen for its direct connection to a memory or because of its ability to capture an emotion. The song is played on repeat through the creative process.
Mixed Media
My work combines handmade inks with drawing, mark-making, collage, and embroidery. Repetitive lines, shapes, and stitched elements create visual rhythms that echo the music and emotions that inspired each piece.
In some works, I incorporate embroidery using threads dyed with the same handmade inks used in the painting itself.
Change over time
Natural inks continue to evolve after a painting is completed. Because they are created from organic materials, the colors may shift subtly as they interact with light, air, and their environment.
I embrace this transformation as part of the artwork itself. Like the experiences that inspire them, these pieces are not static. They hold growth, impermanence, and change.