"Wild Feminine" 2023 Fine Art Ornaments
A new collection of hand-painted ornaments
“Wild Feminine”
2023 Ornament Collection
This year, I found myself craving more freedom in my ornament design.
2023 has brought a lot of changes for our family and now we are readying ourselves (and our home) for even more changes as we prepare for a new baby coming in the spring! While I normally love working on large-scale paintings and the space they afford me to express myself, my life, at this time, is full to the brim (in the sweetest way), and so the space that my creative work occupies is adjusting to reflect these changes.
As the scale of my paintings have sized down, I've embraced the challenge of bringing the same intensity and feelings of freedom of my largest paintings onto a smaller surface.
This year, I wanted to challenge myself to do the same with my ornaments. I wanted to bring the same freedom, play, joy, courage, and boldness of my large-scale paintings and marry it with the delicate features of the ceramic and hand-dyed velvet ribbon.
And what came through is a celebration of femininity and freedom, play and expression, and I could not be more pleased with them!
Say “hello” to the “Wild Feminine” Ornament Collection!
The 2023 “Wild Feminine” ornaments will be available exclusively to Collectors Club Members on Friday, November 17th. They will then become publicly available on Saturday, November 18th.
Collectors Club Members will be getting exclusive access to the ornaments on Friday, November 18th on my website. You can join the Collectors Club here to get early access. Otherwise, they will become publicly available on Saturday, November 19th!
'Tis the Season: Coming November 3rd
A COLLECTION OF SMALL ABSTRACT PAINTINGS TELLING THE STORY OF LIVES LIVED ACROSS MANY SEASONS
‘Tis the Season
A Collection of small abstract paintings telling the story of lives lived across many seasons
This is a collection of small abstract works telling the story of many lives lived across many seasons.
I was having a conversation with friends recently about favorite holidays. I shared that my favorite holidays were New Years and Birthdays because both are signify markers in time.
I love celebrating birthdays (no matter whose birthday) and New Years because they both acknowledge the passage of time. New Years and Birthdays both feel like occasions where we are in transition: fully conscious of all that has passed, hopefully looking toward the future, and in a moment between those two places we are fully aware of the preciousness of the present.
I always use my birthday and New Years as opportunities to reflect - reflecting on how I have grown, reflecting on parts of myself that need more loving attention, and acknowledging the life that has been lived up until this point fully aware that it may be wildly different in the course of a year.
“'Tis the Season” is a celebration of all the lives that have been lived in a lifetime and a reminder to savor the fleeting present as the changing future fast approaches.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
'Tis the Season: 2023 Holiday Collection
A COLLECTION OF SMALL ABSTRACT PAINTINGS TELLING THE STORY OF LIVES LIVED ACROSS MANY SEASONS
‘Tis the Season
A Collection of small abstract paintings telling the story of lives lived across many seasons
This November I am sharing a collection of small-scale abstract paintings - something I don't do very often!
Y'all know my love for big paintings, I've shared before how I love the physicality that comes with painting something bigger than me, so it isn't often that I paint on a surface so small.
But art is nothing if not a mirror reflecting back to us ourselves, and in this current season of life our family is going through a lot of changes.
2023 started out with our daughter getting a pretty severe medical diagnosis that we've been monitoring all year (don't worry, she's doing great and has responded to treatment beautifully), we're in the middle of renovating our basement, and now our family is expanding! We are welcoming our second daughter to the Parks Pack in March of 2024.
All of this, of course, in addition to our regular obligations my husband and I share with jobs, community organizing, parenting, and so on.
With so many things taking up space in my life, the amount of space my art has been able to occupy has been much smaller. These paintings are a reflection of the stolen moments - the desperate need to capture the fleeting feelings found in the quiet minutes just before the next wave of change washes in.
‘Tis the Season for change, the transition from one season to the next, a time of preparation. I see it in the way the light shining through the trees on the dirt trail grows softer and the coolness of night comes earlier and earlier, ushering me indoors like a momma ringing the dinner bell to let the family know it’s time for supper.
’Tis the Season to find the warmth at the heart of the home and settle into pockets of stillness where they can be found.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
Your Anger Doesn't Make You Hard to Love
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
For so many years, I believed that my anger made me hard to love, so I hid her in the darkest corners of my psyche with hopes that no one would ever see her or hear from her, until I started painting.
My abstract work became my outlet for expressing my anger, the setting where I could sit with her, listen to her, and learn to be in relationship with her. I quickly learned that my anger was rarely alone and usually accompanied by the other neglected parts of myself, like my sadness, shame, guilt, and fear.
I started to understand the role of my anger - like the big sister I had always wanted for myself growing up - standing up for and protecting the tender parts of myself I had also been neglecting.
At first she’d come out in floods of tears and fury that would often leave me feeling like an exposed nerve, but the more I sat with her, the more peaceful she became, the more mature she became. We would always meet at the canvas where we would speak in the language of color and form and chart histories through marks and lines and the resulting composition was our coming together.
And after some time growing together, creating together, she has learned to speak with more tact, and I have learned the ways of loving her.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
An Ode to Anger
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?"
For so many years, I believed that my anger made me hard to love, so I hid her in the darkest corners of my psyche with hopes that no one would ever see her or hear from her, until I started painting.
My abstract work became my outlet for expressing my anger, the setting where I could sit with her, listen to her, and learn to be in relationship with her. I quickly learned that my anger was rarely alone and usually accompanied by the other neglected parts of myself, like my sadness, shame, guilt, and fear.
I started to understand the role of my anger - like the big sister I had always wanted for myself growing up - standing up for and protecting the tender parts of myself I had also been neglecting.
At first she’d come out in floods of tears and fury that would often leave me feeling like an exposed nerve, but the more I sat with her, the more peaceful she became, the more mature she became. We would always meet at the canvas where we would speak in the language of color and form and chart histories through marks and lines and the resulting composition was our coming together.
And after some time growing together, creating together, she has learned to speak with more tact, and I have learned the ways of loving her.
This collection is a love letter to my rage, an ode to my anger, and a thank you for her bringing me this far.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
Courage Comes From the Garden
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?"
This body of work is a reflection on the ways in which I have matured into my rage since creating “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden” and a way for me to integrate all of the lessons I have learned since then.
For so many years, I believed that my anger made me hard to love, so I hid her in the darkest corners of my psyche with hopes that no one would ever see her or hear from her, but then I started painting.
My abstract work became my outlet for expressing my anger, the setting where I could sit with her, listen to her, and learn to be in relationship with her.
And what I have come to understand from that relationship is that anger most often points us to the more tender parts of ourselves that still need the light of our attention, and to face those parts requires courage.
So when I ask the question, “If my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" the answer to that question is the courage to face and embrace the parts of myself that need the most love.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
A Crown of Snakes
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
My painting and writing serve as an outlet for me to process my experience as a woman, mother, and trauma survivor. Part of that processing involves examining the narratives that I have both inherited and developed along the way.
I spend a considerable amount time reflecting on the role of women in the mythologies we have inherited and how in those mythologies, the suffering of humankind always seems to fall on the shoulders of women: Lilith refusing to lay under Adam, desiring to be equal to him and her resulting banishment, Eve choosing to eat the forbidden fruit and, too, being banished, Pandora opening the box and unleashing misery and evil on the world, Medusa being assaulted by Poseidon in the temple of Athena and being cursed by Athena (because how could she punish Poseidon?) to live as a gorgon turning men to stone, etc.
These are the mythologies that are at the bedrock of centuries old cultural systems - and those are just a few - but these stories lead to beliefs, beliefs about women and the danger of their desire, the threat of their curiosity, and the trouble they bring when left to their own devices.
As I mature into my rage, I find myself more and more identifying with and relating to the rage of these women - especially Medusa. Artist Mark Bradford’s 2016 piece, “Medusa”, and an excerpt from his poem, “Hephaestus”, are two pieces of work that have stuck with me for years, perfectly capturing this feeling for me:
“There stood Medusa
Mad as hell
I looked her dead in the eye
And knew her.
She hid me inside her crown
I was quiet, I was safe
Watching
Watching her turn men to stone”
-Mark Bradford
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
Stretch Your Legs
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
As a survivor who processes my trauma through painting, my artwork serves as a historical catalog charting the progression of my healing journey. Each painting serves as a marker of a moment in time on that journey, like a timestamp, reflecting back to me the subconscious wounding that still needs my attention, and the ways in which I have grown.
At that time in 2020, I was just coming into an awareness of the degree to which I had suppressed my emotions in shame and how little understanding I had about emotional regulation. My 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”, was the first time I had found a place to direct the decades of repressed rage I struggled to contain.
So much of the work of healing from trauma is unlearning the habits born from shame that became essential to my survival, and many of those habits involved censoring and editing myself to be the most palatable to others. What I have come to understand in the last three years is how necessary it is for trauma survivors to have a space where they can safely allow themselves to be at their most vulnerable, most angry, most unhinged, most liberated, and most uncensored, and what I know for myself is that abstract painting is that place for me. With each passing year, I strive to find a new level of freedom in my expression, and with each new body of artwork I find my paintings asking me to be braver and bolder than I have ever been before.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
I Refuse To Swallow
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
“What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence?” - Audra Lorde
I used to love watching scary movies as a kid, but now, as an adult, reality is terrifying enough. Each day another mass shooting, each day more children being murdered, horror after horror bleeding over and into the next, so many that I have to ask, “Which one was that again?” while walking into work on a Tuesday morning. By Thursday I am fighting against becoming desensitized to the stories, but I wonder how many more stories like this it will take before I break and that’s why I can’t be trusted with a gun. It’s Friday and I pull into the grocery store parking lot and see multiple police cars and my body fills with fear like gas in a can only to realize that someone has had a stroke, so I go in and buy the eggs. Last Wednesday I was sent to the waiting room at the dentist to wait for my appointment and survey the room for the easiest place to hide before choosing my seat. Every day I walk my daughter into her school I silently worry about the windows that are in every classroom.
And though I am tired by the time I go to bed, I can’t go to sleep because I am just so fucking angry.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
Where Do You Hide Your Anger?
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
Several years of my life were spent concealing and denying my anger, and I gained nothing. A lot of this was because, as a woman in the south, I was taught to be polite, to be a “yes girl”, to be what Gillian Flynn describes as a “cool girl” in her book Gone Girl.
The day that I painted “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden” I learned to be in relationship to my anger. I listened to the rhythms of my anger, I studied its substance, and I found the information and energy it contained.
In the time since, I have worked to know the strengths and limitations of my anger and how it is presented.
And now I use painting to express my anger and that is where I have found growth.
Where Do You Hide Your Anger?
Where do you hide your anger?
Do you take the heart of her fury
And in a boiling bath
Bottle it, can it, and seal it
Inside of a glass ball jar?
Do you place her heart
High up on a too cluttered shelf,
Under a thick layer of dust,
With the promise that one day
Her purpose will come?
What do you say to your anger?
Do you fill her ears with venom when
With a slip of her unpracticed tongue,
She cuts the unintended
And gets splashed with their blood?
Do you sew her mouth shut,
And shame her for coming undone,
Sending her to her room alone
To do laundry
And think about what she’s done?
What if you loved your anger?
What if you gave her a place to play
To run, to scream, to jump, to rage,
And, when she was ready,
Walked her home for the night?
What if you loved your anger?
Fed her, bathed her, clothed her, rocked her,
And at bedtime spoke to her in
Whispers as sweet as milk and honey?
What if you loved your anger,
Holding her hand in the dark
Tracing the veins in her wrists
To the source of her heart?
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
My abstract work is my outlet for processing my experience as a woman, mother, and trauma survivor and all the emotions and narratives that get wrapped up in that experience.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
In a lot of ways, I think gardening is an appropriate metaphor for the healing process. I think we often view healing as a destination, like after so many years of therapy you will arrive at “healed”, or you will be awarded a certificate declaring the work as “completed”, but healing is much more like a garden. Healing, like a garden, requires regular weeding, pruning, and maintenance, and sometimes the soil needs additional nutrients in order for the plants to thrive, but the main thing that both healing and gardening require is attention.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
Wise or not, I walk to my garden barefoot
The earth, though warm, is cool on my feet
Compared to the thickness of southern summer heat.
The garden, neglected, is wild, surviving,
I step on a spikey weed.
Thick, overgrown, dogged, resistant,
Overripe vegetables now rotten,
Patterned, combative, protective, unrelenting,
Untamed, untended,
A tangled mess.
What can be brought from this garden?
Wise or not, I garden without gloves,
Pulling the weeds with my hands and
The plants bite back.
Fibers of stems stabbing through my skin,
A familiar pain creeping in while I
Untangle knots of vines.
There is a core of rot in the garden.
Digging, purging, ripping, tearing,
Crying, chopping, cutting, remembering,
exhuming, scraping, digging, hoeing,
There is a violence to birthing that many don't see.
There is so much rot in the garden.
Wise or not, I lay in the dirt,
Mixing tears and sweat into mud,
Painting my face with pigment of the earth,
I’ve lived through many wars.
Amending, nurturing, restoring, repairing,
Regretting, forgiving, wishing for forgetting,
But knowing that learning comes from remembering,
What has been wrought from the garden?
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
Lilith's Garden
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
2023
“What Has Been Brought From the Garden?”
Collection
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
Growing up, it always seemed like there were different rules for men and women around anger and how to express it.
The rules that applied to my brothers didn’t apply for me. If they were angry, they had permission to handle their emotions with their fists (which is problematic for other reasons). If I was angry, I was sent to my room.
The messaging I received as a child seemed to be that anger was a scary emotion. Anger in men was explosive, violent, and scary, but excusable, and anger in me, a woman, was intolerable and would result in me being abandoned. As a young adult, this translated to me exiling my anger to the farthest depths of my self, denying its existence, and defaulting into people-pleasing habits to avoid abandonment.
This experience reminds me of the story of Lilith, Adam’s first wife. Lilith was said to have been created from dirt, like Adam, as an equal, and because she believed them to be equals, she refused to lay beneath him during sex and would not obey him. Adam, however, disagreed with Lilith’s beliefs, and so Lilith fled from the Garden to have her independence. Adam told God that Lilith fled the Garden and angels were sent to find her and punish her.
I think of feminine rage as the archetype of Lilith - cast out and exiled from society for speaking too loudly, for asking too much, for wanting.
But if I had to choose between the Garden of Eden and a garden with Lilith, I’d choose Lilith’s Garden.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden?" Coming May 19th!
A new collection of large-scale paintings inspired by my 2020 poem and painting, “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”.
What Has Been Brought From the Garden?
"What Has Been Brought From the Garden" is my latest collection of artwork. This collection of paintings is inspired by my painting and poem, "My Rage is Like a Flower Garden", that I wrote in the heat of the locked-down summer of 2020.
The focus of this collection was to explore the theme of feminine rage, creating work that was floral and feminine in color palette, but rage-filled in expression and intensity. This collection consists of large, attention-grabbing paintings that cannot be ignored because of their size.
In reflecting on my 2020 painting and poem, I wondered, "if my rage is like a flower garden, what have I harvested from it?" The paintings and accompanying writings are the answer to that question.
“My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”, 36”x36”, acrylic, oil pastel, and graphite on gallery wrapped canvas
“My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”
My rage is like a flower garden
That is generous in its blooms.
It is hot and sticky like blood and summer-
But in the south where it tends to linger.
My rage is like a flower garden
Tangled with knots of vines-
The start of one and the end of another-
Just webs of stories woven together.
My rage is like a flower garden
Full of thorns like teeth,
That bite, and tear, and leave their marks,
Protecting the roots that are buried deep.
My rage is like a flower garden
Smoking with steam from a heavy rain.
So much so, it makes it hard to swallow,
So I carry it in my mouth-
Boiling,
Shaking,
And spilling it as I go.
Several years of my life were spent concealing and denying my anger, and I gained nothing. A lot of this was because, as a woman in the south, I was taught to be polite, to be a “yes girl”, to be what Gillian Flynn describes as a “cool girl” in her book Gone Girl.
But I learned something the day that I painted “My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”. I listened to the rhythms of my anger, I studied its substance, and I found the information and energy it contained.
In the time since, I have worked to know the strengths and limitations of my anger and how it is presented.
And now I use painting to express my anger and that is where I have found growth.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
New Collection: Coming Soon
A new collection of large-scale paintings
NEW Collection
Inspired by my 2020 poem, My Rage is Like a Flower Garden.
There is a new body of work in development in the studio that I am really excited to share about.
This collection is inspired by my poem, My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”, and the painting I created of the same title back in 2020 as part of my There are No Bad Emotions collection. Read on to read the poem!
When I was creating the There are No Bad Emotions collection, My Rage is Like a Flower Garden was the second painting to come in the collection. I can remember the day that I was creating it in my studio/living room. The walls of my house were shaking while I was rage-painting. The poem of the same title that accompanied the painting was written during the painting process. I would paint, then stop to write, then paint more, then write more, and back and forth I went.
In my mind I had the image of a wild, overgrown rose garden that was full of tangled vines of thorns and the idea that even something as delicate as a rose is capable of drawing blood.
As I continue to develop my voice and vision as an artist, and mature into my rage, this is an image that continues to stick with me - which is why I have wanted to revisit this poem and the concept.
This new collection of work features all large-body paintings done in vibrant, floral, and feminine colors, but with violent and rage-filled intensity of a caged animal.
While I would love to release this collection in the spring, and I might still, I already have a desire to sit with the paintings that have come forward longer and enjoy their presence in my home.
So, for now, I will leave you with my original poem!
“My Rage is Like a Flower Garden”
My rage is like a flower garden
That is generous in its blooms.
It is hot and sticky like blood and summer-
But in the south where it tends to linger.
My rage is like a flower garden
Tangled with knots of vines-
The start of one and the end of another-
Just webs of stories woven together.
My rage is like a flower garden
Full of thorns like teeth,
That bite, and tear, and leave their marks,
Protecting the roots that are buried deep.
My rage is like a flower garden
Smoking with steam from a heavy rain.
So much so, it makes it hard to swallow,
So I carry it in my mouth-
Boiling,
Shaking,
And spilling it as I go.
If you want to stay up to date on the progress of this collection and be part of the private viewing when it happens, you can join the Collectors Club here!
Lion Heart Ornaments
A new collection of hand-painted ornaments
Lion Heart
2022 Ornament Collection
Inspired by the individuals who choose not to hide from their emotions.
Remember when I said I couldn't choose between my color palettes for my ornaments this year?
Say hello to the Lion Heart ornaments! The fourth collection (so far) of 2022 ornaments!
I have a deep love for the color pairing of hot pink and burnt orange. This bold color combination signals to me confidence and courage, but with a playfulness and sweetness - which are exactly the qualities of a Lion Hearted person!
Lion Hearts are individuals who manage to keep a soft heart in a hard world - the individuals who brave the depths that many are too scared to explore (any Brene Brown fans out there? She is definitely a Lion Heart!) . The Lion Heart ornament collection is dedicated to the people who aren’t scared to have the hard conversations, and manage to maintain empathy, compassion, and kindness throughout.
I grew up in a household that taught the belief that emotions were a sign of weakness and when it came to having hard discussions, they were best handled by not having them at all. For someone like myself, with a soft heart, big emotions, and who struggles with perfectionism, this was really challenging because anytime I couldn’t manage to suppress my feelings, I felt like a failure.
Shame around my emotions was a struggle for a long time, but I have since come to recognize the strength that is being a deep-feeler and the courage it takes to sit with the discomfort of hard feelings.
The Lion Heart ornament collection is dedicated to the people who aren’t scared to have the hard conversations, and manage to maintain empathy, compassion, and kindness throughout. The Collection is inspired by the individuals who can hold in both hands the cruelty of the world along with the beauty and wonderment.
Collectors Club Members will be getting exclusive access to the ornaments on Friday, November 18th on my website. You can join the Collectors Club here to get early access. Otherwise, they will become publicly available on Saturday, November 19th!
Fighting Spirit Ornaments
A new collection of hand-painted ornaments
Fighting Spirit
2022 Ornament Collection
Dedicated to the individuals who choose action when confronted by the disparity between the world they imagine and the world they see.
In 2019, I started organizing an art festival to take place in my hometown in Bristol, TN/VA.
The festival is called Bristol in Bloom (you can check it out here!) and was originally supposed to take place on Mother’s Day weekend in May of 2020 when the Dogwood trees would have been blooming.
But, as we all well know, 2020 happened and it ended up not taking place until the fall of October 2021 when the leaves were blooming instead!
Event planning is something I had zero previous experience with, but after watching so many of my friends leave the area over the years because there wasn’t a strong art community and very few artist opportunities here, I felt like I needed to do something. I loved this region and the landscape too much to leave it again, so I decided to start Bristol in Bloom to create the arts community that I longed to have in my hometown.
I now have two years under my belt organizing Bristol in Bloom. There have been so many moments where I have been ready to quit, where I have questioned why I do this, debated giving up and walking away from the event all together…
…But then I see the changes this event is making in the community, the people it brings together, the way people are connecting with art and artists, the artists deepening their roots in the community, and I know without question that the stress, the sleepless nights, the worry, the fear, and ALL of the tears, are all worth it in the end.
For a long time, I longed to leave my hometown (and I did for a short while) because I didn’t believe the community here would ever be one that reflected myself or the people I love and admire within it. Since creating the festival, though, I have met several artists who I would now consider to be some of my closest friends and deepened my love for this region. While there is still so much I hope to see change in my community, I know now more than ever that leaving the area will only ensure that nothing changes and I love this area too much to give up the fight.
The Fighting Spirit ornament collection is dedicated to the change-makers in the world, the stubborn individuals who don’t give up when the going gets tough and choose action for the better. This is a limited edition ornament collection with only a few available to the public. The ornaments are colorful, layered, and highly textured, reflecting the battle-tested energy of the fighting spirit.
Collectors Club Members will be getting exclusive access to the ornaments on Friday, November 18th on my website. You can join the Collectors Club here to get early access. Otherwise, they will become publicly available on Saturday, November 19th!
Rabbit Heart Ornaments
A new collection of hand-painted ornaments
Rabbit Heart
2022 Ornament Collection
Inspired by the thoughtful and curious individuals who ask questions rather than make assumptions.
Fun Fact: I am the kind of person that when faced with a choice between two (or more) things that I love, I will most likely choose all of them.
Which is exactly what happened with my ornaments this year!
I could not choose between the palettes I had picked out - I just loved them all so much! Rather than forcing myself to make a hard choice, I problematically avoided the discomfort (I am picturing Chidi from The Good Place getting a stomach ache when faced with a choice between any two things) and chose all of them, ha!
With that said, I am excited to share the Rabbit Heart Ornament Collection coming on November 18th to Collectors Club Members!
The Rabbit Heart ornament collection is in large part inspired by Alice from Alice in Wonderland.
For those who don’t know, I love literature (fun fact: my Bachelor’s Degree is in English Literature - not visual arts!), and I often find inspiration through writing. Alice in Wonderland is a book I have loved for as long as I can remember (another fun fact: my tattoo sleeve on my left arm is in the theme of Alice in Wonderland).
ICYMI: Alice in Wonderland begins with a young girl named Alice sitting by a river bank who spies a white rabbit checking a pocket watch and complaining about being late. When the white rabbit runs off and down a rabbit hole, Alice chooses to follow and the rest of the story is following her journey, and her transformation, through Wonderland.
One of my favorite quotes from Alice in Wonderland (also tattooed on my arm) is, “I knew who I was this morning, but I’ve changed a few times since then.”
The Rabbit Heart ornament collection is inspired by Alice, her wild curiosity, and the transformation she goes through during her adventures through Wonderland. Throughout the book, Alice is reflective, thoughtful, and introspective - and while rabbits are often associated with fear, Alice demonstrates bravery and courage over and over again, especially in her pursuit of all that makes her wonder. The Rabbit Heart ornament collection speaks to the courage it takes to explore the answers to big questions and live in a state of wonder.
Collectors Club Members will be getting exclusive access to the ornaments on Friday, November 18th on my website. You can join the Collectors Club here to get early access. Otherwise, they will become publicly available on Saturday, November 19th!
Rebel Spirit Ornaments
A new collection of hand-painted ornaments
Rebel Spirit Ornaments
Inspired by the people living authentically
I am so excited to offer a new set of inspired holiday ornaments in my shop this year.
This is only the second year of creating ornaments, but it has easily become my new favorite holiday tradition, a fun way for me to get into the holiday spirit.
Time is such a funny thing after living through (still living through?) a pandemic. In preparing to release my new ornaments into the world, I caught myself thinking, “November, already?! Where has the time gone?” 2022 has both flown by in the blink of an eye while also feeling like it has been stretched out over a period of 3 years.
Events that happened this past spring, like back in April when I participated in the ArtFields competition in Lake City, South Carolina, feel years away from where I am today. What was a moment of great significance at the time, now just a date marked off in my calendar.
While I do think that is the nature of time and aging, I also think that speaks to the growth I have experienced as an artist over the course of this year.
This year I hit multiple, significant milestones in my art career that, on the surface, indicate the progress I have made as an artist, but those milestones are only a reflection of the internal growth I have experienced. The true measure of growth is in the confidence I have found in expressing myself authentically through my art.
Each year I hope to push the boundaries in the expression of my feelings of freedom, boldness, and femininity in my work and to use color, gesture, and mark-making to communicate those feelings as truly and authentically as they come through me - no matter how messy and wild they may appear to others. This year, with the release of my newest collection, “HerStory: a Survivor’s Journey”, I feel like I am the closest I have ever come to authentically communicating those themes and finding my voice as an artist.
Not coincidentally, the closer I come to aligning with my artistic voice, the more secure I become in my relationship to my work and its place in the world.
The confidence and security that comes from living authentically and without shame is exactly what the “Rebel Spirit” Ornament Collection is inspired by. This collection of ornaments is dedicated to the rebels out there bravely choosing to not hide who they are by allowing their vulnerability to be witnessed by others. Each ornament is hand-painted and completely unique (just like you), so no two are exactly alike. I painted them intending for them to be incorporated into long-held family traditions and, like the good traditions that endure, be passed down as precious heirlooms for generations to come.
Collectors Club Members will be getting exclusive access to the ornaments on Friday, November 18th on my website. You can join the Collectors Club here to get early access. Otherwise, they will become publicly available on Saturday, November 19th!
HerStory: Home in Her Self
Sharing with you what my art is really about
HerStory: A Survivor’s Journey
A collection of large abstract paintings
Home in Her Self
“HerStory” is a living history, telling the story of my healing journey and detailing the discoveries I am making about myself as a human, mother, woman, artist, and survivor along the way.
The paintings from my HerStory Collection are a reckoning with parts of my body and mind that have remained hidden, an attempt to decipher which narratives around womanhood, femininity, and my role in the world are actually my own, which I have inherited, and which of those need to be re-written. This collection serves as a mirror, a way to see those parts of myself, know them, and be for myself what I have always needed.
Since I was a child, the messaging I received around femininity has always felt in conflict with my own experience and expression of femininity. Femininity was always presented to me as ruffles and lace, bows with curls, charming giggles, politeness, restriction, submission, joyful, but femininity in me has never been that. Loud and expressive, rebellious and assertive, wild, boisterous, competitive, athletic, strong, rage-filled; I have always felt most at home in the mess, in the space of undone.
My “Home in Her Self” painting is the physical representation of the rewriting of the narratives I inherited around femininity and serves as a reclamation of my feminine identity the way that I experience it - brave, raw, and commanding.
You can view “Home in Her Self” from my “HerStory: A Survivor’s Journey” Collection in my shop here.
HerStory: Finding the Heart of a Long-held Narrative
Sharing with you what my art is really about
HerStory: A Survivor’s Journey
A collection of large abstract paintings
Finding the Heart of a Long-held narrative
“HerStory” is a living history, telling the story of my healing journey and detailing the discoveries I am making about myself as a human, mother, woman, artist, and survivor along the way.
The physical nature of my work serves as a form of self-administered EMDR therapy, scribbling stories on a surface then connecting the physical sensations of the grip of a paint brush, the cool and slippery texture of paint on my fingers, the lyrical and gestural motions of applying paint to surface while following threads of thought as they weave and tangle in knots in my mind. Throughout the process of painting, though, the knots begin to loosen and I find the heart of the narratives that have driven me, consciously or otherwise, and like Hansel and Gretel following the trail of crumbs, I make my way back out of the woods to be greeted by the abstract forms, lines, and marks that map the journey to my healing.
You can view the “Finding the Heart of a Long-held Narrative” from my “HerStory: A Survivor’s Journey” Collection in my shop here.