Artist Statement

At five years old, fresh from heart valve replacement surgery, all I wanted was to get back in the water and go swimming with my friends. Ziplock bags & duct tape was my fathers makeshift waterproofing system. It wasn't just about swimming—it was about survival, problem-solving, using what we had and making beautiful memories. It was also beginning of understanding water as my essential element.

Born with a 20% chance at life, I've always existed in relationship understanding the fragility of life, both my own and the live around me. Yet water has always been both sanctuary and necessity to that life.  For me life and water were always taking place at the same time from  junior high, I drew nothing but oceans lakes and streams. In high school, I was swim team captain and I swam for hours. Calculus problems got solved with my face underwater. College tuition was paid through 40-60 hour weeks as a swim instructor and coach, summers spent entirely in pools. With  chronic migraines and more heart surgeries I longed to just soak in the wanter for pain relief.

Water became income. Water became therapy. Water became sanity

Now, at thirty, I've made the choice: water as livelihood, water as art medium, water as the key ingredient to  message of the art.

So many  of the  watercolors I create contains actual water from where it was painted. Storm water, Lake water from Montana, Ocean water from Colombia, Maybe it was just my friend's tap water, but that water holds different properties.  Each painting becomes a liquid diary, impossible to replicate because place and moment can't be bottled and sold.

My art practice is simple: I show up with watercolors, use whatever water is there, and let the place become part of the painting (sand, dirt, leaves, etc.). After decades of water always being a second thought — yet quietly holding up my life physically, financially, and emotionally — I now get to make water into art.

My practice has also grown beyond paper. Through cyanotype printing, I create clothing using sunlight, water, and native plants, allowing the environment itself to leave its imprint. Each piece is shaped by the same base water elements I paint with, making the process as meaningful as the final garment. These pieces are not blank; they arrive with wear, memory, and softness built in.

I give new life to thrifted canvases by applying a watercolor grounding. This is my way of bringing watercolors onto canvas — something that is uncommon, as most watercolors can only exist on canvas as prints. For the first time, I am able to offer original watercolor works on canvas. I also reclaim clothing, honoring materials that already carry history. By working with what already exists, I slow the cycle of consumption and create space for transformation — much like water does as it moves through landscapes, reshaping what it touches over time.