Mixed Media Work

Nostalgia Without Memory

Acrylic paint, Marker, Oil Pastel, Sparkle Mod Podge

2025

Featured in Looking Back at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery

Childhood trauma and mental illness stole so much of my childhood, and yet, I still feel the warmth of nostalgia without remembering much. This mixed media piece is how I processed those feelings and reached a point where I’m comfortable with the gaps. It’s so strange to see pictures of myself without any memories attached, and the memories I do have are so fractured that it’s difficult to make sense of them. Turning those emotional scribbles and flashes into something I can hold in my hands is a huge part of my recovery and accepting that some things are simply not for me to remember.

Identity Crisis

Fabric, Handmade Paper, Acrylic Paint, Embroidery Floss, Photographs, Funeral Flowers

2022

Featured in FIBER at the Mary Cosgrove Dolphin Gallery

“I don’t know who I am if I’m not being abused.”

I came out as nonbinary to my abusive transphobic mother in 2010. It did not go well. I spent my entire life trying to reconcile what I was with what she wanted me to be, so after she passed, this newfound freedom triggered a crisis. Who am I when I don’t limit myself to what she would tolerate? What does her death mean for me, not only as a trans person struggling with my own gender, but as someone who built my life around her unattainable expectations? This piece is the first in a series processing that grief and confusion. I used a variety of materials, each with some significance, but the most notable being preserved flowers from her funeral, photographs of myself from shortly after coming out, and a snippet of how she signed every single birthday card.

To Myself, Trapped in Sixteen Candles

Plotter Print, Impact Label, Homemade Cake, Candles

2017

“To myself, trapped in sixteen candles. You will survive. You’ll watch the sun rise and set more times than you can count. You’ll wade through cities and stories, through the world you always tried to love. You’ll remember the way she looked at you; nothing was as warm as her eyes, or as cold as the day she left. But you’ll survive. So stop writing suicide notes, and stop trying to find yourself. You can’t find something that isn’t there. Instead, rebuild yourself. And when you do, you’ll finally walk away from the abuse you thought was love. And, one day, you’ll come home, and the moment your boots hit the gravel, you’ll feel the life you didn’t think you’d have. There will be bad days, and you’ll spend countless nights listening to dad talk you out of suicide, but you’ll always come back. You wake up after a five hour bus ride, and your legs are freezing, but you’re here, you’re home, and you can create things I can’t even imagine.”

I didn’t think I would live past 16. I really struggled with my mental health, and experienced daily suicidal ideation for most of my middle and high school years. But, here I am. Very much alive, and with a life I didn’t think I could ever have. This piece was created after recovering from a severe breakdown, during which I had to leave college on medical leave and take six months off to receive treatment. I was diagnosed with C-PTSD and finally accepted that my mother was abusive. During my medical leave, I found a wonderful cocktail of psychiatric medications what work for me, repaired my relationship with my mother, and got to a point where I was just a little excited to be alive. My brain is wired to self-destruct, and although I will always have bad days, there are so many reasons to keep going.

Higher Power

Watercolors, Watercolor Pencil, Pen, Impact Label

2017

“I found God in broken tiles and shattered glass. I found him in the voice of an addict, sober 30 years. He said ‘give it up to a higher power.’ I wonder if he knows how hard that is when you wanna kill yourself.”

You only need to know 3 things about this piece:

I wanted to die
The short-term solution was shaving my head
The long-term solution included making this painting

Nesting

Paper Scraps, Beads, Plywood, Spraypaint, Eggshells, Trash

2016

Featured in SIM BIG 2016

We have several homes: the ones we’re born into, the ones others built for us, the ones we were welcomed into, and the ones we built for ourselves. We pull together bits and pieces, whatever scraps we can find. We take shrapnel and turn it into the framework for a new home. I’ve had many homes, most of which were temporary, and this piece functioned as a therapeutic process for me. I realized that, for most of my life, my artwork was my ‘home’, it was my way of creating a safe space for myself, and this is the culmination of that idea: I’ve built a home for myself.