This piece came from a time when the world felt heavy with racial tension, and my son was beginning to feel the weight of things I could never fully understand. I couldn’t know his experience, but imagining what he must’ve been carrying lived in my body in a way I still remember.

As a white mother raising Black children, there’s a deep ache that comes from knowing your kids will be judged before they’re known. 

The black and white in this painting represent Black and white people, and the purple and blue underneath are the part of me that still hopes - the glimpse of what we could be if we truly loved each other.

This piece is part pain, part fear… and part hope.

Some pieces come from curiosity or play, and some come from the moments that break you open.

This painting was one of my first processing pieces. I made it after George Floyd was murdered here in my home of Minnesota. 

I remember feeling this deep, aching sadness, the kind that sits in your chest and doesn’t move.

My husband is Black. My children are Black. My heart is woven into a community that has lived with the reality of racism long before it was caught on camera. Seeing that moment so clearly, so publicly, was horrifying.

I didn’t have language for the grief or the fear or the truth of it, so I let the paint hold it for me.

This piece is what my heart looked like while I was trying to make sense of something that should never have happened.

This was the first abstract painting I ever created completely on my own.

No guide. No instructions. Just me, color, texture, and curiosity. I didn’t know what I was doing, I just wanted to see what would happen if I trusted my hands.

Looking back, I can see the beginning of the techniques I still use today… the layered textures, the rich color, the movement, the way I fill the canvas with energy instead of empty space.

It’s funny, I wasn’t trying to paint anything specific, but it ended up looking like a city to me. Alive, bright, full of motion.

This piece was the moment I realized I could create something from nothing - the moment I started becoming the artist I am now.

This was the first abstract painting I ever made in a guided class — 1•18•21

I remember standing there stunned that my hands created this. Something shifted in me that day. 

This was the moment I stopped just “following steps” and started listening to myself.

If you look closely, you’ll see the beginning of something that’s now a signature in my work - tiny gold affirmation words woven into the layers.

I am… kind. love. fearless. peace. enough. strong.

This was the birth of my meaningful art. The first time I realized painting could be healing, grounding, and deeply personal.

This piece still hangs in my living room, a reminder of where it all began.