Art history is full of women drawn by men. Sometimes I feel that the more fetishized and voyeuristic the representation, the better.
What would happen if those women turned around? 

As an artist and a model, I love exploring the place of women in art both behind and in front of the canvas. My series, WTF Art History, challenges the ways women have been depicted throughout art history and captures the women’s determined reactions to push against the voyeuristic gaze. It challenges old conventions of representations and empowers women to reclaim their images and call out the sexism and violence inherent in art history.

The idea of overcoming is always fascinating to me, because few of us realize how much energy we have expended just to be here today.

-Maya Angelou

In 2019, I attended the Feminist Art Collective Artist residence. It was the first time I was accepted for a residency and I immediately felt inadequate.

I decided to channel those feelings into my work and create a project based on my impostor syndrome, my internalized limitations, the internal NO that stops me when I want to pursue my dreams.

I can feel it in my body, I can visualize them in my mind – a large hand forcefully blocking my way. My fears are big, really big! I have built them up in my mind until all I can see is them towering over me.

But with enough determination I can push past them. I can stand on the other side and look back. They are more fragile than I realized. I have created them, and I can see right through them.

Creating this installation has been incredibly cathartic. The process itself of creating something that big was entirely new to me. I experimented with new mediums, a new scale of drawing and creating an interactive piece. I had to push past so much doubt just to physically create it, and the lay it all bare for everyone to see.

I wanted those who saw the installation to not only witness my growth, but have a chance experience it themselves. They were asked to take a piece of paper and write a self-limiting belief, then stand before the hand. Feel the power their belief had over them and then discard the flimsy piece of and make their own way past the hand. At the end of the night I led everyone through a ceremony and burned all the limitations in a fire.

Sometimes you have to look twice to get the full story. Not everything will be revealed at first glance.

There are many sides to a person. Some may be shown only to a lucky few, some to no one. 
Maybe one day I will show you all sides of myself, but until then you’ll have to make due with this.

We are one with nature, we grow like trees. We eat the same food, breathe the same air, sit in the same sunlight. Each year brings new challenges to expand and grow into. It also brings hardships that make us harden and toughen our bark. The hard exterior may be necessary to move through our world, but never forget who you are deep at your core. That soft sap is what sustains you.

Ecosystems aims to playfully challenge the line between the objects we use every day and the natural world. 

Traditionally, porcelain pieces were painted with natural scenes, bringing idealized gardens into our homes. But as any gardener knows, the bugs are part of the garden as much as the flowers. By reintroducing insects into these designs, I try to blend the two realms — replanting these table flowers in the garden, while opening up the home to natural life. Butterflies, ants, moths, beetles, and bees now swirl around the buds and blooms that entice them. 

Where before we might have swept the garden bugs away, now we are enthralled and surprised with their unexpected beauty. Borrowing the traditional style of gold decoration on porcelain, the insects are created of 22-karat gold. Something previously considered "ugly" now uplifts the pottery from ordinary dishes to striking pieces to be treasured and cherished.

Characters consists of vintage hand painted porcelain plates. The plates bear faces which engage the viewer to speak to them. These playful personalities want to strike up a conversation and ask how you relate to the material possessions in your life. Will you throw them away, or keep them around like old friends? Could something new ever replace such characters?