Exorcise Regularly

11x14”
Acrylic on Canvas
2023
Available

It is a piece about using art to process inner demons and how it gives us a safe space to freely express the sides of ourselves that we try to hide away. When you're a sensitive neurodivergent blob masquerading as a hyper-independent impenetrable chaos dragon, it's impossible not to take on extra weight, even if it's the mask you wear getting heavier and heavier.

This past year I found myself questioning all of my behaviors and beliefs. I questioned everything I knew about my identity, trying to sort out what is Mask and what is me. I noticed that after I started the unmasking journey, little …quirks… bubble back up to the surface that I forgot were there.

Art gave me the space to be able to explore all of this territory as if it were new, as if I'm getting to know myself again for the first time.

This process of shadow work taught me to remember to call myself into question and process behaviors, trauma responses, and social conditioning that don't resonate with me and no longer serve a purpose for me to be a functioning human, and rebuild the neural pathways to heal instead of hide.

It reminded me to exorcise regularly.

2022

Menutaur on the Mountain

16x20”
Available

What was once a raging bull,
destructive and strong,
now finds peace in the rhythm,
playing cello all night long.

Painted at a Bella’s Bartok show 2023

Caretaker at the Creek

48x36”
Acrylic on Canvas
2023
Available

He sat among the flowers and faeries
After a day of talking to trees
From darkness, he learned to see beauty
and is now a source of peace.

Energy grows in his bones
and a sound comes from his bow.
He draws it back
In time, on track
Like breathing, he plays in flow.

He plays his tunes that echo through the hollers
and the hollers always sing back.
The mist shines gold in the setting sun
Mountain’s glow can’t be matched

Though the creature was created through violence
The war has long been over
So now he wants to walk the mountains,
protecting the trees and waters.

You’ll hear him in these ancient hills
in the crickets and the frogs
you’ll hear it come from cracks in rocks
and under fallen logs.

The faeries dance in the day’s last light
and he plays his last little tune
the trees start to shine
like the stars in the sky
under the rising moon.

Painted from a view of Camp Creek State Park in southern West Virginia after a week of rain.