Finding mountains
I grew up in the Hill Country outside of Austin, Texas. My siblings and I were constantly outdoors finding the most ridiculous ways to entertain ourselves with trees and rocks and anything else we could find. This childlike love of creativity in nature slowly transformed itself throughout my life into a driving force pushing me towards mountains. I worked as a backpacking guide in New Mexico's Sange de Cristo mountains for 4 summers in college and fell in love with camping and hiking and not taking a shower for a week at a time. That love led me to eventually discover the Pacific Northwest, and I am so happy to have found my way up here and now get to call Seattle home for this chapter of my life.
painting on planes
I learned how to paint while studying abroad in Italy in college. Technically I took classes while in high school, but I really learned while traveling around Tuscany with a tiny travel set of paints and a stack of watercolor paper scraps. I discovered the joy of stopping at a random cafe or park and losing track of time while sketching out my surroundings. Painting became a joy and a way of letting my mind wander and appreciate everything I saw around me. That love of sitting still eventually merged with my love of hiking, and now I am able to take my tiny paints and papers with me when I backpack to capture the little moments I find out in the wilderness. Which brings me to painting on planes. There is nothing quite as great as a hobby that can keep someone like me occupied while they are trapped in metal tube for four hours or more while hurtling around the globe.
The point of it all
For my New Years Resolution in 2015 I decided to create a painting every day for a year.
That lasted 60 days.
But! I learned a lot during those two months and continued to paint regularly after that as a means of meditation and reflection. I realized that art is a way to document my life and also a way to experiment and create an identity for myself outside of my architecture career. This website is a way for me to catalogue all of my paintings and share them with the world. Some are more refined, others are more experimental, many I love far more than the rest. If you see one that particularly speaks to you but is not listed in my shop, let me know! I might still have the original lying around, or can work with you to create something similar.
This website is my personal project to catalogue my creations and hopefully bring a tiny bit of joy to anyone who happens upon it.