I was born in Los Angeles but spent most of my childhood, growing up in Mazatlán, Mexico. In 2002, my family moved from Mazatlán to Nashville, Tennessee—a second culture shock in my eleven years that eclipsed the first relocation. My mother, a former professional jazz singer from New Orleans and my father, a former British Rock musician, raised me to look for Art in everything. As musicians, their mediums were music and lyrics. My mediums are brushes and oils.

All aspects of my creative practice reflect my key motivation, put into words by Symbolist poet, Stéphane Mallarmé: to capture “not the thing, but the effect it produces.”

I paint narratively whereby my work's environments and principal forms oblige viewers to feel voyeuristic. Many portraits feature nude figures, as their nakedness forces perspective, leading the viewer to perceive privacy. Motifs of solitude transform the viewer from observer to participant. Using allegorical imagery in scenes of Intimism, I conceptualize each story so that it is ambiguous enough to be widely relatable. Seeing ourselves in art can feel ingratiating or revealing. Recognizing ourselves in the ubiquitous or mythical preserves our mysteries.

I create art much like a novelist with a storyboard, but in reverse. Stories flow from my brush onto the canvas and the figure becomes a protagonist. Women, specifically, women of color are my central leads. It is their stories that I want to paint. As a woman of mixed-race, I have wrestled with my identity in the context of my own life’s story, often penning others as the main character. I am not unique in this experience and so I paint for those whose stories are also untold—unwritten—not because they need me to, but rather because I long to. I am compelled to honor lost legends. I long for people to see a piece of themselves in my work.

I create worlds that appear familiar, using design concepts of Surrealism and Neo-Expressionism. Subjects are representational or abstracted. In executing form and structure, I am most influenced by Nouveau réalisme. Imperfection is what makes us people--creatures capable of empathy and connection. I want viewers to see themselves in the atmosphere of the story through the sentiment and attitude of the subjects, not if the figure is aesthetically “worthy” of relatability--more posture, less pose.