ABOUT 

My Story.

My passion for expressing the unexplainable through visuals and my commitment to education inspire my aspirations to be an artist and art professor. Since graduating from the University of Central Missouri (UCM), I have reflected on my identity and the challenges I faced as a first-generation college student. Despite coming from a low-income background, dealing with siblings with mental illness, and being dyslexic myself, I remain inspired through these challenges to seek out creating and learning. Throughout my college career, I learned to have higher expectations for myself. As an undergraduate, I explored painting to express feelings and thoughts that I found difficult to verbalize. This artistic journey provided me with a space for continuous learning, the opportunity to push boundaries, and a pathway for discovery. The Herron School of Art and Design's M.F.A. program will advance my professional practice and career goals of growing as an artist and becoming an art professor.

My undergraduate body of work reflects an emotional journey of loss. These paintings, like my personality, blend a childlike disposition with a lighthearted approach to trauma. In You're Like a 7/10, the color palette of greens, pinks, yellows, and blues symbolizes the complexities of feminine grief—greens reflect unhealthy relationships, while pinks convey inner softness. Making this body of work allowed me to authentically depict how trauma and unprocessed grief manifest externally. What started out as a way to grieve a breakup became a vehicle to process unresolved feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy, and the resulting paintings testify to my worthiness and strength. 

Plein air painting, which has always been part of my practice, became vital during my time of healing. Being outside and focusing only on what is in front of me prevents my mind from ruminating on the past and allows me to concentrate on the present. Plein air painting influences my studio practice by prompting me to consider composition, identify the light source, and understand how figures interact within a space.

My time as a McNair Scholar permitted a deeper exploration of plein air painting. In this transformative experience, I completed a paid summer internship during which I conducted original research on how plein air painting can combat hustle culture. The project involved studying mindfulness and interviewing plein air painters about their techniques, which I then implemented into my own series of six plein air paintings. The findings and outcomes of the project have been shared in both written and poster formats as well as  presented orally at local and national conferences, including as an invited feature presentation at the Provost Panel at UCM’s annual Scholars Symposium.

 In the summer of 2024, I was selected to attend the Mount Gretna School of Art. I fully engaged in this intensive residential arts program, dedicating eight hours daily to plein air painting and figurative drawing. I collaborated with established artists, attended lectures, and visited galleries during that time. 

Subsequently, I have continued to create work focused on healing, examining how memories can resurface in the present. For instance, Saluti is inspired by a time when I frequently dreamed about my past. Hopelessness is represented by a color palette of blues, grays, and blacks, with underlying anger depicted in red and hints of other hues. In the artwork, a woman sits on a chair, raising a glass towards another partially visible but empty chair. The empty chair signifies absence, and figure toasts to the past’s departure. 

Creating art remains a highly relevant form of discourse, and ultimately, my goal is to become an artist and art professor. In a world that is becoming less and less hands-on, encouraging students to pursue traditional mediums resists the notion that artificial intelligence can replace the mark-making of a person. Pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at Herron represents an essential step towards achieving my personal and professional goals. The program offers dedicated faculty who provide honest critiques, encourages students to engage in extensive research, and gives ample space for creative work. Its promotion of interdisciplinarity also aligns with one of my other goals: to combine painting and sculpture. I look forward to engaging with faculty and other students who share my commitment to art and scholarship. This opportunity will significantly contribute to my professional growth, enabling me to evolve as an artist while inspiring and educating future generations of artists. This will reaffirm the irreplaceable value of human experience in the art world.