Moments and Feelings
I believe everyone deserves to have art and beauty in their lives, no matter what. Art has this incredible way of resonating with us, helping us understand ourselves better, and sometimes even seeing our own journey reflected in a piece. It's such a gift when art can offer that connection.
That's why I truly love offering prints of my work. While original pieces are absolutely special, I've always valued being able to have a piece of art in my life, even when an original was out of reach. At the same time, only a handful of people will ever interact with an original.My hope is that my art can touch many people, most of whom I'll never even meet, and prints make that possible. It means the world to me to share a little piece of my soul with more of you.
Illustration for the “Strength” card in the Woven Path Tarot.
Knowing very little about tarot before the project started, I was humbled when they gave me one of the Major Arcana to illustrate.
Traditionally, “Strength” features a maiden and a lion. The lion is passion - your feelings, your id - and the maiden is the ego, taming that lion. While I’m sure that works for many people, I saw a different vision of strength.
Coming from a more wholistic place, I see the two parts as there for each other, supporting eacn other, and in so doing both being stronger. After all, if you can channel both id and ego, you can heal from pretty much anything.
I chose a tiger instead of the lion to match this maybe more “Asian” take on strength, and because I am obsessed with tigers. The girl and the tiger also share their space with lotus flowers, which are connected with meditation and mindfulness, and also actually clean the water they live in.
11” x 14” Signed Gicleé print.
Several years ago a friend from the illustration community encouraged everyone to apply to the Illustrators of the Future contest. Since he was someone I trusted, I did, and didn’t think about it again until they called to tell me I was a finalist!
If you’re one of the illustrator finalists, you’re commissioned to create an illustration for a story by one of that year’s Writers of the Future contest finalists. I was paired with a great story titled A Certain Slant of Light, by Preston Dennett.
I don’t often read science fiction, and tend toward softer SF when I do. More often I read fantasy - I think because it lines up with my idealistic, philosophical nature. This story had a lot of these elements I really care about, asking questions about whether you’re going to change your path because the majority disagrees with you, or if you’re going to go with your own beliefs, values, and experiences
The story hinges on a man who loves his wife. She - along with a lot of humanity - are frozen in these amber bubbles, with society around them debating whether theyre alive or not, and what to do with them. It’s so satisfying to finally learn what the bubbles are about - because in much of life, we don’t really know what’s going on, and the best thing we can do is listen to our intuition. I loved how the story brought up those issues and was also just very romantic. In this illustration I wanted to capture the longing, faith, and trust in this weird, magical, unknoweable moment in the story.
I also bad my husband model as the forlorn man - he had a lot of fun doing this. It was really cute.
I tend to forget these days, but at the time I was rocking a chronic migraine that I’d had for the entirety of my first pregnancy. Months of avoiding lights and trying to function despite constant pain and nausea. So in a way, I was also trapped in amber that year, and this story resonated with me.
At the end of the day the contest coordinators were very sweet and worked with me so I could get this piece done. And I’m so glad I could do justice to such a sweet, thoughtful story.
Illustration for Preston Dennett's story " A Certain Slant of Light." This piece appeared alongside Preston's story in volume 35 of Writers and Illustrators of the Future.
11” x 14” signed Gicleé print.
This one is really dear to me.
Although I’ve known the story of Icarus and Daedalus since fourth grade, the quiet rebel in me was always like “Really?” Instead of the warning about flying too high, I just thought it was beautiful that Icarus wanted to fly, was so joyful about flying, and was experimenting with it.
In every new endeavor there’s an element of fear, which is why people tell us to be cautious and do our research. But there’s also all this discovery, especially now that our world is changing so fast.
So shouldn’t falling be encouraged? There’s growth there that can be embraced, so we can fall on purpose and learn something fom the experience. And there’s a peace in this being what we;re supposed to do.
10” x 8” signed Gicleé print
Inspired by Kij Johnson's novella The Dream-quest of Vellitt Boe.
11” x 14” or 18” x 24” signed Gicleé prints available (note that the larger prints will be shipped rolled in a shipping tube).
Fine art print of this mixed-media piece.
8" x 10" Signed Gicleé Print
