My Focus

After my senior showcase at NIU, my work has kept many of the critical elements of my original series, Spiritual Goddesses. Still, it has also branched off into its own focus. I am always inspired by nature and the healing properties that it has for us physically and mentally. Nature will always be an element in my work, and so is the spiritual connection we have with it. I definitely want to create more nature-based work in the upcoming future. More as a focus and less of a small element within my art.

Since I created my series Spiritual Goddesses, my work tends to focus on women. These female figures are stunning and aesthetically perfect, but I want to emphasize that they are not real. They are more philosophical. Society has created a standard for women that is impossible to achieve. The women that I draw are what society portrays and expects out of us. Women are taught at a young age to not show their physical and emotional pain. Often they are made fun of if they dare to do so. We stand tall, stay strong, and stay beautiful for the comfort of others. The women I draw are goddesses. They are what we see every day in movies, magazines, and even in our own mirrors. But at the end of the day, our makeup, high heels, and false hair are removed; we are now ourselves – natural and still beautiful. I like the thought of these women to be our second selves or our second face. This is why I still stand by saying that they are not “real” they are the personas that we show to our own society. Very few people get to experience the real side of you. 

I have always enjoyed fantasy books and learning about creatures that humans have created out of their imagination to explain the unknown. Folklore is so fascinating to me! This is also why I have grabbed onto the concept of goddesses. Over time I hope to make these women look more unnatural to our perspective and possibly do my interpretation series on folkloric creatures as goddesses. Creating hybrid creatures are also something that is on my agenda. I like the melding of nature, belief, power, and the unexplainable; to create something odd yet still beautiful.