Artist Statement

Making The Path

I’ve always been a creative individual. As soon as I was able to write I began crafting stories and poems and reading everything I could find. I spent my youth in Northern New Jersey where I was heavily influenced by my grandmother who was an inner-city English teacher. By the age of six, I was reciting Shakespeare and Dickens from memory.

As a child and teen, I focused on literature and theater. Throughout high school, I helped with open mic nights, poetry slams, student literary mags, and our school paper. Later on, I became the assistant manager of the stage crew for our theater group. I quickly fell in love with event production and costume design.

In 2009, I graduated from Drew University with my bachelor’s degree in English and a minor in writing. I wrote a New York City arts and leisure column for our college paper, The Acorn and I spent a lot of my free time in NYC at museums, art squats, parties and plays. During my senior year of college, I was awarded the Robert Chapman poetry award, and initially, I intended on continuing on to graduate school to obtain my MFA. Although I did gain acceptance to the University of San Francisco my path took me in another direction.

After graduating, I followed my artist and activist roots to Philadelphia where I lived in several communal art houses. I began helping with immersive art in the local underground party scene which lead me to drive across the country with a group of new friends to attend Burning Man in 2010. The experience at the Black Rock Desert opened my eyes to the true potential of art. When I came back to Philadelphia I joined my first art collective and co-led an immersive art room in Times Square. I also helped to design a Halloween Float for The Village Halloween Parade in 2010 and helped to produce many successful immersive art events in both Philadelphia and New York.

After several years in Philadelphia, I moved to Portland, Oregon where I volunteered at a local creative reuse space, created costumes and puppets at Flat Rat Studios, and eventually fabricated my first metal artwork. My path to creating bigger art brought me to San Francisco and eventually to Reno as I searched for a more vibrant community art scene.

Since landing in Reno I’ve been able to create at a much larger level in The Generator community maker space where I served as the Communications Director. My sculptures have been on display in downtown Reno at Reno Sculpture Fest, Nada Dada and Offbeat Festival. I’ve also created work for SnowGlobe in Tahoe and received a grant from Burning Man in 2018 to make my largest work, Baba Yaga’s House. I have a few pieces permanently installed in Nevada and Colorado and I plan to continue to create civic artworks that can find their home in the West.

Lately, I’ve been focused on the Immigrant Aid Print Project and teaching workshops at Urban Roots Teaching Farm to educate others on immigrant rights, block printing and natural dye techniques.

I often work in collaboration with my partner, Zack Medina, who is a structural welder. His professional fabrication background has allowed my work to develop at a much more technical level. I also have the good fortune to be surrounded by many fantastic artist friends in the Reno/Tahoe art scene with whom I often join forces. My work at The Generator has given me a tremendous amount of resources in human connections, tools and space.

My favorite part about making art is to create a sense of escape for both the artist and the viewer. I believe art is for everyone although not all art is for everybody. I also strive to create platforms for those whose voices are less heard. I know that every single human has the potential to create amazing things and I love to help folx realize their own artsy power.

Mostly, I create things simply because I want to see them exist in the world. I bring that energy into everything I do. I want to see more weird metal stuff and witchy things. I want to fabricate an expression of the duality between light and darkness, evil and good, ugly and beautiful, uncomfortable and soothing. There is a small space that is the in-between, like the pause after exhaling before inhaling that I want to pinpoint and draw out. I also want to craft things that help folx find joy and wonderment and a little bit of respite from the everyday humdrum madness of it all. I want to see more women artists, non-binary artists, queer artists, black and brown artists, rebel artists out in the world feeling confident and creating their dreams. I hope my work as both an artist and a community leader can lift up the next generation so that one day I can bask in the wonder of their works. I dedicate every day of my life to that future.