I believe that our creative power enables us to make not just beautiful things, but also a beautiful life.
As an artist and creative mentor, I merge mixed media and encaustic medium to create luminous art that invites others to honor the complex stories while also simplifying (and elevating) the continuing stories they tell themselves about themselves. It's all about inviting a spirit of peace AND exuberant trust, heartache AND hope, defining moments AND recreating yourself anew.
I am the creator of over a dozen popular online art courses and eBooks which provide easy, step-by-step guidance on how to improve your metalsmtihing skills in my signature “homesteader” style, how to combine plaster, paint, and encaustic medium in two-dimensional work, and how to create original sculpted forms with plaster and found objects.

What does Art is Magic mean to you?

There’s something about honoring your creative impulses with action, with getting your body involved, with directing your attention and intention at something with no predictable outcome. There is something about this that can feel risky to the part of us that wants certainty when certainty feels like safety. When you step into that space of uncertainty, you’re also stepping into infinite possibility. Not just in your art but also in what you believe about yourself. When you’re creating with the willingness to consider new thoughts, the process of creativity allows you to create yourself anew at the same time.

Why do you create art?

Because I want to.
Because it’s the best way I’ve found to create a tangible expression of stuff that sometimes doesn’t feel very tangible.
Because there’s endless room for me to decide “this is how I want to show up” and discover all the ways there is room for that in the world.
Because I love the way I think differently when I’m creating art that grows, uplifts, empowers, and sustains me in all the areas of my life that aren’t when I’m making art.
Because it facilitates a unique connection with other people who are showing up in the world with magnificent expression and tender courage.

Tell us about your journey to become an artist?

I was raised in a figure-it-out family culture with no end to the exchange of ideas for how something could be done. I came into that family with an extra attraction to beauty and even though the concept of “artist” wasn’t even on my radar, I just kept being curious. Even when it felt like a distraction or an impediment to a decided life path.

Tell us about your journey to claim the title artist?

One day I looked back and so many pieces of my curiosity and experiences fit together in a way that made sense to call myself an artist. Still, I hold that title with a loose grip knowing that we each have a different idea of what it means to be an artist. The loose grip allows me to be my version of it without any need for others to validate it.

What is it about making art that stirs your soul?

Making art reminds me that creativity isn’t just to be applied to things to look at. Perhaps its most important application is when I remember that my creativity can create me too. Every past experience can be recreated in my mind to be something essential and beautiful in who I am becoming as well. My whole being is stirred into the excitement of possibility then.

What is currently inspiring you?

I’m always inspired by rugged botanical influences so I’m playing with that in my art practice more and more. My first love when it comes to art is neutral, subtle texture and that’s what I love making the most. I went “off roading” a few years playing with colors and I’ll always love a bite of orange-red or carbon black but the softer neutrals feel comforting right now.

What does your creative Practice look like?

Of course it evolves with the life seasons but right now it looks like spending time 3-4 days a week in my studio away from home. Some days I dive deep into admin and computer work and don’t paint much and some days I paint more and delay the admin stuff. It all works out fine when enough days are strung together. :)

How do you keep your creative practice fresh and inspired?

My answer isn’t sexy but it’s unshakable: I watch my thoughts and I question any thought that says I have to keep my creative practice fresh and inspired in order for me to connect with the magic of the creative process. I think one of the things that can get in the way of artists feeling satisfaction in the ebbs and flows of their practice is believing that it’s always supposed to feel inspiring - or at least intense. The real challenge is on days when it feels dull, flat, boring. Those are the days when I find the most magical place to go is deeper into the mundane. “How can I make this mark I’ve made a million times in a new way?” I call it high quality presence with myself and I have found more satisfaction in that space than I often do in trying to keep things fresh and new. Don’t get me wrong…I LOVE a little something new - a new tool, a new tube of paint in a gorgeous color that I don’t have to mix to create, or giving myself only 30 minutes to paint as much as I can. Those kinds of sparks draw in new inspiration in unreasonable volume too.

What sort of creative walls do you hit?

These have evolved over the years but one tell-tale sign of a creative wall is when I find myself thinking I’m confused about something. “I don’t know what to paint”, “I’m not sure if this is what I want to be doing”, “How can I be more unique in my own style”? I want to leave room for all those kinds of questions but when I find myself letting them be bigger than they really need to be, that’s a sign to me that I’m “pretending to be confused” instead of just making bad art until I don’t feel like it’s so bad.

What do you do to move through them?

I decide I want to be wrong about them. Seriously. I know it sounds weird but if I feel blocked and I have all sorts of evidence and reasons and all I’m doing is holding onto them with a tight grip, there’s no room for any other possibility. But, when I literally say that I want to be wrong about what my blocks are and why they are a problem and what they are preventing me from doing, I start finding little ways to let the creativity come back in.

How has your process evolved?

I’m much more forgiving to myself for all the ways I get up in my head and “in my own way”. I do both less than I used to but now I can notice thoughts of doubt or perfectionism and without necessarily allowing them to keep me from creating anyway. That may seem like a small thing but it has been critical in me being able to experiment with new materials or techniques without a bunch of mental drama  around how good or not good I am at them.

What do you wish you had known at the beginning of your creative journey?

I see now how the hardest parts of my creative journey have also been the things that have caused me to be even more committed to it so in that sense, I wouldn’t change anything. Then again, if I had known that the way I thought about myself and my creative journey determined my joy and growth in it more than external circumstances, that would probably have made the journey a bit more fun. :)

Do you have a Creative Self Care Practice?

That’s an area ready for huge growth for me. I have avoided self care because I thought that self care had to be earned and I never felt like I had done enough. Now I understand self care as something essential for creative joy and authentic expression. Self care sometimes looks like simple things - a nap in a hammock, a long shower, etc. - but what it usually looks like for me is a journal practice where I get to practice that high quality presence with myself. It’s not necessarily a long or involved process but a daily practice of writing in my journal has been probably the single most helpful practice for feeling at home in my body, my creativity, and my life. I have an exercise of writing down something I’m wanting help with, struggling with, or wanting to create and then asking the Divine “what do you want me to know about this?” I then hold my pen at the ready to write down any thoughts that come to my mind as I listen for thoughts that feel like a response to that question. Self care, for me, is not so much about things to do to feel better but rather ways I can more deeply connect to and embody who I am at my core and the ways in which I want to show up in the world.

Do you have any creative rituals?

I love a diffuser of essential oils to bring me to the present when I’m preparing to create, a few good playlists for when I want to shake up the mood a bit, and a short, brisk walk when I’ve been doing a lot of mental work. These all support the commitment I’ve made to myself to create (which has SO many meanings to me) even when I’m tempted to think something needs to be better or different for me to tap into the creative flow. I especially love to intentionally remind myself that the creative flow is available to me right now and then look for a small move I can make to align with that.