A life shaped by beauty

This is why I paint

Beauty can emerge from barren places and broken things can be made new.

An abstract painting with soft pastel colors including shades of yellow, green, peach, and cream, featuring gentle brushstrokes and blended textures.
A close-up of a mixed bouquet of flowers including light pink carnations, white daisies, and greenery.
An abstract landscape painting featuring a hazy sky with light pastel colors and dark green and black land or water at the bottom.
Close-up of pink peony flowers blooming on a bush with green leaves
Close-up of a painting with a textured surface, depicting abstract floral and leaf patterns in soft earth tones.

Ever since I can remember, creativity and noticing the beauty in nature was woven into the inner world of my childhood. I moved through the world taking careful note of my surroundings. I was always pausing for wildflowers, doodling on scraps, or lost in shaping tiny clay creatures.

Although I loved creating, I really didn’t tend to that part of me for many years. It wasn't until 2013 when I was gifted an online art course, Creatively Made, by Jeanne Oliver, that something awakened within me.  Stepping into that course unlocked a hidden reservoir within me and a deep sense of aliveness. I started exploring all the mediums I could and playing and haven’t looked back since!

I call Western New York home, painting from my home studio in our old 1870s farmhouse. Most days you can find me doing life with my husband Jesse and our four young children. I’m continually inspired by the natural world. A single flower petal, a patch of golden light, new growth after a long winter—these small details remind me that beauty is often found in places we might otherwise overloo. Nature teaches me that nothing is insignificant, that growth can come after difficult seasons, and that every small part has a place within a greater story.

I also feel the weight of brokenness and suffering in the world. The tension can be real—but painting gives me a place to pour out hope. Through each brush stroke, I express my desire to see goodness and beauty break through the dark, and to communicate something steady: there is still a story worth telling.

There is something deeply hopeful about the way a single flower petal may seem insignificant on its own, yet becomes part of a greater beauty when viewed alongside the others. I believe our lives are much the same. Each joy, grief, waiting, and beginning becomes part of a story still unfolding.

Through my art, I hope you feel nurtured—an invitation to slow down, notice beauty, and trust that even in the unfinished places, something meaningful and beautiful is being made.