My mixed-media prints and paintings explore how we see ourselves in relation to the societal expectations around relationships, gender, and power. I reflect this charged psychology by creating imagined figures that reveal the emotional strain between who we are and who we’re told to be. These figures inhabit a fictional world that feels both familiar and slightly off, echoing the uncertainty of navigating these pressures. I merge personal reflection with a wider cultural lens, using the figure to examine the forces that shape identity.

To enter that world, I begin with drawing. With my eyes closed, I let my interior gaze guide my hand. This process accesses my emotional connection to these pressures. From these early drawings, I develop expressive figures placed in confined spaces. Layered surfaces, saturated colors, and directional light heighten the psychological tension. This process creates a direct line between feeling and form, preserving the initial impulse and emotional tone.

The urgency behind this work comes from my own history. Growing up in San Francisco under the social rules of the 50s, 60s, and 70s—to be nice, quiet, accommodating, and contained—left me uneasy in my own skin. Even within a politically liberal household, traditional ideas about how girls and women should behave shaped my sense of self. Making art became a way to resist, to name the invisible pressures placed on women, and to carve space for my own voice. Over time, my concerns widened to include ecological loss, displacement, and the search for belonging—experiences that mirror the same forces of control, vulnerability, and resilience that define our relationships to gender and to each other.