Artist Statement

I create as an act of remembering. Not simply to preserve the past, but to better understand the present and imagine what comes next. I'm a Denver native. I paint, I design, I teach, and I founded Bright Minds Art Studio because I believe creativity is one of the ways we come to know ourselves. I don't separate these things into art and everything else. They're all part of the same practice. Whether I'm working on a canvas, in a classroom, or across the side of a building, I'm exploring the same questions: What shapes our identity? What stories do we inherit? What do we choose to carry forward? And what does it mean to truly belong? My perspective is informed by my experience growing up as a Black woman in Denver. It has shaped the people I paint, the histories I return to, and the communities I'm most committed to serving. But my work isn't about illustrating identity as much as it is understanding it. I'm interested in how culture, memory, place, and lived experience become part of who we are and how art can help us see those connections more clearly. I'm formally trained in Fine Art with a B.A. in Graphic Design, but my practice has expanded far beyond the studio. Today it moves between portraiture, public art, education, writing, and community building. Each informs the others. I think as much about the conversations a piece creates as the image itself. I don't create to decorate spaces. I create to deepen our relationship to them. A mural can remind a neighborhood what has always been there. A portrait can restore dignity. A classroom can become a place where a young person discovers their own voice. Different forms, same intention. At the heart of my work is the belief that belonging isn't only something we inherit. Sometimes it's something we have to build, through memory, through creativity, through community, and through one another. That's the work I'm here to do.