⭐️ From the Studio • 10.9.2024 ⭐️

Dear reader,

Welcome to my studio journal! The purpose of this blog is to create something of a chronology of my practice and growth as an artist, as well as an opportunity to share my artistic process in and out of the studio (along with process photos!!). Thank you for joining me (:

The first few installments of the blog will be retrospectives into past projects of mine, but eventually I will be posting these in more of a “real time” format after the completion of any major or minor projects I wish to write about.

Let’s start at the beginning. I’ve always loved art so much, though I didn’t know yet that I would be a painter (much less muralist!). This career seemed unrealistic and out of reach, so I never even really considered it. I majored in History when I went away to university in 2019, with the goal of going into academia. This plan changed when my little brother, Nicolas, passed away unexpectedly in March of 2021. This grief and loss was truly shattering, I didn’t know how I would cope. The first few months of grief were survival and pain. My nineteen year old brain truly shut down - I dropped out of college and tried to keep my head above water.

In the summer of 2021, my grandparents offered to pay me to paint a tribute mural to Nick on their garage door. The process was not entirely foreign to me - I had painted a couple of small murals in my bedroom and for a handful of neighbors - but never a production like this one. Through the process of designing, planning, and properly executing the mural, I realized how naturally the process came to me! Muralism combines art and construction projects in a unique way, and this field is still not nearly as saturated as other genres of painting. I remember the car ride to Lowe’s when I decided to try and pursue a career in art. What a special decision that was to me.

The learning curve for these first few mural projects was steep, but after these I was able to solidify a process from design, proposal, shopping, and execution. The challenging moments from these first few projects taught me SO much about the questions I need to be asking myself and clients.

I’ve included photos of my very first mural projects. I didn’t know then how I should go about planning the painting stages, so this work was very much improvised on the spot. I love going into my studio to work on a piece and letting nature take over. However, this approach makes the mural process quite exhausting and time consuming. I think the biggest skill I’ve developed in recent projects is the understanding of how to plan, and my work is more dynamic because of it.

Thank you for reading along on my journey as an artist. My heart is at home in this work.

Talk soon.