One day many years ago, my mother dipped my chubby baby hands in paint. She then set a piece of construction paper in front of me to spatter and smear to my heart's content. Ever since then, I've spent my time chasing the ideas in my head, trying to capture their whimsy, or beauty, or horror.

I spent my childhood defacing every homework assignment, quiz, and test I was given.  I had decided I was going to be an artist and enrolled in art school after graduating high school. No other career could ever satisfy my hunger for creation.  At least that's what I thought, until my Type 1 Diabetes made me question my entire life.

After some soul-searching, I found myself graduating college not with a degree in the arts, but with two degrees in dietetics. My diabetes had tossed me into hell only for some incredible people to pull my sobbing body out by its ankles. I now wanted to run back in and do the same for as many others as I could. In 2022 I became a Registered Dietitian and in 2025 I passed the Certified Diabetes Care and Education Specialist exam.

It wasn't until recently, however, that I realized that an artist isn't defined by their degree or their job.  An artist is an artist no matter their circumstances. I may now be driven by a ferocious passion for the diabetes community, but I still love making art from the bottom of my heart. So whenever I'm not talking to people about insulin or the pancreas, I'm probably working on my next illustration.

Much of my inspiration comes from mythology, nature, the female form, anatomy, video games, and orchestral and metal music. I have a particular fondness for fantasy scenes, with creatures and monsters galloping about with too many arms or eyes where they shouldn't be. My favorite artists are Alphonse Mucha, Takato Yamamoto, and El Greco. My all-time, favorite piece of art is El Greco's "The Burial of the Count of Orgaz". I hope to one day visit Spain so that I can see it in person.

For my traditional art, I prefer to work with Derwent's Graphic Soft  and Faber-Castell's Polychromos selections. For digital art, I use Clip Studio Paint.  I also dabble with other materials when the need arises. I am no stranger to accidentally staining a nice new pair of pants with acrylic paint, or staining a nice hardwood floor with liquified foam clay, or staining a nice fancy countertop with ink wash.