Choosing favorites of ANYTHING has never been easy for me. I like options, I like choice. When I was in high school I worked at an ice cream shop that constantly had 40+ flavors available, and I never was able to pick a favorite- coffee chocolate chip, chocolate malt with caramel, blueberry cheesecake chunk, buckeye... the list goes on. It went for years with me not being able to choose. My indecision has been the inspiration for some of my most popular pieces on Etsy- why ha

Where do I start? When I’m making something new for the first time it usually starts with a million notes, measurements, and most importantly different diagrams that I play around with until I get the look and colors just right. This was my proposal diagram for the window display I did over the holidays for the Pittsburgh Downtown Partnership contest. While it didn’t end up looking exactly like this as a finished product, it served as my guide in the feel of what I wanted to

I love meeting my customers in person and getting a feel for their vibe- but usually, that isn’t possible. I like to think of my packaging choices as a way to make a good first impression on them. I just finished up this resin piece earlier in the month and got it all warm and snug in a box and sent it on its way to my bride in Texas. One of my absolute favorite parts of finishing up the bridal floral preservation pieces is finding packaging for them. For this one- the bride

Other than making all of the art and managing my creative business I also have a full-time job. I know, it’s a lot! My art is really just my side hustle. I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Board Certified Art Therapist. I work at an outpatient treatment center for individuals with substance use issues, and over the last 5 years there my title has changed a few times. I started off as an Outpatient Counselor, Art Therapist. Then it was Lead Clinician. And now, recent

Sometimes as an Art Therapist I do what some clients like to think are magic tricks. I just call it practicing within my specialty area- which FYI does not happen to include magic. I’ve never been one to say what clients create in artwork flat-out mean anything specific- I’m not a fortune teller or a mind reader. I do not know what your child was trying to draw last night on their bedroom wall with a permanent blue marker or what it means. For me it’s all up for interpretatio

The last year certainly has felt like a gray cloud hanging over my head- 2020 was full of curveballs and my new least favorite word “pivoting.” From rescheduling my wedding to learning how to work as a counselor/art therapist completely virtually to missing out on the connection to friends and family... it truly was a rough start. I do believe that beautiful things can bloom from the seeds of the most difficult moments. So, I’m here today to talk about the good stuff no one c

I like to think of my palette as “rainbow puke.” If it’s got bright colors, I’m in. It’s how I decorate my office at work, and what I tend to use in painting. But I’ve noticed that I do tend to lean more towards the blues, greens, and teals when making something totally for myself. This piece is one of my most favorite things I’ve ever made- ever. It’s from my “You + Me” series- where I played with overlapping circles on transparent paper, depth perception, and perspective of

Today’s prompt: to show you how I make the things. But what do I show- the bridal bouquet floral preservation process- mixing and pouring resin- ink and watercolor? My head is spinning with all the options and I’m suddenly remembering why most artists stop when they’ve gotten good at one thing. For my sake, and probably mostly for your sake, I’m just going to talk about my creative process. (If you’re curious you can see drawing and digital painting, and resin process in my s

Before the city portraits and the resin work, I was doing these 4ft x 3ft animal portraits, with acrylic paint gradient backgrounds, stippled images, and gold leaf. Stippling is a shading technique using small dots in varying degrees of density to give the illusion of darker or lighter shades. It would take forever. And I really only made 1 or 2 a year. At the time each of the animals represented something I was working through in my life: gentleness, grace, playfulness, bala

My main focus at the moment is working to attain some relative balance between work, art, and just general living my life. I do consider myself a workaholic and I’ve recently stepped into a new role at my full-time job + have this pretty cool and booming art side-hustle + just really like spending time with my husband + NEED time for rest and play. In regards to my art “work”- I’ve been trying to focus more on not only making art for sale and commission requests, but also lea