This collection began with a master study of Van Gogh’s Giant Peacock Moth. I painted it during a hard season—when things felt uncertain, but I was praying for fruit and trying to stay present in the tension. That one painting opened something in me. I kept going—exploring bold color, texture, and beauty even in the midst of ache. It also sparked my deep dive into Cloissonism, with its rich outlines and flattened planes—a style that helped me hold both heaviness and hope in a new visual language.

This series began as a master study after Van Gogh's Woman in White-a portrait of Gordina de Root, one of his frequent models. She was a farmer's daughter, part of the world he painted again and again and again: people whose lives were marked by labor, dignity, and hardship. 
In re-painting her, I found myself thinking about how women's stories-like the lives of the animals we depend on-are often tied to usefulness, survival, and worth. The sheep and cow just followed naturally in this story telling and curiousity of value. 

I occasionally step outside the studio to paint from life-small plein air studies that continually train my eye to see color and value more honestly. These pieces remind me to stay attentive to light as it moves and shifts, to keep learning from the natural world around me. Each one ins a quiet record of presence- a moment caught in time before the light changes. 

What The Light Held  is a collection about broken wholeness. Each painting holds the tension between the known and unknown, abundance and loss. Outlined fruit and curling leaves sit within borders yet press past them, like moments that almost slip away. These works are about beauty and limits and what remains after light passes through- fractured yet miraculously held.


"My language comes from modern cloissonism: bold outlines that keep shapes distinct while allowing color and memory to coexist. Like the knots and threads on the back of a tapestry, these lines reveal the messiness of life while still holding the whole together. The fruit itself becomes a stand in for human experience-fragile, fleeting, impossible to control.  What the Light Held Together is about fractured abundance and the fragile courage of holding on. "