In considering my motivations for completing a PhD in Fine Arts, there are events in my life that have been influential in my decision to pursue this goal. I grew up with the knowledge that I was adopted in infancy. Being an adopted child/person has led me to a complex understanding of ancestry, which I have attempted to make sense of using both ethnographic and artistic practices.

In fifth grade, I was tasked with creating a family tree in an aesthetically pleasing way. This was the point that I remember first asking the questions, where did I come from? What people and cultures from the past came together to create me? How do we, as individuals, come by the passions that animate our lives? Is this something we are born with, or a result of our enculturation? In my case, my adoptive parents knew that my biological father was a musician, so they put me in music classes, nurturing a latent talent they assumed I was born with. And while I have always gravitated towards the arts—and this orientation can be seen in how I approach scholarly questions—I found my passion to lie in the visual arts.

Art education became my chosen profession. I have always considered myself to be a teaching artist – one who teaches and practices art. Before entering the PhD in Fine Arts program, my professional experience encompassed teaching art at every level in the Texas public school system. This included teaching Pre-K through AP College Board high school classes and all levels in between. At times my classroom included students that had been displaced from their families, homes, or cultures. I taught students that were new immigrants from Mexico, attempting to learn English and fit into their new environment. When hurricane Katrina occurred, there were many students displaced from their homes, and living with relatives or friends. These students found themselves in my art classroom sometimes temporarily and occasionally for longer. As an adopted person, having experienced displacement from my biological family and roots, I was sensitive to the needs of these students. I viewed art as an educational means to aid students during times of stress.

My art practice and the visual creative process helped me work through my own challenges and difficulties. In a span of five years (2008-2013), I experienced a divorce, adjusted to single parenthood, relocated three times, lost my father to cancer, and my daughter was in and out of the hospital with a serious illness. In April of 2013, I was teaching in the town of West, Texas, located just north of Waco. The nearby fertilizer plant exploded and altered my teaching experience in various and dramatic ways in subsequent years. Three of the four school campuses in West were destroyed, and the whole school district went through a displacement. For six weeks, we were housed in an empty building on a campus at the nearby district of Connally ISD. Teaching was adapted to the circumstances, and I saw many new students in addition to students previously enrolled in art. The students’ artwork during this time reflected a self-expression through creativity of processing trauma during this time of adversity.

My interest in art for wellbeing has increased over the years. Visual Journaling has been a personal arts practice for over a decade. Before that, I always turned to creating art and painting as a practice of self-care and healing. I am currently a part of the 4th International Cohort of Soul Pages Facilitator Training, a visual journaling method. Art as self-care, personal resilience, and healing are important tools to access in today's world.

Concurrent with my teaching career and raising three children, the questions of my heritage and biological roots remained a personal interest. By 2013, I had discovered a surname and knew that historically the name was tied to the Isle of Skye in Scotland. When a long-time friend, living in Scotland, invited me to visit her for the purposes of a photography tour, I could not turn down the opportunity. While on the one hand this was a personal journey that I needed for my own restoration—owing to the personal circumstances I was experiencing—at the same time, it began a trajectory for my intellectual interests in place and ancestry. Even without yet knowing that my ancestry was largely from this region, I felt a visceral resonance with place that was triggered by my travel. I suspect others who have been alienated from their heritage through adoption or displacement may feel similarly, which has informed my research questions. Upon returning home from this trip, my curiosity inspired me to take a DNA test. When I received my results, I was surprised. My estimated ancestral percentages were overwhelmingly from the United Kingdom and Scotland, which helped explain my connection to place, particularly in the Hebrides. In addition, I discovered other ethnic roots from DNA matching that I was curious about.

At this point in my life, I had been looking into graduate schools and I desired to obtain a master’s degree. As a single parent, I was motivated to improve myself and my earning potential. It was challenging, because I needed to work full time to support my family, and online programs were rare. Serendipitously, I attended a Texas Art Educator Conference in Galveston, and learned about the Masters in Art Education distance learning opportunity at Texas Tech. I applied to the program and was accepted.

The MAE program gave me an opportunity to learn more about sense of place, global cultures, and new materialisms. I began some experimentation in my artistic practice with mixed media. These interests informed the master’s thesis. When graduation approached, I was not ready to end my educational journey. My advisor encouraged me to consider applying to the PhD program in Fine Arts. I resigned my full-time teaching position and moved to Lubbock with my son in the summer of 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. This transition was made possible with scholarships, fellowships, assistantships, and financial aid. I am grateful for these opportunities for growth and learning in my life.

Now that I am completing my PhD Dissertation research, I realize how various elements and interests in life intersect and lead us to new journeys and paths. I look forward to the next phase of my journey as an artist, researcher, and educator in Higher Education.