Mixed media on canvas (acrylic, oil pastel, paint markers, charcoal, colored pencil, acrylic ink, water)

This one came from somewhere wilder—before the rules, before the edits, before I ever learned to ask if it was okay to take up space. "Permission Not Required" is a return to that unfiltered, electric place where making art wasn’t about meaning—it was about FEELING. I let five-year-old New Orleans Marisa take the lead here—the version of me who drew with both hands, mixed every color she could find, and never once looked around to see if it was allowed. The scribbles, the hot pinks, the offbeat shapes and unapologetic marks—none of it needed to be explained. It just needed to exist. This isn’t rebellion. It’s remembrance. A love letter to the part of me that knew how to follow joy before she knew how to follow the rules.