A Chronology of Becoming

Life isn’t about perfection but rather cultivating resiliance. The following are only a few chapters woven into my story and informs the rhythm of my becoming. My work is rooted in this understanding: that art, like life, is an accumulation of experiences that transform us, shaping who we are, how we see, and what we create.

The following unfolds as both map and mirror, tracing the art and events that have shaped how I see the world, and how the world, in turn, has shaped me. I am as curious about your story as I am about my own. At each intersection lies possibility, a chance to listen, to connect, to make meaning together. I remain, always, a student of coherence, seeking to understand how fragments become form, and how the act of creation reveals the invisible threads that connect us all.

1968

The Beginning

This is what most would call the beginning — the first photograph of me at the adoption agency. I was born in 1968, a year that was not simply lived but felt across the globe — a year of rupture and awakening, when the world demanded to be reborn. In America, the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy pierced the national heart; the Vietnam War and civil rights protests turned streets into stages of both fury and courage. In Paris and Prague, students rose against oppression, and in Mexico City, Black athletes raised their fists in defiant grace. It was as if humanity itself stood trembling between despair and transformation.

And somewhere within that turbulence, I entered the world — a quiet life in the midst of chaos, an unwritten story held in small hands. Perhaps it was inevitable that my own journey would reflect that same rhythm: loss and reclamation, silence and expression, the personal woven into the historical. My art grows from that inheritance — a practice born from fracture, seeking coherence, tracing the ways that identity, belonging, and the human condition continue to shape and reshape what it means to be alive. This time inspired both my artwork with umbilical cords as well as my therapeutic work with The Adoption Triad.
1979

Middle School

I embodied the classic gangly middle schooler — all elbows, uncertainty, and the desperate wish to belong. At the time, life felt like a cruel joke, yet within that chaos, I was given a profound gift: the chance to fall in love with the band saw and the scent of freshly cut wood. Crafting my first cutting board became an initiation — an early conversation between material, curiosity, and personal agency. It taught me patience, precision, and the quiet joy of delayed gratification. In its own way, that small act of creation made the ordeal of middle school worth surviving.
1990

Bachelor of Art

I graduated from high school with a triumphant basketball career, culminating in a Colorado State Championship. For a time, I thought that would be my story — movement, teamwork, and the rhythm of the game. Yet once again, the world seemed to redirect my course. Women’s basketball was still finding its footing, mostly flourishing overseas, and the family emphasis on education propelled me eastward to North Carolina. There, I deepened my formal artistic training and rediscovered my love for the bandsaw and the sensual language of organic wood forms. It was in those years that I learned art, like sport, could move — that it could invite the viewer into a kind of dance, transforming observation into collaboration and expanding the boundaries of perspective itself. This time inspired my artwork with both sculpture and cork.
1993

Master of Fine Arts

When found objects are assembled, altered, and recontextualized, they shed their original function while retaining their soul. A rusted nail becomes a symbol of endurance; a piece of broken furniture, a metaphor for fragility; a scrap of fabric, a memory made tangible. The artwork that emerges is ripe with deeper meaning, asking the viewer not only to see but to interpret, to imagine the unseen stories woven through each piece both before and after it became a work of art.

As you can imagine, this time was ripe for inspiration in my artwork. You can experience a taste of my inspiration in my work with found objects, self portrait, and identity.
2009 - Present

Art Therapy

Art therapy is not a one session fix all modality, it is a process. I always encourage people to think of art therapy as a practice - if you get into the habit of using art as a modality to look inward, it will give it more intention and allow you to find deeper meaning in both the procedure of creating art as well as the artwork itself.

While my time within art therapy has been mostly focused on helping others, it has also inspired my own artistic endeavors, such as The Forgotten Drain, my family history project, At The Kitchen Table, my work with Collage, as well as my Public Art Displays
2020 - Present

Ancestry Lineage

As an adoptee with ancestral threads woven through England, Benin/Togo, Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, Scotland, Norway, Wales, and Ireland, I am guided by a deep curiosity for lineage and legacy. I have also witnessed how storytelling can limit, harm, and misinform; it is a method of connection that must be held with authenticity, care, and responsibility. History and humanitarian inquiry inform both my art and my work with others. This personal exploration inspired my work with Cork and Murals and Paintings.
2020 - Present

Mystic Understanding

The staffs I make should not be used for hiking, as they are quite heavy! However, I love the symbolism that adorns the top of these sacred, spiritual walking sticks. On top of the staffs I create sit a snake and an eagle. Finding deeper meaning in mysticism has introduced me to Mystical Staffs, the Sacred Serpent, and Altars.