“Winter Forest” (graphite)

“Isabella” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Phase” (graphite)

“Saddlehead Dog w/ Bird and Blobs” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Ashlyn Dreaming” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Kitty Space Party” (colored pencil)

“Bunny with Cupcakes and Cheese” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Boreal Sisters” (graphite)

“Bear Nap” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Nighttime Halo Kitty” (graphite)

“Bunny Dreaming” (graphite)

“January’s” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Swirl” (graphite)

“Linnea’s Small World” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Linnea’s Small World” (graphite)

“Interior Scene I” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Deer and Ghost Deer” (graphite)

“April” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Unicorns” (graphite)

“Penelope and Booboo Participating in Meditative Thought” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Winged Muse” (graphite)

“Diamond Serpent” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Interior Scene II” (graphite, colored in photoshop)

“A Piece for February” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Two of Maggie (and Others)” (pencil, colored in Photoshop)

“Fall Scene” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Bear with Black Birds” (graphite)

“Lighthouse/Eye” (colored pencil)

“Concatenation” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

“Past Self” (graphite, colored in Photoshop)

Artist Statement

I create drawings depicting an enchanting world inhabited by children and creatures.  Influenced by surrealists and children’s book illustrators, I seek to capture the inner life of my childhood self, exploring themes of introversion, melancholia, dreams and nightmares, and identity formation.

I build this world from outlined shapes and embellish it with gradations of shading and cross hatching.  Having been an introverted child, I feature characters, mainly girls and animals, with a similar temperament, having them serve as stand ins for my childhood self.  Surrounding these characters, I incorporate architectural and natural imagery inspired by what my childhood self resonated with, such as the medieval structures I would see in children’s fairy tales or the landscapes of my home state of Minnesota.  I arrange these characters and this imagery intuitively, generating symbols and patterns that give this world an associative context and, with that, underlying personal narratives.