Deeply inspired by my Florida upbringing and created in springtime, this collection is comprised of oil pastel drawings and woodcut prints — four of each.
Presented as UVA undergraduate thesis work, April 2025.
Kaleidoscope
A growing spring precedes a thriving summer: the lushness does not happen without the preliminary growth, the glorious blooms don’t expand without the little sprouts.
We live much of our lives in this in-between stage: neither the mountaintop nor the valley but the walking between. Do we dare to pay attention while journeying - to look around and experience what is around us? Will we engage with the people walking beside us?
Kaleidoscope derives its name from the Ancient Greek “kalos” meaning “good,” but really, honestly good at its most true, pure level. Kalos encompasses both beautiful and noble, magnificent and excellent. It’s the same word used in the Septuagint to describe Creation. Let’s do it - let’s scope the good out!!! In the earth and in each other - And believe that it’s a whirling, engaging, whimsical, amusement park of motion and delight.
There is messiness here - half finished lines and unshaded petals, coffee grounds and salt and rain poured haphazardly on the paper, vulnerability and hope spoken in conversation while these pieces soaked it all up.
There is tenderness here - careful lines carved out of wood, strategic colors placed on top of each other and run after run registered onto thin pencil lines, gently blended oil pastels and color gradations.
“Give Me Something to Work Into”
Woodcut print on Rives Lightweight buff, 17” x 23”, 2025.
Edition of 8
“Derived/Desired”
Woodcut print on Rives Lightweight buff, 17” x 23”, 2025.
A/P
“Rabbit’s in the Hole”
Woodcut print on Rives Lightweight buff, 17” x 23”, 2025.
Edition of 8
“If You Don’t Know By Now”
Woodcut print on Rives Lightweight buff, 17” x 23”, 2025.
A/P
All pieces available for sale. Check the shop here for more information.
Thank you to my friends who sat with me while I made these, listened to me puzzle through them at lunch and on car rides, picked me up from the studio in the rain, let me leave supplies everywhere, and showed up to celebrate. Your beauty inspired these pieces. You make me feel special and I’m thankful to have you in my corner! I’m always on your team and inspired by you.
A kaleidoscope brings beauty through refracting mirrored images, rejoining fragments in endless combinations as it turns. Throughout my 4th year at UVA, I wanted to make art that spoke to goodness and beauty honestly without rejecting the fractures of anxiety, fear, heartbreak, loss, purposelessness, self-doubt, despair that my classmates and I felt during that time (and that most people in their early twenties feel at some point. This was not unique to us).
I felt strongly that I wanted my art to speak to a greater mystery, one of harmony, community, joy, laughter, love, fellowship, vulnerability, intentionality, and I was afraid it would fall flat or contrite compared to my classmates’ work about harder, highly complex topics. Yet I still felt my art was worth making and sharing, because there could not be any more important message to put my time and creative energy toward than one of spreading love and deepening relationships.
“Dayspring”
Oil pastel, coffee, salt, Piedmont red clay on Arches BFK, 22” x 30”, 2025.
“Injury/Pardon”
Oil pastel, watercolor, coffee, salt on Arches BFK, 22” x 30”, 2024.
“Born at Dawn”
Oil pastel, coffee, salt on Arches BFK, 22” x 30”, 2025.
“Full Throttle”
Oil pastel, charcoal, Piedmont red clay on Arches BFK, 22” x 30”, 2025.
