After a 5 year hiatus, I turned to the familiarity of painting fruit in my personal style heavily influenced by Georgia O’Keeffe. After not painting consistently for years, this piece went through many iterations as I struggled to settle on a style. I was bothered by the excess negative space behind the Blackberry and filled the void by nodding to my botanical illustration background. I made the choice to include images of the blackberry flower in its growth stages before it became a fruit. This concept mirrors the stages of birth which compliments the central theme of divine femininity in my paintings.

This piece has quickly become an instant favorite and is currently unbeaded unlike its sister paintings.

The way the morning light hits the sequins on this piece is magic. Very ornate beading will be continued all over the painting.

The "Blood Orange" is the original brainchild of my thesis, "Fruits of Our Labor". The original painting was sketched out and started in the spring of 2016. Two years later I decided to re-approach the piece and to surround my thesis concept around it. 

This piece is one of three large scale paintings that are the focal points  of my “Fruits of Our Labor” collection. They are the first step in my process of creating repeated abstract prints as well as jacquard wovens. By taking up close detail photographs, I can capture the immense detail and texture that goes into making these mixed media paintings. The repeated prints act as an allusion of female anatomy, challenging the viewer to think outside of the box when identifying what they are looking at. 

The second of a three part collection, the strawberry has the most obvious imagery resembling female genitalia. The use of mark making and color forces the viewers eye around the entire piece. 

The third of the three piece collection is the most abstracted painting. The Blood Orange and Strawberry paintings were mimicked after real fruit and carefully sketched out. Peaches were out of season so I worked from memory and really let loose with the brush and with my imagination.

This piece took 5 years from start to finish and patiently watched me adapt to new surroundings, styles, and points of view. This piece was never replicated into prints and is a custom one of a kind commission piece.

Textile Collaboration with Fashion Designer Kelsey Fickes for senior collection. Print design inspired by our combined thesis concept "Fruits of Our Labor". This print is accompanied by hand woven denim manipulation to create one of four looks for our fashion collection. 

Textile Collaboration with Fashion Designer Vivan Cooper for senior collection. Print design inspired by Liberty of London and fungal habitats. Dye sublimation print on polyester poplin. 

Textile Collaboration with Fashion Designer Michaela O'Connor for senior collection. Print design inspired by traditional tattoo art and classic varsity sport designs. Yardage printed through dye sublimation on polyester satin. Individual motifs printed for patches. 

This collection was created as a collage of floral and nude studies from a sketchbook I kept during my first year of college. I followed the traditional print style of toile de joie to create a modern wallpaper collection. 

Textile Collaboration with Fashion Designer Patricia Franklin for senior collection. Engineered Print design inspired by the female form and topographical maps. Dye sublimation print on 2-way stretch polyester knit. 

Hand painted print designs inspired by traditional Western American lace patterns, paired with hand woven collection based on winter hiking. Hand wovens include single cloth undulating twills, reversible double cloth, and quilted matelassé structures. 

My first jacquard collection, based on the beautiful diaries kept by Anaïs Nin, and her love affair with Henry Miller.

My collaboration partner created an incredible fashion collection “Beauty in Decay” and I was lucky enough to work with her in creating a jacquard woven fabric for a wrap coat. Her collection was chosen to walk on the runway at a New York Fashion Week S/S 2018 Show, and she graciously brought me with her! Watching one of my fabrics go down a runway was definitely a high point.

I was lucky enough to participate in a competition among my peers hosted by Glen Raven and Sunbrella Weaving companies. Our challenge was to create a fabric using only acrylic yarns engineered by Sunbrella and to apply an innovative finish to our fabric.

When I though of Sunbrella, my mind immediately went to comfort and I wanted to create a fabric that challenged the stereotypical hand and feel of acrylic fabrics. I designed a jacquard woven with a very large honeycomb structure to mimic a waffle knit sweater or blanket. I discovered that when I washed and dried my honeycomb fabric the woven structure shrunk to half its original size and the hand of the fabric was incredibly plush and soft.

This fabric won the 3rd place award in the Sunbrella Competition and was purchased by the company.