Growing up:

I have always loved art, but even when I was a little girl, I never thought I would be lucky enough to make art professionally. My career ambitions were pilot or lawyer. Despite this, I continued to love art, and included art classes in my course load whenever I could. Still, my attorney plan won in the end. I went to Brooklyn Law School and then focused on non-profit work, including affordable housing and environmental law.

Focusing on my Art:

In November 2021, I was an attorney and 39 weeks pregnant, when autoimmune encephalitis turned my life inside out. Thankfully, my son is healthy and completely incredible, but I am still not fully recovered. The most significant thing affected has been my speech. Luckily I have a great support system to help me with things like this while I continue to get better.

While coping with my slow recovery has been difficult, drawing quickly became a form of therapy for me. I started making quick, spontaneous and emotional doodles. Then I would do my best to make the page beautiful. The art helped me express my emotions in a given moment better than my speech could. At the beginning the emotions portrayed were mostly anger as I  tried to get used to monthly IVIG treatment, but using my art as an outlet helped me tremendously. In 2023, my New Year's resolution was to focus on my art more. I decided to join Instagram to see more amazing artists and to encourage myself to continue drawing. This made me focus on my art even more and I'm so thankful that I'm able to connect with people through my art and my story.