My origin story, & the seedling of my mission
My path truly came to me by happenstance.
3 years ago, if you told me I was doing art for work, I’d be shocked, let along starting a business doing it.
When you look back at my story, it seems anything but random; It’s a seed that was planted a long time ago.
In 2023 I graduated high school and I was looking for a direction that gave me sovereignty in the way that freed me from traditional school schedules that felt suffocating in the past. I was looking for something different than the normal path I was witnessing around me. Despite feeling like the odd one out, something compelled me to chart a different course. I chose not to go to college despite my weariness at the time, but now I can only see that choice as the future version of me speaking through my intuition. At the same time my friends were moving away for their first years of college, I was moving to Geneva, Illinois with my family.
There happened to be a farmers market nearby our new home, and we walked around a bit before the last tour. Little did I know weeks later I’d apply to work there, and then spend the next 3 years there full time. I had a direction, even if it didn’t feel typical. I enjoyed my job and felt so much pride making my own money and getting to live on my own schedule. It was freedom I’d been searching for.
I was hired to help in their bakery selling sweets and treats. I learned to interact with customers and I was a natural at understanding the business lens of selling products. My managers had also caught an eye at my good handwriting and had asked me to write a few signs for them. One day I was helping get started up for the season, I was asked if I’d ever spray painted. I thought I had a pretty good artistic eye, nothing special, so I was happy to experiment and see.
I made my first 3 bales on February 29th (a leap day leaping between life trajectories, of course) 2024. In the time after that, painting and sign making practically became my entire job within the span of months. I remember thinking it was unbelievable, and it was difficult explaining to friends and family when they asked what I’d been up to. But I lived it every day. I was given a wide variety of tasks from making cute signs on wood, menus on poster boards, and more and more hay bales. I just kept making. Every day was creative and self driven. I liked my job before, but now it was something I loved.
After 2 years of having the privilege of such a unique job, I knew there was something more that I wanted to strive for, but I didn’t know what. I felt like I was reaching a point of stagnation. I loved painting, but I felt myself growing tired of doing the same things repetitively for work. I wanted to create more, and I wanted to bring that home and have a vision for it. I was dabbling with the idea of posting content online, doing art, and wasn’t really serious about it. Until one day I was asked by a family to take a photo of them in front of a bale. I obliged, of course, and thanked them for appreciating my work. They were shocked, and asked me if I had a business card or a social media. I didn't, not yet, but this was the moment something bigger than me took root. It was the birth of my mission, even though it’d take me about 6 months to figure that out and actually start.
It’s been a crazy journey, not one I expected in the slightest, but when you look at just how the story mapped itself out it makes perfect sense. It was exactly where I was meant to go, until that seedling of a mission began to sprout, and the concrete ideas of what my life could really be started to build itself around me.
That seedling never would have become what it is now without the foundations I’d laid before this ever began.
The start of something new is a delicate process, and it needs all the right conditions to flourish.
It’s a good thing I’d already gotten a head start.
A garden needs the right soil
Our bodies are the most important thing we have physically in this world. Whether we have everything or nothing, we still have our bodies. Everyone knows the feeling of taking your health for granted until that changes. When it changed for me, I dove deep into learning how the body works. I learned how to care for my physical body in a way that my mind never could. Simplicity. Movement. Presence in the moment without distractions. Taking each piece of my health as building blocks that determine my state of being, and day by day examining each one. Coming back to my physical body is still something I still have to focus on, but when I do I never regret it. The gratitude I have to my body is why I have such a passion for the way I move, and how that translates into the life I create.
The relationship I’ve struggled with the most has been my mind. I was stuck in a cycle of my mind working against me and a feeling that I think most people can relate to in this day and age, a scattered, overwhelmed brain. The quick fix that I kept falling for? A dopamine dump into my brain that comes from none other than phones (because it unfortunately really is that damn phone), food, and everything that we feel guilty for doing but can’t bring ourselves to stop. I tried desperately for years to cling to habits, to ‘make myself better’ But that was a lie, trying to convince me that all of my actions every day we're going to make me better.
I realized this lie when studying the brain, studying the habits that my ADHD clung to and asking myself ‘Why?’ realizing that each of those habits were actually hiding a desire behind it that I wasn’t fulfilling. Scrolling my phone was a search for stimulation, and eating good food was a source of satisfaction. From those observations, I was able to swap the things that were holding me back with other things that I actually wanted to do. I limited my access, if I didn’t get rid of it completely, to my phone and to any other bad habit I wanted to get out of my daily loop.
It takes time to learn and is never a perfect process, but now I can sit down and do something that I used to think was so hard (like sitting down and writing all of this right now) into something easy. Something I crave and love to do. Now, I’m comfortable with silence. Comfortable with the in between. I’ve found the place where I really exist between my mind and body, now that they work as a team.
And the place between? My spirit. Once I aligned my body and mind I realized that it happened to be hanging out there too, trampled by the struggles of the rest, but it was the easiest to satisfy. I align my body and mind to work together into doing things for my soul. Being an artist and a creator is how I feed that part of me. Sharing the wisdom I’ve collected is how I give back. There is something so special about being human, and I want to soak in every drop of it. I’m devoted—downright addicted—to working on every part of myself and my world around me. And I want to spread that mission in the same way. Without the care I had for all of this, I’d be nowhere near where I am today. It really does start small
Doing the work, tending to the garden
If you’ve ever worked on a garden, you’ll know this notorious, begrudging task well
Pulling out and tending to the weeds.
But I’ve learned to love all the weeds,
Even the prickly, painful ones.
Some parts have been far easier than others. For me, I had no problem finding all the supplies a girl could dream for, considering I’ve already been dreaming of them before. I had plenty of fun buying the biggest of canvasses they sold online, picking them up in the store and being very glad I managed to fit them. I enjoyed the every day things like getting up getting ready, and just sitting down to paint as if someone told me to. Except the best part is that I could paint whatever I wanted. The hardest part of that was choosing what I’d even paint!
I’ve studied and worked on things I never expected, and thrown myself into every challenge. I’ve never been the one to want to sit down and edit, handle so many different logistics, finances, and project systems. In fact, those part used to feel felt so paralyzing I couldn’t find the motivation to start at all. It’s been incredibly difficult to step past these tasks I thought I hated—but now, I’ve started to enjoy things I never thought I would. Not everything is a walk in the park, but I find a way to love even the worst and hardest parts of what I’m growing into.
Editing means I get to relax on the couch, experiment with new ideas, and laugh at the bloopers. Building this website means I get to share my story and my work in the exact way I want. It feels very freeing to know I have an exact link with my soul plastered into it, but so exposing and vulnerable at the same time. I conquered that when I realized I’m more afraid of not expressing myself than any embarrassment I could possibly get from doing that expressing.
If there's one thing I know about myself, it's that even among the stars, I’m still shooting for more. It’s ironic to say this on my website about my art business, but I’d never thought art was my die hard passion. However I think that belief was a misconception. We’ve been taught to believe that the passion you follow has to be an intense inferno of obsession. But every time I felt that way it was short lived and I’d only serve to burn out.
I think what makes me love art so much now is that it’s a calm river, a grounding method of expressing me and my feelings. I’ve found more power in this than anything else I’ve ever done. I create because that's who I am, channeled into and on canvasses because I can express exactly how I want. My expression is more than just allowed; but actually wanted. Right now it’s canvasses, but because I have so many ideas I know it won’t stay that way forever. Instead of running from the multifaceted parts of me that refuse to pick a niche, I’ve decided to become one.
To everyone who said they loved my work: you convinced me my work could be loved. For that, I live in eternal gratitude, and it gives me the spirit to dream bigger every time I pick up a brush, pen, drill, or whatever is in my hands. That’s where the real magic comes from, and makes any weed tiny in comparison.
Sometimes the world feels like one big, all-encompassing, out-of-control forest fire. I'm sure we're all aware of the heavy energy floating around—headlines, doomscrolling, and that "what's the point?" feeling that creeps in. This uncontrollable inferno can bring about an energy of nonchalance. When everything feels chaotic and out of your control, it’s easy to let go of the wheel when it feels like you’re already hurtling toward destruction regardless. Over time, I learned that the nonchalance was only shielding the ignorance I had about how much I really can control. Let's change the vibe, and rewrite this story of panic into something bigger and better.
The fire burns through what has to go so we can be the ones to foster the new rebirth, striving outside of our beds and phones and using our bodies, minds, and actions—even if it doesn't feel like the fire is really gone yet. I’ve devoted myself to this because I know if I do, it’ll be another piece of inspiration for others that only expands outward.
I have been talking about this garden—the one that’s solely mine—but it’s not living in an isolated world. It’s one small part of a massive ecosystem, and it can only come back from devastation if we all work together.
Making the garden an Ecosystem
Because this was never just about me, it’s about all of us
There have never been more opportunities in the world, but we’ve been taught scarcity. I refuse to believe that narrative anymore. I’m not buying into the checked-out version either—rest isn’t the enemy, but giving up on yourself is. Do hard things for the sake of love and passion, not out of pressure to keep going, programmed misery, or cold discipline. If everyone did a little bit, we'd change a lot. I’ve got some pieces of this, but not all of it. That’s where you come in.
Someone who joins the mission of healing our ecosystem (literally and also metaphorically) gets access to my art—connection, expansion, and becoming more individually enlightened. But the bigger part of what I’m asking is this—what if "joining" isn’t just buying a piece, but unlocking a new way of working on yourself without guilt, but with never-ending love, empathy, and understanding? I intend to simplify and create tangible visualizations of these mindsets through my art.
The point is not just “paint here, sell there”—this is a full ecosystem. This isn’t a drop-shipping business selling random garbage. The art I’m selling carries this exact energy—the same intention and care I put into building this thing I’ve made my business. When you collect a piece from here, you're not just buying a product. You're part of the ecosystem. You’re proof this idea is alive in all of us.
Lately there’s been talk about this wave of cultural reawakening—something like a modern renaissance—without all of the medieval classist gatekeeping and stuff. Seeing it through your screen can make it feel exclusive, like it’s not for people like you. This one is. This movement is for anyone who wants to participate in whatever way they can. I want to bring back the ideal that your existence is special and it matters. That whatever passion you've got in your heart and want to chase—it's worth chasing. I want to give people drive, hope, and direction that doesn’t feel fake or forced—none of this nonchalant uncaring bullshit. Doing the thing you love brings you into this ecosystem with me.
This isn’t just about me on the canvas—it's about other people growing with me. I’m building a studio where I can teach and do experimental art classes, host a space where people can connect, and make places feel like home—intentional color, character, not neutrality. Murals on the walls, places that hold people gently—or maximally, if that’s their jam. I want my family, friends, and the people around me to not have to follow some mold, do what they think they “have to,” and call it a life. I want us to choose. To thrive. And to do it together.
I sentence death to the millennial grey and drab beige aesthetics. I banish all forms of nonchalance and instead lean into being fully chalant. Chalant may not be a word but I’m making it one. I’m bringing back caring about things so deeply people think you’re a little crazy—I don’t care if half the world thinks so. Because I don’t care what a billion people might think of me. They don’t know me like I do. I want the world to know me for all of the love, color, and light I've brought into it. And if I’m doing too much, well, good. At least I’m doing enough, or even something at all.
If you're someone who wants to join me in this super chalant ultra extra ecosystem of creation and life, then you’re in the right place. This isn’t an art business—it’s a manifesto. It’s a complete ideology of growth, change, and connection. It’s a movement, see you there.
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