Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

Painting is something that came to me at a time when I found, as a writer, that I had no words for what I was experiencing - that there was no manual through the circumstances I was in. The most logical thing I could to at that moment was to create my own guide through the fear and confusion I felt. My soul said to play with color, to paint in bright hues with no destination. The process surprised me and still does, daily, as I continue to navigate life uncharted.

Where do you find inspiration?

Motherhood. Frustration. Awe of the sort that I first experienced as a child asking my grandmother where dew came from. Joy that refuses to be constrained. My mother and her mother and all the women in my ancestry that weren't permitted to express themselves in this life but I find singing just everywhere. The way my son demands I show up, over and over. The way my soul responds to his need without question. The way I realize how much I must respond to my own, in kind.

What would you do with $25,000?

With $25,000 I would pay a few small debts accrued over these past few years of single motherhood. I would invest in camps for my son, providing me a bit more freedom to further focus on my creative work. I would put some of it towards a class for myself to learn oil painting, as well as a bit towards my first self-published poetry chapbook.