Connect What is your favorite type of art to create?

I am a painter creating expressive, narrative works in acrylic ink and oil pastel on 300 lb Arches watercolor paper. I use nontraditional and found materials to build richly layered, tactile surfaces, and I’m known for incorporating glitter as a defining element—bringing light, movement, and magic into my work.

Where do you find inspiration?

I find inspiration in performance— theatre, dance, drag, poetry, film—where bodies carry story and truth. I paint like I’m building a play: starting in abstraction, colour becomes stage, then characters and the narrative unfold. I’m inspired by queers, feminists, immigrants, and those on the fringes of society, by old myths I reframe, and by fantasy as a way to imagine alternatives. Animals, nature, the ocean, and the voiceless run through my work. I’m inspired by resistance to power.

What would you do with $25,000?

If I were awarded $25,000, I would invest it directly into my practice—securing a larger studio to create bigger, more ambitious work and to expand my painting. It would also allow me to host and co-create a space for theatre and performance with friends and collaborators, where they can share their work while I sketch and respond in real time. Every penny would go into making more art, pushing it to be broader, bolder, and more experimental.