I make art as a buffer between myself and the world. A way to communicate who I am without being unsafely exposed as a woman of color.
You decide who will appear in Artforum Magazine, take home $25,000, and display their work at The Art of Elysium's Salon!
My favorite type of art to create is Neo-Expressionism through a healing arts lens. I am drawn to its raw, emotional intensity and its freedom to translate internal experience directly onto the canvas. This style allows me to work intuitively with color, texture, and gesture to express complex feelings such as grief, resilience, and transformation. For me, it is not just about visual impact—it is about processing lived experience and turning emotion into something tangible and reflective.
Where do you find inspiration?I find inspiration in lived experience, memory, and the emotional landscapes that shape everyday survival and growth. Much of my work is rooted in my personal journey moments of transition, loss, resilience, and rebuilding. Having experienced housing instability, the loss of close family members, the process of leaving toxic relationships, and navigating life as a disabled artist with both visible and invisible conditions, I have learned to pay attention to the quiet,powerful ways people endure.
What would you do with $25,000?I would save some for a down payment on a creative space, and the rest on graduate school that I start in the Fall 2026 for a terminal MFA degree in studio arts. Thank you.
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