My Story: Finding Joy.

For 25 years of my life, I called Tampa, Florida my home. I spent my early childhood carrying around a pink, tattered 5-Star folder with printer paper, drawing fairies, mermaids, and castles on the bus ride to school.

My career as an artist began when I was 16, and won first place prize in the Student and Emerging Artist Competition in Ocala, FL. I was awarded free entry into the first Friday art market, where I found my first customers and clients for illustrations, mural paintings, and yes... watercolors.

I graduated art school from the University of South Florida, and have been serving clients through my artwork since 2016,

But this isn't a traditional story.

After graduating art school, I lost my creative spark.

I stopped painting for two years, stuck in the daily grind of a corporate 9-5 life.

I didn't realize how bad it had gotten until I received a message out of nowhere from a friend from high school. She asked if I still paint. 

I said "yes, of course!" too embarrassed to say I hadn't touched a canvas in... I couldn't remember how long.

She commissioned me to paint her something to decorate her space at work, and I immediately came alive. I fell in love again creating this figure painting for her office space.

My amazing partner, (now fiance), Joseph, whom I had been dating for about two years at that point, said: 

"Wow. You're completely in your element. I've never seen you paint before."

He'd never... seen me paint before?

I can't tell you what a gut punch that was.

Until he'd said that, I didn't realize how far away I'd drifted from who I was, who I've always been; back when I was sitting in the top bunk of my bedroom at home, up late one school night, sketching a self portrait on my 2nd grade reading paper.

I know firsthand what it feels like to lose joy for life.

I told myself never again.

I quit my corporate 9-5, moved across the country to Columbia, SC, and restructured my life to prioritize being creative again. I set out on a mission to discover what exactly makes life worth living, how to avoid becoming another numb spirit, carrying out the motions, breathing, but feeling nothing.

I set out to find the small joys.

I learned that joy is always accessible to you, should you just remember to look. 

These warm, delicate watercolors represent a doorway into romanticizing your life--

The small moments with your pets, morning coffee, or the flowers that grow outside through the rain, thunder, and wind.

I realized something very important that day, leaving the "traditional" life behind: Joy doesn't have to be big.