Our Mission

Fortunately I grew up surrounded by artists in my family who heavily influenced me to create as much as possible. Often I’ve struggled with my confidence as an artist, and have held a love-hate relationship with using art as an outlet. I have used art to help me  through some of my darkest moments and to become a better version of myself. I dont think I'm unique in this and I would like to share some of my experiences. Instead of talking about the surface story of who I am, I would like to highlight some of my core memories that made me the artist I am today.

 

As young as I can remember I constantly drew and was praised for it. As I got older I felt like I had to keep up on others' validation which became one of my biggest challenges to overcome as it snuffed out my true voice. Until recent years never truly felt like my art was for me, I had a belief that I wouldn't be successful if my peers didn’t like who was through my art. This feeling of not being enough grew so strong in my late teens and early 20s I stopped creating all together. I was in the deepest depression of my life, stuck in a cycle of gaining enough courage to put a simple line on paper then immediately bursting into tears. So frustrated that any of my efforts came to a dead end, I came to a realization that I had some deep healing to do. 

 

The chaos of my childhood was still bottled up in me. All the inadequacy spurred from the moments of being told I wasn't good enough from kids my own age and a few older. I remember one time in particular when I was in the 3rd or 4th grade, I got invited to my friend's sleepover birthday party. Her older sister who was in high school constantly picked on me but this one time was brutal. She said “no one likes you and no one wants you here.” As she said this to my face she managed to get the other girls to giggle as they ran off to play games without me. I felt like I got punched in the stomach. I ran off into the thick wooded area my friend lived in and sobbed as hard as my body would let me. A simple sentence took away all the self esteem I had in me. I tried to find what reasons I shouldn't be liked and came to the conclusion it was just who I was to others. Someone who isn't worthy of love.

 

This is one of many occasions I held onto as I got older. I grew to stop trusting people around me, even the ones I held close. People who supported me must be lying when they tell me my art is great just so my feelings won’t get hurt, I thought this for way too long. At some point enough was enough. Everything came crashing down and I had to face my deepest fears even if that meant I was going to fail.

  

Now the reason I tell you parts of my story isn't to gain sympathy or play victim. I want you to know that resilience is created through hardship and that's exactly what those moments did for me. I've grown to love myself because I made it out of the darkness and used those memories to build myself up. I wouldn’t change anything about my past because of who it made me today. Through lots of healing, I am now able to go after my biggest dreams. One of them is becoming my own boss. If I could tell my younger self I'm finally making this dream happen she would start hysterically laughing then hysterically crying. I feel immensely blessed to share my art with all of you because for the first time in my life it's truly my voice and a testament to all the things I've been through.

 

 As long as I breathe I will continue to use my voice to empower myself and others, especially the ones who feel like they have no voice. With that being said I hope you enjoy the products I've created with all the love I have and know I'm so grateful for your support.      

 

I want to give a huge thanks to my family and friends as well as a huge shout out to Stoop Logic, a platform for artists to connect and get their art exposed to the Montana community. Find my art and many other artists on the stoop logic website.

 

https://www.stooplogic.com/