Pull up a rocking chair on my *virtual* front porch and sit a minute, would you?

a bit about me

A recovering people-pleaser who grew up in sweet home Alabama and who currently resides in Atlanta, Georgia with my hunka-hunk of a husband, Charles, and our precious Bernedoodle, Poppy. Poppy also serves as quite the ferocious studio guard-dog and supervisor and makes frequent appearances around here.

These days you’ll find me in my little studio in our backyard, typically barefoot in my paintin' overalls, surrounded by hydrangeas, with white shiplap walls that I love to see get messy with splashes of colorful paint (sorry, Joanna). 

If you’ve followed along my journey for a while, you’ve probably seen a great progression from muted abstract art to the more bold, colorful art I create today. 

It wasn’t long ago that I had people-pleased and doubted myself into living in the shadows. Going with the flow each day - losing who I was from trying so hard to be who others wanted, expected, or thought I should be. 

Not fully knowing and comprehending who, or Whose I was, I found myself divorced at 27 and more lost than ever. In that dark cave is where the magic started to happen, though it didn’t feel so magical at the time. I learned then that God promises to always work things together for our good and His glory, but that just because it is good, doesn’t mean it *feels* good. 

Though I had painted all of my life, it was at this time that I began really throwing myself into my art. A knee injury kept me from my typical therapy-session of post-work runs and I found myself coming home from my job at Auburn University and pouring my heart across a canvas. Those late nights of painting healed my soul in more ways than I can articulate and led to a tiny apartment with every square inch on the floor and walls covered with canvases.

Then one day, my twin sister showed up and told me I wasn’t allowed to buy another blank canvas until I started sharing my art with the world (thanks, twinks). 
Through some amazing grace, incredible friends and family, a hunka-hunk of a husband, and a lot of heart work, I learned to walk confidently, clothed in strength and dignity, armed with my paint brushes ready to share some Truth with art that speaks to the heart. I started to see this show up in my studio and was amazed.

My muted, oftentimes boring, art was playing small and was still a form of people pleasing. As I became more aware of and confident in who I am, and Whose I am, I began to see my true, colorful, authentically bold self expressed across the canvas. That's when I realized just how much I AM #OVER BORING ART (do people still hashtag things?).  My mission is to create authentically bold art for those of you who, like I do, need the reminder that your most authentic self is your most beautiful self. Art that speaks from my heart and whispers (or shouts!) to your soul.

Because bold, colorful art serves to remind you to live your most authentically bold, colorful life. 

To walk confidently, head held high, clothed in strength and dignity — never again second guessing who you are, because you know Whose you are.

I don’t want one more person losing who they are in this world because they forget, or were never told, Whose they are. Not on my watch. 

Walls can talk, and I’m here to make sure yours remind you that you have a beautiful, unique place in this world. That you were created on and for a purpose - to live boldly while on this side of eternity and to let your light shine each and every day.

Reminding you with each brush stroke, splash of color, gestural marking, or layer of texture that there is beauty in your own messy story, that you were called to be bold (for your good and His glory), armed with the confidence that you are worthy, valued, and celebrated for being exactly who you are.