I'm excited to be part of Past Lives: Surfaced by Skilled Hands, an exhibition and retail experience presented by Members’ Work in partnership with Circular Philadelphia @ Meantime.

I’m showing two large-scale canvases, These Waves Are Mine Now and Late Night Waves, alongside four additional works co-created with Bridget McMullen. These works explore how color, repetition, and intentional choices can transform both materials and our relationship to difficult experiences.

Reclaiming has become an important part of my practice. It begins with materials, but it also means finding a way to turn painful emotions from my past into something positive.

From colorful signs to emotional paintings

I run a small sign business out of a space called NextFab in Philadelphia’s Kensington neighborhood, making whimsical outdoor house signs, mostly in the shape of fish. Each sign starts with up-cycled material and small batches of colorful, custom-mixed paint.

When a sign is finished, there’s usually paint left over, along with extra panels I can paint on. I felt compelled to give those materials—and those beautiful colors—another life.

Making fish signs for the neighborhood brings me joy. Using the leftover paint in my artwork lets me carry some of that feeling into a different part of my life. The materials become a way to work through difficult emotions, one deliberate mark at a time.

Reclaiming the gesture

The inspiration for These Waves Are Mine Now and Late Night Waves came while revisiting old sketchbooks. I found page after page of circles I had drawn during periods of emotional or mental distress, when drawing was the only thing that felt possible.

Looking back at those pages was difficult. I began recreating them on canvas, transforming the marks by layering thousands of colored circles where there had once been only black ink.

I think of those earlier circles as “cycles of doom.” In these paintings, each circle holds the possibility of something different: joy, connection, or a way forward.

The gesture stayed the same. My relationship to it changed.

Finding a new form together

The four works I co-created with Bridget McMullen explore another kind of reclaiming: giving the love that remains after a relationship changes a new form. See them here

Painting together became a way to express what we still shared and discover what we could make from it. Through color, layers, and the exchange of marks, we brought that love onto the canvas while building a friendship rooted in making art together.

These paintings hold both the difficulty of change and the joy we continue to find in creating together. Like the reclaimed materials in my other work, they carry something of their past while becoming something new.

Visit the exhibition

Past Lives: Surfaced by Skilled Hands brings together Philadelphia artisans who transform reclaimed materials, deadstock, and objects from our shared past through technical skill and craft.

The exhibition opened on First Friday, October 2, and is on view and available for purchase through December 31.

Meantime
924 Market Street, Philadelphia, PA

Come see the work in person and discover what these materials have become.

"These Waves Are Mine Now"
SERIES: N0. 1
36"x48" Acrylic on Canvas

"Late Night Waves"
SERIES: N0. 2
36"x48" Acrylic on Canvas

This ongoing series of work is about the process re-writing an emotional narrative and turning moments of pain into repetition into renewal.

My process began simply: drawing circle after circle, discovering grounding in the rhythm of the mark. Over time, something shifted. I started filling those forms with color—not erasing what came before, but adding to it. Layer upon layer, dot by dot, I built up something vibrant and alive.

Now, on canvas at large scale, the gesture remains. The relationship has changed. Where once there was monochrome uncertainty, now there is spectrum and light. This work honors the practice itself—the thousands of strokes that taught me patience, presence, and the quiet power of choosing color.

It is my invitation to anyone watching: what you've built, you can claim.

Here are just a few of my sketchbook entries, enjoy!