I have always felt the most alive when I am creating. I was always drawn to art and felt the most "myself" when working on an art piece. After college, I left to do service work in Africa and came home with an illness that changed my life and its direction. I sought holistic treatment and saw a significant recovery, but I longed to "create" while I was on this journey. I thought that if I was not laboring and sweating making sculptures, I was simply not being creative. After much frustration, I realized that changing my lifestyle, food, and home to a healthier state was creating a better version of myself. All that time in the kitchen, trying new recipes and making my everything, it was all creating. I was creating new elements of myself and bringing forth old elements that needed some tending. I was beginning to understand that a physical piece of art was not the only way to express oneself. Creativity means so much more to me now, and it helps me to slow down and see that each moment in life is something we take part in making. It can be many things: making a sculpture, painting, fermenting delicious foods, baking, dancing with my kids, gardening, walking barefoot in the mud or sharing a special moment with a loved one. My heart is still to make sculptures as they give me life, but I can also see that in the moments where I am not able to create something from rock, salt, or clay, I can choose to be present in my moment and create something unique, regardless of what it is. Art is those beautiful moments we make. I want to capture them as often as I can.
