Artist Statement

I am a Chicago-based artist and create realistic colored pencil drawings by layering thousands of hand-drawn letters. Up close, you see individual letters. Take a step back, and the drawing becomes an image. Rooted in my experience with epilepsy, my work gives visual form to unseen neurological experiences – internal realities that can be difficult for others to see or fully understand.  

When I would have seizures, I would lose the ability to read or speak. My goal with my artwork is to put that experience into a visual form. Instead of feeling like I was losing something to my epilepsy, I chose to create something beautiful out of it. Each drawing takes those seizures and puts the power back into my hands. 

It can be difficult to explain the experience of seizures when there is nothing to see. When it all happens inside our brains, taking that experience and putting it on paper has been both therapeutic and reenergizing. When I need to explain my seizures, I can point to my artwork as a more complete explanation. 

Art