Art has saved my life several times. The first time was when I was a struggling teenager, suffering from severe depression. I’m sure I caused all my mother’s grey hair in high school because every item of clothing I had was covered in doodles or dried paint. My outlet was to lose myself in my sketchbook and ignore the world.  One day my mother secretly borrowed my sketch book and visited the head art teacher at my High School, Mr. Carl Goodwin. She knew art would be my pathway out of depression. Mr. Goodwin approved me to be in Advanced Placement art and to this day has been the most influential artist in my life.  

My confidence in myself and Art gave me strength to try new mediums and directions. In 2004 I received my degree in Art and Education and set off to mold young artist’s minds and be a successful artist myself; I became a bartender when I discovered that teaching art may not be the direction best for me. Finally, in 2008 I made my first artistic leap; I became a tattoo artist by apprenticeship and have been a professional now for 14 years. Due to tattooing I have developed a higher level of hand control and attention to detail.

 I had no idea that these skills would inspire and impact my fine art creations down the road. When the adult coloring book craze struck the world in 2015, I decided to try my hand at self-publishing.

Crazy detail and organic flow were already my niche and what was in demand for coloring books at that time. I published my first coloring book calendar, and it was a great success. I was on my way to start a possible new artist venture when my life took a turn that I was not expecting. 

Needing an escape, I continued to draw and publish coloring books over the next year but couldn’t promote them well enough to succeed in the coloring book market.  In that year I published 10 different coloring books, experienced the death of my father, gave birth to my second child, got gravely ill, had to have emergency surgery, got divorced, opened a new business, moved out of my dream home, and eventually learned that I am a survivor.   

In 2017 I opened my own tattoo studio, River Ink Studio in Garden City, Idaho and started the process of rebuilding. My private, cozy, non-traditional tattoo studio was a huge success and I have had a 6 to 9 month waiting list ever since. The entire world came to a halt in 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic struck. I was forced to close my tattoo studio, so I packed everything up and moved to the mountains for 3 months.  In that time, I published my newest coloring book, Invisible Coloring Book Vol. 1, Flowers, and decided to explore a new medium I had never tried. When you are a tattoo artist it is important to keep your hand in shape. Believe it or not it’s just like being an athlete. I started to learn how to wood burn and completely fell in love. It is the only medium I have found that replicates the techniques of tattooing; you can’t press too hard or too light, you can’t stop while making a line, and you are holding something that is heavy and attached to a cord.  There is an amazing bonus with wood burning though, you smell like a campfire when you are done! 

Due to COVID, my new addiction - wood burning - was born. Fast forward to 2022, the first year I have been able to dedicate time to doing my own fine art. I took another leap and entered a booth at The Art & Roses show in Boise, Idaho in June, and then had my first-ever Gallery show in October.  I look forward to many more to come.  My wood burning work is inspired by nature and details.  I love to Zentangle, which is the process of meditation through doodling.  Drawn to nature’s art, I’m inspired by letting the wood grain show through my work.  

Each of my pieces is completely done by hand.  My originals are unique because touching the wood is an experience all on its own.  You can feel the grooves of the burn lines, the warm texture of the wood grain, and my mixed media originals have places where you can feel the ridges of shiny foil accents. Flow, movement, and balance inspire my print series. Each piece is hand drawn without a plan. It starts with one line, then builds and builds, almost deciding on its own where it wants to go. I find this process extremely meditative and find peace when I look at the final product. I also find that it mirrors life with turning out not how you expect but somehow putting you exactly where you should be. In the future I will create many unique and original pieces and look forward to doing commission pieces upon request as well.  I will continue to tattoo but will hopefully someday phase that out and continue to do the custom wood burned art I have grown to love so much. Eventually, I hope to open an art studio in the mountains and look forward to the day when I can share that with you.