Welcome to my 2024 year in review! Each year, I love sitting down and reflecting on what I accomplished, what my favorite pieces were, and what I learned, where my growth occurred both personally and professionally and take those lessons with me into my next year to keep growing and evolving! I thought I would continue my annual tradition of sharing them here with you.
I want to extend a huge thank you to all of you who supported me this year, following along here, purchasing, and viewing both in person and online- and welcome to all my new collectors this year! I continue to be honored to have my work exhibited in your homes. This continues to be such a dream come true for me to work as an artist.
2024 was the year of FLOWERS! There is no doubt. I created over 35 original Flower paintings- including one solo show entitled “Twilight ‘till Dawn” that showcased two of my original sunflower on paper series. This was the second year I explored this theme of Flowers on Paper which was a theme that was literally “born” in 2023 when I was pregnant with my third child. Each time I have been pregnant with my children, I have left space and time to be open to exploring a possible new theme or a current theme in a different way. What was most surprising to me last year when I was pregnant was uncontrollable desire to paint flowers! I was so happy that the desire to continue painting flowers was still there this year!
My favorite painting of 2024 was “At Dawn with You” and sums up my year perfectly. This painting hangs in my son’s nursery and is one I will treasure for the rest of my years. It represents those long dark nights spent up nursing alone- a time when the bright sunrise was such a welcome site for me. Having gone through three post-partum seasons now, I could recognize that while there are dark nights and dark moments of frustration and sadness and loneliness, it is only a season. I’m excited to continue to explore the theme of women in chairs again as my life continues to evolve.
Another favorite painting was “My favorite Chair” which was one of the pieces from my “rest” series, inspired by all of the sitting I did in 2023 while pregnant with my third baby, and 2024 (while nursing)! I had one particular chair that I carried everywhere with me and this is the chair that inspired the collection.
Another favorite painting was this one entitled: “Wedding Peonies” which is inspired by the actual peony plant that we cut flowers from for our wedding. Peonies are a favorite flower in our house and it was fun to paint them while they were in bloom this year.
My favorite memory of 2024 was our trips to our cabin as a family. It was this year that I dove heavily into crafting, sewing, embroidery, block printing, cyanotype prints on fabric, paper cutouts, and mixed media- specifically working alongside my children. In 2023 I made a concerted effort to unplug and work with my children for a in-home residency called “The Playful Project” that I feel I am still drawing from to this day. Unplugging, working uninhibited as children do so well, and painting or crafting in a playful and exploratory way- it felt so freeing! I hope to continue this practice into this
My most challenging moment of this year was continuing to learn how to balance being a mother alongside my insatiable need to create and paint. This seems to be a theme (if you read back through my previous years most challenging moment), and the challenges and lessons to be learned are new each year. The underlying theme I take from this is that it’s important for me to continue to be adaptable, knowing when to say no and when to rest, and understanding what my priorities are.
This year (along with last year) I chose to take a hard pause for October through December. In 2023 my pause was to prepare for my son’s birth that month. This past year, 2024, I was set to release a collection entitled “Onshore” which I decided to push releasing until 2025. I chose to take those few months to just rest and be present with my son turning one year old! During this period of rest, I found myself being drawn to painting Sunflowers! OUTSIDE! I have a beautiful friend who had a patch of sunflowers growing and I asked her if I could come and paint in her field. The process of painting these was incredibly inspiring. Besides loving painting en plein aire already, getting to paint outside in a season I normally do not get the opportunity to was thrilling. I loved what I learned from taking this “pause”. It in fact was not a rest from painting but rather a rest or break from marketing, showing up online in a way that I just wasn’t in the right headspace to do, and take the pressure off of myself to do anything other than be present with my son during that time. I learned that I need to lean into following my intuition more because it’s directly related to my art practice. This “rest” was merely permission to only do what felt good- on a daily basis, hourly basis. One of my goals for 2025 is to lean into this more. There’s so much power in this for me and I’m excited to explore what I
My most fun collection of 2024 was hands down my “Women in Chairs” Collection! This series of paintings I painted after giving birth to my third child and it felt so good to paint it. I had several weeks of recovery post-C section and I will never forget working in my sketchbook from my chair while nursing the baby. I sketched and sketched and sketched so much that when it came time to paint, I knew exactly what I wanted to paint. My Women in Chairs Collection felt powerful and excited me in a new and different way than ever before. My word for 2024 was “Dream” and I very quickly learned that dreaming requires rest. It was a powerful year for me.
TWO fun collaboration this year was being interviewed by local Designer and Owner of the famous retail shop “Keeper”. I welcomed her into my studio while i was painting my Flowers on Paper Series and she styled me and asked some very thoughtful questions. And having my artwork featured on local winery Anchored Roots Wine labels! It was so fun to work on several commissioned pieces for them these past few
I continued to explore painting on ceramics and Sunflowers were a favorite flower of mine this year. I loved watching them peek through in almost all of my work this year including my painted
A new theme I explored this year was painting women’s bodies! I shared publicly a ceramic pitcher that I painted a women in a bikini- the shape of the pitcher just called to me. I have a collection of women’s bodies that I started painting in 2023 that I am SO excited to share with you this year. Stay tuned!
Lastly, one of my most proud moments of 2024 was my Solo Show at Woodwalk Gallery entitled “Twilight ‘Till Dawn”. It was such an honor to one of the finalist to be chosen as one of 6 artists to display a body of work at the gallery for the year. 2024 was such a formative year for me coming off of working on my Playful Project in 2023 and having just giving birth…. It felt amazing to share my work and my heartfelt story behind the why of each piece. I have been represented by Woodwalk Gallery here in Door County since 2023 and I have really loved the ability to focus more on my work and less on the marketing side as well as the opportunity to display and share my work in-person here in Door County, which is an artist hub of the Midwest!
That’s a wrap! I hope you enjoyed my recap of 2024. I am so excited to see what 2025 has in store for me!