My Story

I grew up in Toronto, Canada and have been creative my whole life. I began exploring a range of artistic activities starting with a love of crafts and doodling as a child. As I got older, I tried many other mediums such as pottery, pencil/charcoal sketching, collage, oil/acrylic/watercolour painting, print making and more.

In my teenage years I became interested in making costumes, as I’m a huge nerd with a love for comics, movies, tv, and video games. I learned a variety of techniques to create my costumes including working with EVA foam, making prosthetics and props, as well as a variety of painting and distressing techniques which I still use in my art. Some of my past cosplays are Lara Croft and Poison Ivy. I still enjoy making cosplays and am currently working on a Jinx costume from Arcane! See photos of these projects and more in Other Art.

My father’s main hobby is wood working so I grew up around tools and sawdust. I inherited this love and have completed a number of woodworking projects myself which you can see photos of under Other Art.

I’ve also struggled with major depressive disorder, seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and anxiety disorders since I was young. When I started high school I began having severe chronic pain in my hips. It took four years and eleven doctors to find a solution and I ended up getting two surgeries in my late teens to fix it. This journey made my mental health issues a lot worse and I began struggling with self-harm and suicidal thoughts but kept them hidden well. It took me a long time to accept that I needed help with my mental health and I encourage anyone reading this who is struggling (or knows someone struggling) to find the support they need; I promise it’s worth it.

I then enrolled at the University of Western Ontario majoring in kinesiology and taking elective art classes. In the second semester of my first year, the Covid-19 lockdowns began. I fell into a deep depressive episode and my anxiety became very troublesome as well, so I started painting and doing a mixed media art journal as a way to help me cope. Art has been a fantastic way for me to let out my emotions.

Throughout the numerous Covid-19 lockdowns I really struggled with my mental health and made the decision to stop university in the summer after my second year. That fall my mental health challenges continued to get worse and I ended up being hospitalized in CAMH (Centre for Addiction and Mental Health) in Toronto for five weeks. It was here that I decided pursue my art and painting professionally.

After my hospital stay, I began painting a lot more, selling to family and friends and doing art shows. I started an art Instagram account (and later TikTok) to build a social media following. A few months later (after trying many medications and being diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression) I ended up getting Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), a treatment where they use powerful magnets to ‘wake up’ the area of your brain responsible for mood. This treatment helped me a lot and I’m happy to say my depression is much better. Of course I still have my struggles with depression, SAD, and anxiety and this, along with my past experiences, is where I get a lot of inspiration for my art. I share this part of my journey because I strongly believe that we need to de-stigmatize mental health issues so more people feel comfortable getting the help they need.

As well as being located in Toronto, I spend a lot of time in Barbados as the sun really helps with my seasonal affective disorder. I have a love of scuba diving and am a dive master for PADI; my love of the ocean is another inspiration for my paintings as well as my custom snorkel/dive fin painting. See photos in Fin Art and contact me below if you are interested!

When not creating art, I love travelling, wake boarding, gardening, and mushroom foraging. Hope to hear from you soon!