MFA Pratt Institute
BFA San Diego State University

I am a painter, sculptor, and installation artist working at the intersection of healing, sensory experience, and community connection. My work often begins with personal reflection on emotion, environment, and the body, then expands outward into immersive installations and community-based projects that invite collective participation and engagement. I draw on personal and cultural narratives in my content as well as social issues like mental health, addiction, and consumerism. I use my artistic practice to advocate for changes in mental health treatment.
Over the past two decades, my work has been featured in shows from Los Angeles to New York. Locally I have exhibited in many galleries and museums including the Institute for Contemporary Art in Balboa Park, the San Diego International Airport, the Central Library Art Gallery, Art Produce and The New American Museum in Liberty Station. I’ve also worked as an educator in classrooms, museums, treatment facilities, and nonprofit spaces. My teaching practice is rooted in trauma-informed care and healing-centered engagement, emphasizing creativity as a tool for emotional regulation, self-expression, and empowerment. These values are mirrored in my artmaking, which often includes collaborative murals, youth workshops, and installations that incorporate community stories and voices.
I believe in art as a transformative force, a sensory language that can deepen empathy, build relationships, and create space for collective healing. My work is a call to slow down, feel deeply, and reconnect with ourselves, each other, and the world around us, seeking sanctuary in ourselves.

Selected Shows
Exploring Water Through Art, National Science Foundation National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO 2025
Bathing Series, Escondido Music and Art Cooperative, Escondido CA 2025
Art through the Glass, Chula Vista Center, CA 2024
Dreamscape, Mesa College, San Diego, CA 2024
Light in Darkness, Expressive Arts, San Diego, CA 2024
Queer Mvmnt Fest, Disco Riot, San Diego, CA 2024
Lost in Translation, San Diego Central Library, CA 2023
Collective Memory, San Diego City Public Park Initiative Temporary Installation, 2022
Kinetics, A Reason To Survive, San Diego, CA 2022
Syntax, Art Produce, San Diego, CA, 2022
Drive Through Art Exhibition, Mesa College, San Diego CA, 2020
Illumination, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA 2020
Therefore I Am, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Orange County, CA 2019
Exquisite Corpse, Bread and Salt, San Diego, CA 2019
Yes is Yes, No is No, LyceumTheater, San Diego, CA 2018
Extreme Altitudes, San Diego Central Library, CA 2018
Memories of a Blackout, San Diego Art Institute Horton Plaza Project Space, 2018 (solo show)
Invisible y Resistencia Bi National Art Festival, La Casa del Tunel Art Center, Tijuana, Mexico 2017
Art as Protest, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Orange County, CA 2017
Nasty Women, Helmuth Projects, San Diego, CA 2017
Intergalactic Dreaming, San Diego International Airport, CA 2017
Southern California Baja Biennial, San Diego Art Institute, CA December 2016
Shades of Red, Vista Chamber of Commerce, Vista, CA, July 2016
Women’s Work, The San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA, October 2015
MAS Attack, Torrence Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, June 2014
Discount Space Travel, San Diego Art Department, San Diego, CA, March 2014
Common Thread: That’s What I Thought You Said, Planet Rooth, San Diego, CA, March 2014
Featured Artist, San Diego Art Department, San Diego, CA, May 2013
Burnt, Loft 594, Brooklyn, NY, February 2013
Gymnophobia, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, May 2012 (solo show)
Instinct, Brooklyn, NY, January 2012
No Trend, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, December 2011
Graduate Review, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, September 2011
Architecture of Devotion, Gowanus Ballroom, Brooklyn, NY, June 2011
Layers, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY, February 2011
Graduate Review, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY September 2010
The Regional Show, San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA, April 2010
Body Narratives, The New Americans Museum, San Diego, CA, December 2009
Carlsbad Art Honors Award Show, Lynn Forbes Sculpture School, Carlsbad, CA, August 2009
By the Running Foot, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA, March 2009
Sixth Annual SDSU Art Council Scholarship Exhibition, The Athenaeum , La Jolla CA, May 2008
Mischievous Alterations, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, May 2008
Pillow Talk, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, April 2008 (solo show)
Annual Student Award Show, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, March 2008, 2007
Fofo 60, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, December 2007
Annual Juried Student Art Show, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, March 2008, 2007

Awards and Scholarships
Biology Through Art Collaborator, National University, 2023-2025
Residencia Ranchita Aurora, Artist Residency 2021, 2022, 2024
Virgil Yalong Quick Grant, Rising Arts Leaders, September 2022
Biology Through Art Incubator Collaborator, National University, 2021-22
Virgil Yalong Quick Grant, Rising Arts Leaders, July 2021
Mural Commission, Downtown San Diego Partnership, June 2021
Public Art Initiative Awardee, Park Social, San Diego City, November 2020-2022
Materials Grant, Rising Arts Leaders, San Diego, September 2020
Covered California Mural Commission 2018
Institute of Contemporary Art, Horton Plaza Artist Residency, October 2017-January 2018
Excellence in Academic Achievement, Pratt Institute, May 2012
Pratt Institute Scholarship, Fall 2010, Spring and Summer 2011
Art Council Scholarship, June 2008
Extended Studies Purchase Award, March 2007
Dean’s List, San Diego State University, Fall 2005- Spring 2008