One of my earliest forays into art was drawing Donald Duck and his family. I whiled away hours at my desk in the privacy of my bedroom capturing them on stiff Manila paper. It was the pleasure I took in drawing and being alone that sparked my interest in becoming an artist. I loved feeling creative. Making art was a way of building worlds of my own design.

My work most often patterns natural elements—flowers, leaves, constellations, and waterfalls. It explores where the inner world of spirit and feeling and the outer landscape intersect. I begin with a wish to make connections between things I understand and things I don’t.

I cover the surface of the paper or canvas with similar brushstrokes or draw hundreds of little circles. The meditative quality of this process sustains me. I relax into a groove and time vanishes. I’ve painted sunflowers at night in a snowstorm, the three mile run I take three times a week, flowers layered with constellations, and waterfalls layered with other waterfalls.

I want my paintings to be both beautiful and mysterious. Why constellations on top of flowers and leaves or waterfalls on top of waterfalls? I can’t say. But these paintings evoke a feeling of the sublime for me in times of joy or sorrow.