For as long as I can remember, drawing has been part of my life. As a child, I was always creating, observing, and finding ways to express what I could not always put into words. Art was something that came naturally to me, but for many years, it stayed private.

​

As I moved into adulthood and built a full-time career rooted in caregiving and human resources, drawing slowly became something I returned to only when I could. My work was meaningful, but it was also demanding, and like many people, I found that certain creative parts of myself became quieter while I focused on responsibilities, schedules, and the needs of others.

​

Then, during a season of reflection and change, I found myself drawn back to art in a deeper way. After years of moving through demanding roles, personal loss, health challenges, and questions about who I was becoming, I began to reconnect with the part of myself that had always seen the world through images, symbols, and feeling.

​

One day, I began drawing again with a kind of honesty I had not felt in years. What started as a simple image slowly became something more symbolic. I drew a faceless angel, and then a single eye. That moment stayed with me. The eye felt like more than a detail. It felt like a doorway into memory, emotion, identity, and the parts of ourselves that often remain hidden.

​

With encouragement from my husband, I began sharing my work publicly for the first time. That encouragement helped me take a step I had been afraid to take for years. Once I allowed my art to be seen, everything began to change.

 

From there, Gaze and Graphite began to take shape.

​

My work is rooted in the belief that art can help us pause long enough to feel what we often rush past. I create hand-drawn digital artwork with a stylus, building each piece through line, shadow, symbolism, and emotion. Some pieces are deeply personal and introspective. Others celebrate Pittsburgh, nostalgia, everyday rituals, or the humor and warmth of local identity. Across all of them, I am drawn to the same question: what does it mean to be truly seen?

 

Gaze and Graphite has become a place where my love of storytelling, symbolism, and connection can live together. Through fine art prints, canvases, functional art pieces, and local collections, I hope to create work that feels meaningful, approachable, and emotionally honest.

​

My goal is not just to make something beautiful. It is to create pieces that invite people to pause, reflect, remember, and recognize something of themselves within the work.