being gentle

My middle name is Gentle. The following self-portraits utilize creativity to liberate my inner child and heal from a traumatic past.

I aim to be gentle with myself and with the world — not in a meek way, but in a way where I stand up for justice. In a world wrought with suffering and oppression, I hope to utilize my privilege to help shift the system.

More completed works will be added to this series with time.

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438 Dartmouth Rd

Medium: Mixed-media on warped canvas board (acrylic, oil pastel, archival photograph of the artist as a child, ink, dried ranunculus, found glitter hearts, and adhesive)


Dimensions: 16” x 12”


Year Completed: 2026

438 Dartmouth Rd. began in 2014 as a painting of the property where I grew up. There was a sharp contrast between my meticulous representation of the trees, where I escaped to play, versus my psychological inability to paint the house, inside which I endured domestic violence and s*xual abuse.

This observation led me to imagine new possibilities for the space as well as for my own catharsis and collective healing. It is my hope that humans ends wars within and with others.

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Girl / Grilled (The weight on the other side of the mirror)

Medium: Mixed-media sculpture (acrylic self-portrait on paper, cut journal entries, and personal archival material adhered to scrap metal from a salvaged fire-pit)


Dimensions: 11” x 9” x 1.5”


Year Completed: 2026

GIRL / GRILLED ( the weight on the other side of the mirror ) offers a glimpse into my invisible weight: the psychological trauma of gender-based violence. The female nude on the front is a self-portrait that I had stored away in my journal for years. I began painting myself nude as an attempt to connect with and claim my body. The word ‘claim’, rather than ‘reclaim’, is used because I never felt I had autonomy over her body until adulthood due to the abuse I endured throughout childhood and adolescence.


The back of the sculpture includes more segments cut from my various journals as well as documentation from my past. ‘GRILLED’ in the title refers to the sculptural medium (scrap metal from a fire-pit I salvaged off the curb) of the piece as well as to the constant scrutiny, doubt, and harassment survivors often endure from family, peers, political systems, and society.