Find Out Who You Are and Do It on Purpose
We are officially in the full swing of fall.
The shifting of seasons feels so pivotal to me and to my creative process. I love watching everything change: the colors, the light, the temperature, and the way the world seems to exhale and turn inward. I almost need the seasons to change in order to shift within the studio, too.
This is the time of year when I hunker down, spend more time in the studio, and find myself getting really deep into the creative process before the heaviness of winter arrives. There is something about this transition that makes me want to make things, reflect, dream, and be inspired by the colorful landscape all around me.
I hope you are finding the shifts of fall bringing something positive into your own life, too.
It was an incredibly eventful and busy summer, and I am so grateful for everything it brought.
Just this past week, I picked up all of my artwork from PK Architecture in Minneapolis after a year-long exhibition. It was definitely bittersweet to say goodbye. I had such an incredible experience having my work there, and I’m especially grateful for the team of creators at PK that I got to know along the way.
Thank you to everyone who showed up to see the exhibition, purchased work, told a friend about it, or supported me from afar. Your support over all these years is always humbling, and I never take it for granted.
The Artists Who Become Part of Our Story
The news of several artists passing away over the last month has hit me differently. I’ve been thinking about the artists who have inspired my creativity over the years and how, even when we never meet someone, their work can become part of our own story.
One artist in particular has profoundly influenced me: Yayoi Kusama.
I will never forget the first time I experienced her work in person. I walked into one of her light filled Infinity Mirror rooms and suddenly felt like I had stepped out of this world and into another.
I was alone, surrounded by light, reflections, and what felt like an endless universe. I remember thinking, This is what art can do.
It can transport you. It can change your sense of where you are and make you feel small and infinite at the same time. It can quiet everything around you and bring you completely into the present.
Artist Yayoi Kusama Installation
at The Broad Museum, Los Angeles, 2016
That experience has stayed with me. Kusama’s work helped shape the way I think about art and what I want my own work to do. She reminded me that art doesn’t always have to be something you simply look at. It can be something you experience, enter, and feel.
I think about that often in my own studio. My work is very different from Kusama’s, but with my large-scale canvases, I hope to create even a small sense of that experience. I want my paintings to pull you somewhere else, to make you pause, step closer, get lost in the layers, and perhaps feel something you weren’t expecting.
I even find little pieces of her influence showing up in unexpected places. When I sit down to create with my daughter, I sometimes find myself making my own version of Kusama’s famous dots. In a small, subtle way, they have also found their way into how I think about and present my work.
That is the incredible thing about artists who leave a mark on us. They may never know the ways they have influenced someone.
Their creativity becomes part of our creativity. Their work continues to speak, inspire, and evolve through people they may never meet.
What a beautiful legacy, to leave something behind that continues to create something new in someone else.
I think that is one of the most beautiful things about being an artist. We never really know where our work will go, who it will reach, or what it might inspire in someone else.
All of this also got me thinking about Dolly Parton, another creative soul we have recently had to say goodbye to.
Dolly has always felt like someone who somehow belongs to everyone. Generations have grown up with her music, movies, humor, stories, and wisdom. There is just something about Dolly.
If I’m being honest, I didn’t listen to her music much, but I have always admired her as a creative businesswoman and the way she built a life so completely true to herself.
One story I always come back to is when Elvis Presley wanted to record I Will Always Love You. Dolly was thrilled by the opportunity, but the deal meant giving up the rights to her song. She knew the value of owning her work, so she said no.
Imagine that. Saying no to Elvis Presley.
Years later, Whitney Houston came along with a different deal that allowed Dolly to retain ownership, and the song became one of the most iconic recordings in music history.
What could have felt like a missed opportunity became one of the smartest business decisions of her career. Dolly trusted her instincts and protected what she had created.
That story has stayed with me because, as artists, we are constantly faced with decisions whose outcomes we cannot predict.
Sometimes we don’t get the exhibition, commission, residency, or opportunity. A gallery says no. A painting doesn’t sell. Someone else gets the opportunity.
Those things can hurt, but they are not always in our control.
What is in our control is whether we listen to ourselves.
Do I say yes or no?
Do I take the leap?
Do I make this even if I’m not sure anyone will understand it?
Dolly once said,
I love that.
As artists, we can get caught up in what is selling, what is popular, what a gallery or client wants, or what Instagram tells us we should be making. Sometimes we simply need to come back to ourselves.
Who am I?
What do I want to make?
What feels honest?
What does my gut say?
Dolly also said,
As we move toward the end of 2026 and look ahead to 2027, I find myself thinking about that.
What roads are we walking? Which ones still feel like ours? What are we ready to leave behind, and what are we excited to create?
I’d encourage you to take a little time this fall to ask yourself those questions. Think about one decision that changed the course of your life and one your gut might be asking you to make now.
Not as a sad reflection on the artists we’ve lost, but as a celebration of the creative lives they left behind.
Their work continues to speak. Their creativity becomes part of someone else’s creativity.
That is one of the beautiful things about being an artist.
After finishing my big commission for the Presidential Library, I joked that it felt like I had birthed a child. Little did I know how true that feeling would become.
Sometimes we think we know what we are creating, only to discover something much bigger is unfolding underneath it all.
I don’t know what God has in the works for me creatively next, but I’m ready. Until then, I’m enjoying this slower season, hunkering down in the studio, focusing on my current commissions, and embracing this quieter season of creating. A few group shows are coming up; see events below for details.
We don’t have to know exactly where the road is going before we take the next step. We just have to trust ourselves enough to take it.
So I’ll leave you with a little Dolly wisdom:
Here’s to knowing ourselves, trusting our guts, taking the leap, and paving our own roads.
And thank you for being on this journey with me through all these years, all the beautiful moments, and all the difficult chapters.
I hope life is treating you kindly, my friends. I hope you have all you’ve dreamed of, and I wish you joy and happiness.
Till next month.
Cheers,
