Welcome to my 2025 year in review! Each year, I love sitting down and reflecting on what I accomplished, what my favorite pieces were, and what I learned, where my growth occurred both personally and professionally and take those lessons with me into my next year to keep growing and evolving! I thought I would continue my annual tradition of sharing them here with you.
I want to extend a huge thank you to all of you who supported me this year, following along here, purchasing, and viewing both in person and online- and welcome to all my new collectors this year! I continue to be honored to have my work exhibited in your homes. This continues to be such a dream come true for me to work as an artist.
2025 was the year of Intention and with that came a deep desire to be more present with my children, and paint from a more intuitive place. Each time I painted this year, I asked myself “Why am I drawn to painting this right now?”, “What is the deeper intention behind painting this theme or this way or with these materials?”. With Intention, deep reflection followed, and I focused a great deal on writing and story-telling this year. My third child learned to walk this year, needed a lot of my attention, so I learned to do the thing all mother’s constantly do: balance. I said no to a lot of things to make space for what felt good. I am proud to say I’m ending the year in a very rested place.
That being said, for each year in review, I love to examine patterns of my paintings that include: new or re-occurring themes I was drawn to painting, my ever-evolving use of color, and what my favorite pieces were. Enjoy!
I painted a collection of seashells on canvas this year. It was my second time painting seashells and I loved experimenting with the palette for each shell. I explored both lake shells and ocean shells. It was fun to see which shells and their shapes I was drawn to. My favorite shell I painted from the collection was this one entitled “June’s Seashell”.
My entire year and my creative headspace seem to evolve around this theme of eternal sunshine and searching for shade. In the grand scheme of life, many people referred to the season of motherhood as summertime. This comparison rings true for me, and it was an analogy that I leaned heavily upon this year when I considered what to paint. I explored a theme I affectionately call “Onshore” this year. I moved my physical studio to our boathouse and painted all summer with my 3 children. It was glorious. Here are some images from our summer painting together. I treasure these memories and the work that emerged from working alongside my children this season.
My favorite piece from this collection was entitled: “Motherhood Blues” and was drawn from the children’s perspective.
This was the third year I explored this theme of Flowers on Paper which was a theme that was literally “born” in 2023 when I was pregnant with my third child. Each time I have been pregnant with my children, I have left space and time to be open to exploring a possible new theme or a current theme in a different way. I painted so many flowers this year! I picked flowers from our garden, and worked with a local florist to bring in flowers to my studio. It was a big year for painting flowers and I’m excited to continue to explore this theme in the upcoming year. I’m especially excited to re-visit painting lilacs. Their fragrance was absolutely captivating and I loved getting to not only paint them during their blooming season but also bringing them back into my studio. I have a really lovely memory of my 6yo daughter standing, taking a deep breath, and leaning into a giant bouquet of lilacs I had brought back into my studio. I watched her do it, then promptly did it myself- the flowers felt soft and cool and I’m convinced they are the best smelling flower in the world, next to Lillies of course.
My favorite works from this year’s Flower collection were the flowers I painted together with my 6yo daughter. We worked in response to each other’s paintings together in the studio: sharing palettes, materials, observing the same flower or bouquet together, and deciding we liked one another’s paintings and painted our own version of it. I love when this type of magic happens as I learn so much from watching my daughter paint the exact same flower I am painting in her own way. I find regularly working with my children in this way keeps me more open-minded and loose with my own painting.
My favorite flower that I worked with this year was absolutely the sunflower. I was obsessive about working with this flower- I even visited several sunflower fields this year to stand in the field and feel the magic that is miles of sunflowers growing in the sunshine- following the sun each day. I even painted my Christmas ornaments in a sunflower theme this year!
I also painted a small collection entitled “Summer Bodies”. These works were an extension of my current Artist in Residency on Motherhood I’ve been working on since May 2023. I am very excited to finally be exhibiting this body of work in downtown Sturgeon Bay this year. This body of work will be on display. My favorite piece from “summer bodies” is this one: entitled “Blue Striped Suit”.
I was elated to revisit my “Women in Chairs” Series for the second time. This series of paintings is also an extension of my ongoing Artist in Residency on Motherhood and I cannot wait to share these works this year as well! My favorite piece from this recent collection was entitled: “Women in Chairs with bananas”. This was the first collection I ever released that was not available for sale. Just one of the examples this year of how I honored myself with what felt right with my work.
Last but definitely NOT LEAST, this will go down as one of the biggest years for my art journey thus far and I have signed a lease to open my own studio/gallery here in Door County! Stay tuned via my studio email list to receive updates on this crazy wild adventure I am so excited to embark on in 2026. Next year marks 10 years I will be painting professionally and no better way to celebrate it, than to be opening a physical studio!