I teach Kundalini Yoga. "Kundalini" is the creative energy — within all of us! — that lies dormant at the base of the spine. Through Kundalini Yoga we have the opportunity to manage and awaken that creative energy. As an artist of the heart my spiritual practices are so important in supporting how I radiate and shine my light out in the world. I am also a deep practitioner of embodiment work and currently in a 3 year teacher training program with one of my long time teachers John Wineland. This is another modality that trains my body and heart to be fully open and expressed. As an artist, having many modalities and practices that help me manage my creative energy, heart, mind, and emotions is so important!

The Goth Hearts were created as an expression of my feelings surrounding an “off again on again” romantic relationship in my 20’s .. I am 43 now. The “Goth Heart” series are all of the hearts that I created during that time. Some examples of those are: “ALL I EVER WANTED, UR LOSING ME, U BLEW IT, UR ALL I NEED, I LOVED YOU”. Relatable right? What’s interesting is when I started pasting these around the city they had nothing to do with who would ever see them or what anyone would think. I was in turmoil and desperate to move these feelings through my body. I found solace in placing these feeling within a heart shape and hitting the streets, typically alone, to express myself and honor my heart. What ended up happening is people started to stumble upon these hearts and would have a MOMENT with them because aren’t all feelings relatable and universal?

This was around the time Instagram launched so I started documenting them after I pasted them up and sharing them online. Usually with song lyrics or cryptic messages through the ethers to whoever they were about. IG felt like my diary it wasn’t at the time a place to be seen, found, or market anything. I have a BFA in Photography from UARTS so photographing my work was an additional highlight of my process and felt experience. People started documenting and sharing the hearts with stories of their own experiences surrounding love and relationship on platforms and around the city. I never put my name on any of the work - because it just wasn’t and still isn’t about me getting noticed, found, or fame. What my artwork has always been about - is me yes… but on a personal level. It’s my nourishment- to create and document and share. Now — I just have a community of heart lovers along for the ride. Which circles back to the idea that we really are ALL ONE. We aren’t that unique as individuals that we haven’t had very similar feelings in this life.

So, yes working through my emotions out through art was how the Goth Hearts were birthed. Fast forward to jumping into intense therapy to work out why I had chosen to entertain ANY type of sometimes of maybe behavior from another person… This is were the “Power Hearts” were born. At the time I went into the trenches of my inner worlds and I needed to create love for myself. I began creating hearts for myself. Things I needed to hear and see on my daily routes throughout the city. So the Power Hearts are about the relationship with your SELF (whereas Goth Hearts speak to love and relationship with another person).  Some examples of the Power Hearts include, YOU ARE WORTH IT, KEEP GOING, YOU CAN, YOU ARE LOVED, YOU ARE NOT ALONE…” Again- messages and reminders we could all use bumping into.

If you continue along the path of my street art work which spans at about a decade and a half at this point- from the outside looking in - it is ALL universal.. but it’s actually ALL very personal to me and tracks my life very closely for the past 15 years. Each heart has a very personal story behind it. Every fortune (from the fortunate series) was to me or another person and speaks to mental health or self awareness. The Passing Notes series was my claim to the universe surrounding the type of relationship I was ready for.

SO- all this to say… I am so happy that you asked this question! I’ve never sat around or been at the drawing board thinking what would other people want to see or what would be a hit or popular. It’s always been a part of my life and experience of it.

As far as brand collaborations - yes- I do get to get co-creative and think how to merge my messages into a blend of what they want to say and what the hearts have always said. I am super intentional about who I will work with and WHAT goes in the hearts. The other body of hearts is based on community and philly pride so you may recognize that as a third body of work within the hearts!

The rhythm of what will resonate with others,if thought about, is me staying true and authentic to my heart and sharing my work as I always have. I think since it has always been for me that I don’t have fear of people liking something that I share- or not. It IS SO SO incredible when the work speaks to others and lights them up or connects people through vulnerability. I think for me that is the ultimate reward of what I do. It’s not about what people think or feel about me personally- it’s the experience that they have with the messages that they happen upon that feels fulfilling and significant to what I do. The cool part about that is that I am in total trust and surrender with the universe that the messages that people need to see will find them. This is again in a sense where if I were trying to control the impact or outcome of the work on others it probably wouldn’t work out in the thousands of just right moments that have happened. I mostly won’t ever know how my work effects others- but I get glimpses. People find me and share their very personal stories with me. Whether through email, IG, in person… and wow. It is a reminder to me to keep sharing my heart and life. Vulnerability really IS a connector and very intimate.

I hadn’t thought about legacy much at all until the past few years when others pointed out to me how many hearts have been shared across the world and country. And how many permanent ones there are. Others have spoken to me about the impact of my artwork. I think since it provides such a FELT experience it’s important and memorable to people. I also think that people want to share it with as many people as they can. They want others to feel the effects of love or feeling seen, heard, or the relatability of the work. People in general WANT to connect and share love and intimacy. This is a way that they can do so. When people commission work from me and decide to share it somewhere that is public I do thank them and let them know how much it will affect the community it lives in. I’ve also found that certain communities take pride in the hearts and want more and more. It is an awesome experience to be in a neighborhood or city and be suddenly running into messages from the heart wherever you go. I love the snowball effect of all of it. The work gives people hope and connection. Back to legacy — I will look back on my life in so much gratitude for all of it.

Looking back over the past three years I've gotten to see and feel the results of how prioritizing how I take care of my physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual bodies directly affects my career, abundance, joy, expansion, and creativity. I come from hustle culture and the city and so for years that's what I did! I was exhausted and not getting to fully relish in or celebrate in the work that I was creating. It was a confusing time because all of the "hustle" was positive and the opportunities felt endless. I said yes to way too much. Looking back I can see I was wanting "more" in areas of my life. I'd work insane hours and end up with not enough (money or a felt fulfilled sense) to show for the amount of work I did. I often felt empty.

Around 2017 is when I got curious and dove into studying myself and patterns. I started getting outside help — from therapy, teachers, coaches, and programs. In so many different modalities. There have been years of replacing and forming new habits and ways of doing and thinking. Years of not just learning but actually doing what I've been taught. Anyone can learn and talk about new ways of doing things. But can you implement them? Awareness is just the first step. And if you stop there — it is quite meaningless. If there is no action — you've done nothing with what you've been shown. Seeing or noticing something about ourselves does not change us or our behavior at all! Doing "the work" is taking actionable steps to shifting or changing our behavior. This is where it is so important to get outside help that can track us, give us perspective, and show us where we are fooling ourselves. This "work" continues on and will forever. And it directly affects my career.

So back to the now — WOW ... It is incredible to compare. I take care of myself first, I leave a LOT of space surrounding my obligations, I feel so fulfilled, grateful, and abundant where I'm at. It's not that I don't desire "more" in life it's that I don't need that "more" to feel full now. I've realized over the years that I really feel I have everything I need because that comes from within. I feel satisfied and in perpetual magic and possibility. I believe it's because I am not operating in a state of lack or belief that when I get this thing or have this amount of money I will be or feel X.

The way that I live now is with much intention and attention! I am so present and aware of my experiences and work that I get to have a remarkable felt experience through the entire process of creation to completion. Because of the felt experiences I get to have a tremendous amount of gratitude for everything. I have meaningful, connected, wonderful experiences with the clients I meet along the way. Because I choose to. It is deeply fulfilling. I am not living in a world of checking off boxes to get somewhere else and therefore missing the everyone and everything right now. Because guess what? If you can't access the part of you now that has everything you need — when you get that thing you think you need that you think is going to give you all of the other things it's actually still going to feel the same. You will never be fulfilled or satisfied! Life hack! We aren't guaranteed tomorrow so I've found profound joy in living this way! The ever trending Ram Dass quote, "Be Here Now". Truly.

My interest in this medium and public art was a conceptual happy accident. I have been interested and work in many mediums for many years. However, in 2009 I created a body of work that was based on all of the cat calls I had heard living in the city since 1999. After creating the mixed media graphics (which included screen printing, water color, collage, text, and photoshop) I wasn’t certain how or where to present the work. It felt too risky to share in a gallery setting — uncertain of the probability of having enough sales to break even after gallery fees, framing, production, etc.

At the time I remembered back to learning about public art in college and the different processes used. I remembered wheat paste. Street art (in that form was not around philly much during this time). Conceptually- it made sense to put the cat calling back in the streets where it originated. I loved that — it felt right and full circle. So — I looked up how to make wheat paste, printed my images, and went out to paste around. I fell in love with being able to create and almost immediately release it back into the universe and all of totality. And I loved the idea of not knowing who would see it or how long it would last. As you can hear I am really about energy and co creating with the universe. I have been jumping off of the cliff and finding my wings mid air for as long as I can remember. It is really a part of me.

I think people can sense and feel — even if they may not be able to put their finger on it — the energy behind the work. By that I mean — it is born and coming from a very genuine place and there is so much HEART and devotion behind my artwork and who I am. I get that on a surface level it may seem that I am coming up with what I think others might want to see or would be popular but it’s so far from that. I think the people that need to see whatever message they know and know it was meant for them somehow transmitted through me.

Also something I love about public art is that it is enlivening. It inspires and evokes energy. I also think the element of surprise behind public art n and synchronicity is incredible. When you think about how one person in particular found themselves walking down a certain block in a certain city at a certain year, day, and moment in time and saw a certain piece of artwork that impacted them- excuse me? Think of the orchestration behind all of that. I am very Woo-woo and I own that. I wouldn’t live my life any other way!

I'm sharing three! Two go-to's for me that have crave worthy dishes are Hikari Sushi in No Libs (I love some of the rolls there- it's easy+low key+excellent fish) and the other is El Vez (First of all: PHOTO BOOTH. Second: Mahi Mahi Tacos, Watermelon Salad, Mexican Chopped Salad w/Steak, Tortilla Soup, Chicken Enchiladas, and Creamy Poblano Corn Rice. Third- If I know it will be an over 12 hour day: picking up literally ANYTHING off of the Liberty Kitchen Front street location's menu. OMG- their sandwiches are amazing and for me equal two meals for a non stop kind of day.