While I’ve been drawing and painting all my life, I settled into my creative niche, botanical insects, after looking for inspiration in the simple floral paintings I would create to sell at art shows. I started to feel that my botanical drawings could be engineered to create shapes rather than sitting neatly in detached rows across the page, so I started experimenting and deconstructing elements until I reached a style that I love. It's challenging work that requires a lot of focus and planning, and each piece I create gets my full, undivided attention as I craft it sitting at my grandmother’s antique secretary desk.

My work is both directly inspired by insects and symbolic of deeper meaning. In a literal sense, I believe insects are vital members of our ecosystem whose very real environmental peril often goes under-recognized because many people see them as repulsive. To that end, I hope that viewers will see my art as a statement that whether plant or animal, we are all interconnected beings whose ecological fates are inextricably tied.

It begs the question: what else does one find repulsive? Why? Is there another way to look at it?

Look deeper, and you’ll find an even more abstract message on the subject of transformation. At first, when they see my art, many people aren’t quite sure what they’re looking at. My pieces reward the observer who dares to give art more than a passing glance, who aims to truly see each work- because only then do these pieces transform from shapes and colors into legs, leaves, tendrils, wings and flowers.

The size of my pieces is critical to this interaction. Much like the insects they represent, each is a tiny, carefully crafted work filled with detail and moving parts- one that must be observed in an intimate, up-close environment to truly appreciate each precise, intricate brushstroke.

My hope is that by transforming these insects into something botanical and conventionally beautiful, it will lead the viewer to reflect on their preconceived notions about beauty, worth, and perspective.