• Delray Walls Mural Fest, a street art and music festival, featured top area mural artists

    Delray Walls Mural Fest, a street art and music festival, featured top area mural artists

    Delray Walls Mural Fest, a street art and music festival, featured top area mural artists

    Caption:

    Sarah Huang, a multidisciplinary artist, works on a mural called Gladiola Sunset during the Delray Walls Mural Fest in Downtown Delray Beach July 29, 2023.

    DAMON HIGGINS/THE PALM BEACH POST

  • Meet Sarah E. Huang, Resident Artist at the Arts Warehouse

    Meet Sarah E. Huang, Resident Artist at the Arts Warehouse

    Meet Sarah E. Huang, Resident Artist at the Arts Warehouse

    By
    The Delray Beach CRA
    03/28/2023

    If you’re interested in experiencing “surreal and visceral art, with brushstrokes that tangle together in a frenzy, and forms that are raw and primal, highlighted by a chromatic color palette,” then you must check out Resident Artist Sarah E. Huang’s solo exhibit “Aging & Maturing” at the Arts Warehouse.

    Held March 3 through April 29 in the East Gallery, Huang describes her current body of work as a reflection and evolution of the history of her identity.

    “For this series, I drew heavily from visual research to develop each ‘meaty’ form depicted in my installation and paintings. I love collecting images, sketching them, and evaluating each before I enlarge them for the final display,” said Huang, who hopes that visitors will enjoy the experiential installation component of her exhibit. “I encourage people to wander through and weave in and out of my hanging drawings. My favorite moment is when someone finds a piece to pose with for a photo! As a contrast to the free-flowing, monochromatic hanging pieces, I also have three paintings on display that help soften the stark contrast of my drawings with the softness and vibrancy of their color palettes.”

    Pursuing Art and Inspiring Young Artists
    Huang left her full-time job in July 2021 to pursue art more fully. Serendipity struck when the Arts Warehouse announced vacancies, she applied, and the Arts Warehouse accepted. By October 2021, she moved into her studio during a First Friday Art Walk, which has since become a place of work and comfort.

    “In early 2021 I filed for an LLC to make my art business feel more tangible, even though I was still working out of my small living room. In addition, I needed to expand the scale of my work and refocus the scope of what I was making,” Huang said. “I’ve done more work here at Arts Warehouse than I have been able to in a while, which has been exhilarating. With that said, my experience has been incredibly positive. The best part is that I get to share a space with an amazing group of like-minded and knowledgeable working artists and professionals.”

    Her goal – other than making amazing art – is inspiring other young artists. She didn’t know that the arts could be a viable career pathway when she was younger, and feared transferring her hobby into a career would cause her to lose her love for it. But, her passion for the arts persisted and only grew stronger the more she immersed herself in the field and met more artists like her with similar goals.

    “You can make anything happen if you are passionate about pursuing your dreams. It’s hard work, but it’s worth it. I hope to exhibit at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York one day,” said Huang, who believes that upgrading from her living room to a real studio space within the Arts Warehouse has been life changing. “Establishing a studio has allowed me to branch out and seek additional artist opportunities in the area through my connections and fellow artists. I’ve grown as an educator too. Since becoming a resident, I’ve become an instructor at the Boca Museum Art School, The Coral Springs Museum of Art, and the Milagro Center as part of the Boca Museum’s outreach program.”

    Early Exposure to Art Leads to a Promising Art Career
    All thanks to her family, who exposed her to art at a young age, especially with her mom being an artist. Huang said that her family is big on visiting museums, which began for her as a young child and continues to this day. She became the chronic doodler in her classes at school and dreamed of creating her own comic books one day. But it wasn’t until she enrolled as a Film, Video and New Media major at FAU, and signing up for a Figure Drawing elective in her second year that the future became clear for her.

    “There was something that deeply spoke to me about that class. So, I changed majors and pursued a fine arts degree from there onward, with an eventual focus on painting. That figure drawing class was the moment I realized I could create something rewarding for myself,” Huang said.

    Now, being a resident at the Arts Warehouse has helped her create an excellent platform for her work and open doors in even the short amount of time she has been there.

    “Even when catching up on the more administrative side of my work, it’s nice to have a dynamic space to research and write, where I’m surrounded by the art I’ve created and what others have, too,” Huang said. “In addition, the feedback from and connecting with the other residents and other artists who come to Arts Warehouse has been invaluable. I can’t wait to keep creating and learning more.”

    March 28, 2023

  • Delray Affair poster artist Sarah Huang paints memories and dreams

    Delray Affair poster artist Sarah Huang paints memories and dreams

    Sarah Huang grew up drawing and painting became more of a second step for her. She paints animals and people in a bright, illustrative way. Drawing is familiar to her. It's comforting.

    By
    Sandra Schulman
    01/20/2022


    As a Taiwanese American artist based in Delray Beach, Sarah Huang is rooted in two cultures, fusing her backlog of dreams, memories, and visions in an organic way.

    She is the official poster artist for the 60th Annual Delray Affair. She won out in the open artists call for her unusual painting of the city’s landmark arts district. Rendered in a brushy pink, coral, and turquoise palette, the image is of the Pineapple Grove sign – from the back.

    Huang says “Delray Beach is one of the fastest-growing cultural centers in South Florida. Everywhere you look, a fusion of the arts and business is evident. In this image, I wanted to capture an iconic piece of Downtown Delray and show a different perspective of Pineapple Grove of someone exiting through the archway. A painting merged with the sky symbolizes someone leaving Pineapple Grove and daydreaming about the art they experienced in Delray’s local galleries. This design aimed to highlight how the arts are an essential part of the city’s culture through the Pineapple Grove archway leading to the Arts District. It also highlighted how the Delray Affair celebrates this aspect of the city’s culture, fusing arts and business through the Delray Affair each year.”

    She was recommended by the Arts Garage to submit because she used to work there. The presentation to the committee was entirely based on an image and statement without any names attached.

    Delray Affair poster artist Sarah Huang paints memories and dreams
    Delray Affair Design by Huang (Digital Illustration)
    What she submitted was very rough. She submitted a design that looks very similar to what the final design came out to be because the committee liked that it had kind of a rough unfinished look of the sign in reverse.

    “I looked at some previous years’ designs and I was like, what’s Pineapple Grove to me, what’s Delray beach to me. I love that it always incorporates the arts into every facet of business,” says Huang. “So, you have business and art. And what’s more iconic than dancing pineapples? I love it. I mean, that mural is a backdrop to so many locals and tourists in the area. However, I wanted to capture someone leaving the area and thinking like, wow, Delray Beach is becoming this cultural hub. I just wanted to do something a bit different.”

    As a bonus, she will have a booth at the event with copies of the poster for sale as well as some of her other artwork. This will be her first art festival where she is the featured artist.

    “I’ve never been in one! I was telling the chamber I’ve never done an art festival before, so this is crazy. I also found out months ago but had to keep it quiet which was really challenging. I was just waiting for the announcement; it kept me on the edge of my seat. I was like, “Oh man, when can I announce it?”

    Huang had been working out of her home and in arts administration. Her exhibitions include 1310 Gallery – Sailboat Bend, Ali Cultural Arts, The Pompano Beach Cultural Center, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Arts Garage, The Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, Arts Warehouse, and more. Last October she got the space in the Arts Warehouse and has been expanding her work into various mediums.

    A striking carnal series depicts black-and-white cuts of meat.

    Delray Affair poster artist Sarah Huang paints memories and dreams
    Aging & Maturing Graphite on Vellum_9x8’_View 2
    About this newly created artwork, she says: “The Aging & Maturing series is a reflection on identity and connection captured through gesturally drawn carcasses on vellum with powdered graphite. Food is a significant part of my family’s culture and equally a significant part of my identity. I remember loving nothing more than taking those trips to the supermarket with my family. I’d gaze in wonder at the roasted Peking duck floating in the window or how the butcher expertly prepares the meat for sale.

    As someone who is biracial, food is my connection to my heritage and Taiwanese culture, and meat is at the forefront of that connection. I draw meat because of how anyone can relate to its form – a contemporary take on genre art. The process of drawing is familiar and comforting, and my paintbrush allows me to draw broadly and loosely, imbuing my physicality with each stroke. This is where I capture flesh, form, light, and shadow through my meaty subjects.”

    In contrast, a drawing series became paintings that became sculptural, blooming and snaking off the walls.

    “I only had a couple of weeks to put this together, but they are drawing on Mylar–just synthetic paper. It’s like drafting film and it’s made with graphite and acrylic paint. It never quite takes the same shape or form, which is kind of how I intended it to be. This is because it’s comprised of various drawings that I had done over many weeks. And I kind of curated it and picked out which one stood out to me the most. So, this was one of my first forays into the more sculptural format.”

    The work will be at Art Serve in Ft Lauderdale for a show called “Sui Generis.”

    “For a long time, I was working full time doing arts administration and operations and not really digging my heels into something where I could really explore. So, when I moved here at the beginning of October, I sat down and I was like, well, what do you truly enjoy about your work? I put this up and it started to get the wheels turning and I was like, all right, what’s the next step? Let’s stay in the three-dimensional realm for a little bit and have fun in that exploration mode.”

    Huang says this is formative for her and where her mind is heading about her current work now.

    “One of my goals in coming back to the three-dimensional format is to envelop a room somewhere and engulf people with these sprawling drawings because I truly have the most fun when I’m playing with the drawings and trying something different. I get a lot of interesting comments. It is like a light fixture or something that is bowed from the ceiling, just coming off the wall. Yeah, it’s very organic, right? So that’s what excites me about that piece.”

    Huang grew up drawing and painting became more of a second step for her. She paints animals and people in a bright, illustrative way.

    Drawing is familiar to her. It’s comforting.

    I really embraced just using graphite at the moment. On my drawings for my installation, it was really a return to my roots.”

    The 60th Annual Delray Affair is on Friday, April 8, 2022, through Sunday, April 10, 2022. For more information on the artists, check facebook.com/sarahehuang or follow her on Instagram @Sarahehuang

  • ArtServe’s Su·i ge·ne·ris Exhibit Seeks to Define the Evolution of “Normal”

    ArtServe’s Su·i ge·ne·ris Exhibit Seeks to Define the Evolution of “Normal”

    By ArtServe & CityBiz

    While the world grapples with the evolution of what “normal” actually looks like in the COVID era, Fort Lauderdale’s ArtServe has re-imagined its “Su·i ge·ne·ris” exhibit, which traditionally features artistic works that go beyond conventional genre boundaries.

    With this year’s version entitled “Su·i ge·ne·ris—Converging Visions of New Identities,” the exhibition opens on Friday, January 21 with an in-person public reception at ArtServe from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission to the reception is free.

    The exhibition itself, which runs through Saturday, March 26, is free and open Monday through Saturday. ArtServe is encouraging social distancing and face coverings, and will provide hand sanitizer stations throughout the facility.

    “Su-i-ge-ne-ris, a Latin term that means ‘of its own kind and therefore unique,’ will touch upon politics, migration, belief systems, self-analysis and self-preservation,” explained ArtServe Executive Director Jason Hughes. “The viewer will be invited to reflect on our ever-changing society, with artwork prompting questions of who determines what is normal, how do we establish new value systems and how do we move from analysis into action.”

    Through an experimental curatorial approach that welcomed multidisciplinary works in photography, video and interactive pieces, Su·i ge·ne·ris artists were invited to present their expressions of identity and sociopolitical discourse.

    “Social issues are driven by currents of cultural transitions,” noted ArtServe’s Sophie Bonet, who curated the exhibit in conjunction with artist Carol-Anne McFarlane. “At the core of this project lays the desire to understand how contemporary structures mold and transform individual lives, gender, social power and the ideologies of class systems.”

    McFarlane, an international speaker who focuses on social critique, gave her perspective on Su·i ge·ne·ris, noting that its thrust is “. . . a response to our environment, our living conditions and the political structures around us. (Artists) looked inward, longed for connection . . . and many of us desired to escape.”

    Su·i ge·ne·ris, which is supported by grants from Truist Foundation, Broward Cultural Division and Culture Builds Florida, includes the following artworks and artists:

    April Saler’s large-scale, mixed-media installation “NOPE: a casual, yet assertive, statement of self-preservation,” which explores emotionally isolating narratives through found objects, graffiti, video projections, reactive paintings, wordplay and collaborative drawings
    “Layered Tensions,” a photography and multi-media installation by visual and holistic artist Natalia Vásquez which explores the subtle, yet powerful energies that make up our emotional, mental, physical and spiritual landscapes.

    Rosa Naday Garmendia’s “Miami is Not Cuba” mixed-media installation, which focuses on the artist’s upbringing and experiences as a trans-cultural child, a multi-ethnic Cuban woman, an immigrant and an industrial worker raised in Miami.

    Sarah E. Huang’s “Aging & Maturing,” which reflects on identity and connection to her heritage and Taiwanese culture through a surreal, visceral installation of gesturally drawn carcasses on vellum with powdered graphite.

    The A-Project by Tabatha Mudra, a photo-essay on androgynous people that brings awareness to individuals who do not fit into typical masculine and feminine gender roles Other participating artists are Adrian Monterrosa, Andrea Duarte, Bridgett Ezzard, Darius V. Daughtry, Iana Agapova, Jennifer Turner, Loni Johnson, Niki Lopez, Valera, Yves Gabriel and Zipporah Michael.


    About ArtServe

    Named a “2020 Top-Rated Nonprofit” by GreatNonprofits, the leading provider of user reviews of charities and nonprofits, Fort Lauderdale-based ArtServe is an award-winning arts incubator that is advancing the arts for social good as a creative laboratory and hub for experimental artists committed to diversity, equity and inclusion. Now in its 33rd year, ArtServe has won several awards for innovation in the arts and is supported in part by the Broward County Board of County Commissioners as recommended by the Broward Cultural Council and Florida’s Department of State and the Division of Cultural Affairs. Each year, ArtServe programs contribute tangibly to the region’s economy, helping 2,000+ artists sell their work, build businesses and engage the community. To do that, ArtServe secures financial support through donations, sponsorships and memberships.

    Become a member of ArtServe as either an artist or community member at www.ArtServe.org/member/ or become a founding member of Friends of ArtServe at www.ArtServe.org/friends. Requests and questions about the ArtServe facility or programs can be emailed to information@ArtServe.org

  • Local Artist is Selected as 2022 Delray Affair Featured Poster Artist

    Local Artist is Selected as 2022 Delray Affair Featured Poster Artist

    By MasterWing Creative Agency

    Our very own, Sarah E. Huang is selected as the poster artist for 2022 Delray Affair!

    Huang is a Taiwanese-American artist based in Delray Beach, FL. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Florida Atlantic University in 2015. Huang has exhibited her evocative, visceral abstract paintings, drawings, and installations locally, nationally, and internationally since 2012. Most recently, her exhibition record includes The Box Gallery, 1310 Gallery – Sailboat Bend, Ali Cultural Arts, The Pompano Beach Cultural Center, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Arts Garage, and many more. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Arts Warehouse in Delray Beach.

    Huang explains for inspiration for the poster: Delray Beach is one of the fastest-growing cultural centers in South Florida. Everywhere you look, a fusion of the arts and business is evident. In this image, she wanted to capture an iconic piece of Downtown Delray and show a different perspective of Pineapple Grove of someone exiting through the archway. A painting merged with the sky symbolizes the individual leaving Pineapple Grove, while daydreaming about the art they experienced in Delray’s local galleries and cultural hubs. This design aimed to highlight how the arts are an essential part of the city’s culture through the Pineapple Grove archway leading to the Arts District and how the Delray Affair celebrates this aspect of the city’s culture, fusing arts and business through the Delray Affair each year. As the Delray Affair approaches its 60th year, she wanted to celebrate what makes the city stand out among others – and its how Delray Beach embraces the arts in all of its facets.

    60th Annual Delray Affair Details

    Friday, April 8, 2022 and Saturday, April 9, 2022 (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.)

    Sunday, April 10, 2022 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

    For the 60th year, Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce presents the “Greatest Art Show under the Sun” from April 8 through April 10. Delray Affair features more than 400 artists, crafters, and food vendors from all over the United States, the event spans across 12 city blocks in downtown Delray Beach on Atlantic Ave. Best of all, admission is FREE.

    In honor of the 60th Anniversary, a 60’s Flower Power theme will dominate the landscape of Downtown Delray leading up to the event and during. Several businesses have already began making plans how they will incorporate the 60’s theme with window displays, menus, staff attire and more. Keep an eye out for the transformation coming soon!

  • Local Artist is Selected as 2022 Delray Affair Featured Poster Artist

    Local Artist is Selected as 2022 Delray Affair Featured Poster Artist

    By The Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce

    Sarah E. Huang is selected as the poster artist for 2022 Delray Affair! Huang is a Taiwanese-American artist based in Delray Beach, FL. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting from Florida Atlantic University in 2015. Huang has exhibited her evocative, visceral abstract paintings, drawings, and installations locally, nationally, and internationally since 2012. Most recently, her exhibition record includes The Box Gallery, 1310 Gallery – Sailboat Bend, Ali Cultural Arts, The Pompano Beach Cultural Center, Coral Springs Museum of Art, Arts Garage, and many more. She is currently an Artist in Residence at Arts Warehouse in Delray Beach.

    Huang explains for inspiration for the poster: Delray Beach is one of the fastest-growing cultural centers in South Florida. Everywhere you look, a fusion of the arts and business is evident. In this image, she wanted to capture an iconic piece of Downtown Delray and show a different perspective of Pineapple Grove of someone exiting through the archway. A painting merged with the sky symbolizes the individual leaving Pineapple Grove, while daydreaming about the art they experienced in Delray’s local galleries and cultural hubs. This design aimed to highlight how the arts are an essential part of the city’s culture through the Pineapple Grove archway leading to the Arts District and how the Delray Affair celebrates this aspect of the city’s culture, fusing arts and business through the Delray Affair each year. As the Delray Affair approaches its 60th year, she wanted to celebrate what makes the city stand out among others – and its how Delray Beach embraces the arts in all of its facets.

    60th Annual Delray Affair Details

    Friday, April 8, 2022 and Saturday, April 9, 2022 (10 a.m. to 6 p.m.)

    Sunday, April 10, 2022 (10 a.m. to 5 p.m.)

    For the 60th year, Greater Delray Beach Chamber of Commerce presents the “Greatest Art Show under the Sun” from April 8 through April 10. Delray Affair features more than 400 artists, crafters, and food vendors from all over the United States, the event spans across 12 city blocks in downtown Delray Beach on Atlantic Ave. Best of all, admission is FREE.

    In honor of the 60th Anniversary, a 60’s Flower Power theme will dominate the landscape of Downtown Delray leading up to the event and during. Several businesses have already began making plans how they will incorporate the 60’s theme with window displays, menus, staff attire and more. Keep an eye out for the transformation coming soon!

  • Sarah E. Huang's "In Pieces" featured in Art & Culture Magazine

    Sarah E. Huang's "In Pieces" featured in Art & Culture Magazine
  • Arts Garage Exhibit Showcases Quarantine Art

    By John Thomason, Boca Mag

    Strolling through “Artists in Quarantine,” the eclectic new exhibition in Arts Garage’s Grassroots Gallery, I thought of the old adage, “if you only have a hammer, everything looks like a nail.” With few exceptions, the artists all completed these works under the coronavirus lockdown that defined spring in South Florida and across the world. When you’re living in quarantine, it seems, everything seems to be fundamentally about quarantine—a reflection of it, a reaction to it, an escape from it.

    Even pieces of abstraction that might have a more universal resonance in those bygone normal times, now seem to confront our shared isolation. Take Jean Wemyss’s painting that’s called, in fact, “Isolate,” in which geometric shapes, otherwise open to interpretation, struck me as embodying the restrictive frames of windows, the connection to an outside world that is largely out of reach. The spherical shape in the upper-left quadrant could be the artist, moving in circles, each endless day bleeding into the next.


    “Isolate” by Jean Wemyss
    Painter Tracy Danet, whose work captures Mother Nature in elusive brush strokes, also brings a sort of specificity, intended or not, to images of a more general appeal. Titled “Dawn” and “Dusk,” they suggest, rather than outright depict, shapes including coffee stains and birds and flowers, rendered in muted pastels. I couldn’t look at them without thinking of my own communing with nature on an almost daily basis these past three months, the noticing of flora and fauna I never took the time to appreciate in the Before Time.

    I likewise related to Sarah E. Huang’s “In Pieces,” a three-dimensional abstract piece with about a dozen points of entry all coalescing into a frenzied tangle just off-center. I noticed a mermaid tail, a human leg and a pair of buried eyes, all swept into a kind of societal turbulence big enough to encompass not just the pandemic but the more recent Black Lives Matter protests. It’s a remarkably keen work that grows in estimation the more you linger over it.


    “Marilyn Monroe” by Steven Perez
    Then there are the artists whose work feels like a colorful sojourn from our sheltered months of daily death counts and an economy in free-fall—like Steven Perez’s vibrant and sometimes-amusing small-scale collages composed from found photographs overlaid with cut-up magazine clippings. In one, a boy looks askance at his mixed-up ice-cream cone; in another, balls of color, like wondrous space junk, rain down upon a monochromatic Marilyn Monroe. Rick Namors’ kaleidoscopic, mad-scientific abstracts, meticulously created with felt-tip marker, feel like a shiny, psychedelic escape from the humdrum of quarantine.


    Work by Rick Namors
    It’s worth noting that some of the artists “cheated” in the sense that they completed their submissions prior to quarantine. The curator allowed them anyway, and they do contribute to the overall theme, revealing at times a prophetic sensibility. Mitchell Jacobson’s street-captured photos of urban graffiti, for instance, now seem inextricable from the news cycles we’ve experienced, from “Why is Peace So Violent?” to “New Heroes, New Masks,” a work that seems to retroactively liken frontline health-care workers to masked superheroes like Batman.

    What Arts Garage did not receive from almost all of the artists were unmistakably realistic representations of quarantine life. That’s why Natalie Veyvoda’s “American Gothic 2020: Palm Beach County Edition” (pictured at top) is such a standout. Instead of Grant Wood’s iconic image of farm spouses, Veyvoda’s watercolor captures an older couple in folding chairs, each of them gloved and masked, self-medicating with a bottle of Chardonnay on their tile floor. Yes, it’s a Palm Beach County couple, but it’s also an everycouple, isolating in an abundance of caution, waiting it out.

    In her bio on Arts Garage’s website, Veyvoda added this: “How do we deal with [social distancing and isolation]? Like the couple in the painting, she hopes that this may soon pass, but will it? And, if so, when? And in what form?”

    Great questions. We all want the answers. Until we get them, at least we have perceptive works of art like this to help ease the uncertainty.

    “Artists in Quarantine” runs in Arts Garage’s Grassroots Gallery through July 31. Admission is free. The gallery is open Tuesday through Friday from noon to 6 p.m. For information, call 561/450-6457 or visit artsgarage.org.

  • Meet Sarah E. Huang - Voyage Miami

    Meet Sarah E. Huang - Voyage Miami

    Meet Sarah E. Huang by Voyage Miami, July 19, 2018


    Today we’d like to introduce you to Sarah E. Huang.

    Every artist has a unique story. Can you briefly walk us through yours?
    I’m a visual artist based out of Delray Beach, FL. I fancy myself to be painting and drawing-focused, but I dabble in mixed media works as well. I recently left my full-time job in the talent acquisition and account management field to re-immerse myself into my studio practice. Growing up, I never saw myself pursuing my art as a profession; I deeply feared that if I turned my fervent hobby into a career, I would end up steering away from it as an adult. This hasn’t been true…at all; my “hobby” as a child quickly grew into something more serious by the time I entered college. My passion for the arts runs deep and I cannot imagine myself doing anything else with my life. Since I was working in the corporate world for a little over two years out of college, I worked incredibly hard to pursue my art on the side and keep it alive. I’ve exhibited locally in the South Florida Arts and Culture scene, and I’ve been honored to work beside some truly amazing talent. It’s liberating to take charge of your vision, your passions, and run wild.

    Please tell us about your art.
    This is a really hard question, not because it’s hard to describe what I create, but because my practice and my focus is constantly changing. I never stick to one idea, and I really like challenging myself to keep working through different themes and experiences.

    I’m not one to sit down and wait for the inspiration to strike; creating art, in any field, takes work. It’s time. It’s exploration. It’s working your way through a problem and coming to some degree of resolution. I’m making something at least once a day, even if it’s super small.

    During my undergrad days, my work was heavily inspired by the physical ailments I was experiencing with my stomach and carpal tunnel syndrome — post-graduation, I really wanted to shift that and make work that wasn’t as visceral or referential to my body. My goal with what I make (in general) is that someone wants to get close to it–they want to see the details, the etching of my pencil, the marks I lay down with paint and brushes. I want them to derive some feeling from it.

    What do you think is the biggest challenge facing artists today?
    I don’t know if I can speak for all artists, because I think it is something that stretches across all mediums and it will differ person to person, artist to artist. I can only speak for my own experiences, and I think one of the biggest challenges for me was managing the balancing act of working outside of the arts field, while still striving to produce consistent and quality work to put out there. Applying to shows, residencies, coming up with project proposals, can become overwhelming if you don’t manage your time effectively. In my experience, I felt like I was living a double life; it was incredibly difficult to do everything I wanted to do in the greater scope of my work, but also maintain a livelihood and bring home a living wage to fund my work and living situation. I think one of the bigger struggles is being able to make some critical sacrifices for yourself if you want to keep pushing the envelope.

    How or where can people see your work? How can people support your work?
    In 2016 I worked closely with international Swiss Artist, Claudia Comte on a mural for Collins Park at the Bass Museum of Art for Art Basel Public. In 2017, I exhibited at the Box Gallery for their All Florida Abstract Exhibition for their 1-year anniversary; just after that, I exhibited at the Arts Garage in Delray Beach. I was also a part of the City of Fort Lauderdale’s Open Canvas Project, which was a public art project put together by the City, Art Serve, and Kelcie McQuaid of Shangri-La Creations.

    Within the last few months, I exhibited at a pop-up exhibition at C&I Studios in FATVillage for an ACLU charity event; in the same week, I was also a participating artist at the Coral Springs Festival of the Arts, where I was the winning artist of the Urban Paintout Contest, judged by Ivan Roque. If you’re in the Coral Springs area anytime soon, I have my painting featured at the Museum through the end of the summer.

    I had some works on exhibition at the Pompano Beach Cultural Center following their ArtPop! event. Currently, I have 6 paintings housed at Two& in Fort Lauderdale until the end of July through Shangri-La Creations’ Summer Art Series exhibition. All are for sale!

    Otherwise, people can support my work just by following me on Instagram, Facebook, Society6. All links are featured on my website.