For over twenty-seven years, my artistic practice has explored the relationship between culture, ecology, and material knowledge. I earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington. Following graduation, I was accepted into New York University's Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development, where I began graduate study in Visual Arts Administration and secured an internship with the Whitney Museum of American Art. I would be awarded funding to continue my education in Germany, earning a Master of International Business from Schiller International University in Heidelberg in 2009. Alongside my formal education, I pursued studies in Arabic literature, and German, Japanese and Thai language and culture which resulted in having lived in both Germany and Thailand for several years.  These experiences cultivated a lifelong interest in the movement of ideas, materials, and artistic traditions across cultures.

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I began learning German at a very young age as this was my Grandmother's mother tongue.  Early in my career, I was nominated for the MacArthur Fellowship at the age of twenty-three in recognition of founding the WhatIsArt – WhatIsSound organization in Seattle and Manneheim, Germany. This was an artist collective dedicated to "Empowering Artists, Creating New Communities." Operating under the Allied Arts Foundation during the years before social media transformed communication, the organization established chapters in thirteen countries and twenty-eight cities, eventually growing to more than two hundred active members. This could not have been realized without the direct co-creation and contributions of my cofounders in Mannheim, Germany. Directing this international network provided my first opportunity to observe how artistic communities evolve differently across cultures while remaining connected through shared creative practices.

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My professional career expanded into design, technology, and entrepreneurship. I designed for Victoria's Secret, developed enterprise social media platforms for The Clorox Company and ten of its brands, and later founded Cultured Social Co., consulting, working with organizations throughout the Silicon Valley for more than fifteen years. Including an exceptional project with Standard Bank. I developed an online community for both bank branches in Kenya and South Africa which focused on the mobile banking sector and disruptive technologies. Throughout this period, I maintained an active studio practice while advising artists, filmmakers, musicians, actors, and cultural organizations internationally. Collectively, these experiences allowed me to work with more than hundreds of artists and creatives across seventeen countries throughout my career. Although these professional experiences appear diverse, they reveal a consistent pattern. Whether working with professional artists in Germany, museum professionals in the United States, or creative leaders in Silicon Valley and Hollywood, I found myself continually returning to questions of cultural identity, creativity, and our relationship with the natural world. The stories artists, scientists, and technologists told about their materials were often as revealing—and as compelling—as the things they ultimately created. Across disciplines, the material was never merely a means to an end; it shaped the questions people asked, the possibilities they imagined, and the stories they could tell.

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This realization transformed my own artistic practice. Over the past decade I have dedicated my research to botanical pigments, natural dyes, fungi, algae, sustainable materials, and historical painting methods. Inspired by the material practices of Renaissance artists including Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, I have reconstructed historical pigment-making processes while integrating contemporary ecological research. My studio practice now employs botanical dyes, mycelium as a  medium, and red algae as sculptural material (bio plastics), producing works that are entirely sustainable and biodegradable. Through this research I have come to view plants not merely as sources of color but as living archives. Every pigment carries stories of agriculture, chemistry, biodiversity, medicine, migration, trade, and cultural exchange. A single plant may simultaneously provide nourishment, healing, and artistic expression.

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To preserve botanical color traditions is to preserve entire systems of human knowledge—knowledge of both the visible and the unseen. Through my work with regenerative materials such as algae, mycelium, and other living systems, I explore forms of co-creation that engage with the intelligence and vitality of the more-than-human world. By observing, documenting, and sharing these processes, I seek to contribute to the continued transmission of ecological knowledge while acknowledging the profound interdependence of all forms of life.

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