ARTIST STATMENT

In the beginning, there is a story that says Adam and Eve were the first of us. They lived in a garden where every need was met, watched over by God, tending to a lush and living world. They cared for the animals, the land, the plants. God offered them the fruit of every tree except one the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Warning that eating from it would surely bring death.

They had peace. They had each other. They had enough.

But the mind is restless, even in paradise. The one thing they couldn’t have stirred a quiet curiosity within Eve: What are we missing? A sense of lack appeared, wondering about the “more” that seemed just out of reach. After the serpent’s persuasion, she took the bite and passed the fruit to Adam. And with that, a great expansion of awareness occurred. Their eyes opened. They realized they were naked. God asked them, “Who told you you were naked?”

This ancient moment is less a tale of punishment and more a metaphor for human consciousness—for the layers we gather over time. We are forever children, shaped by our parents, conditioned by our society, molded by the environments we grow up in. If we peel back these layers our histories, our communities, the beliefs we inherited from workplaces, schools, and culture, what remains at the center? Who are we at our purest? What is the truest, untouched sense of self beneath it all?

The story of Adam and Eve, and the awakening that followed their bite, is the foundation of the work I create. We move through life confined by what we are taught, rarely encouraged to question why. Our systems and cultural customs are not divine; they are man-made structures. Yet we often treat them as unquestionable truths.

My work is a call back to curiosity and an invitation to look deeper, to wonder, to expand. I explore the subjects we’re told to hide, the things swept under the rug, the truths that feel too raw or uncomfortable to name. By bringing them into the light, I hope to widen the viewer’s awareness and reconnect us to our humanity beneath the conditioning. To help us remember that we are the caretakers of our bodies, our minds, and the earthly garden we inhabit.

As Thomas Cole, founder of the Hudson River School of painters, wrote: “We are still in Eden; the wall that shuts us out of the garden is our own ignorance and folly.”

My work is an effort to see beyond that wall and to help others see beyond it too.

ABOUT THE ARTIST

I was always drawn to creating ever since I could walk. I was a quiet kid, and marveled at watching the world around me turn its gears. I knew for certain, I wanted to be an artist, help others, and travel the world. In my middle/high school years I would aggressively raise money to go on trips with my parents church to help others in need. At 14 I worked in Guatemala City , age 15 Italy /France, age 16 Kolkota India, and at age 18 San Pedro Sula Honduras. From the extreme things I was exposed to in some of these countries at a young age, I began to feel more and more not like a resident of New York; I began to feel like a resident of the world as a whole.

After finishing high school I decided to further my studies in Fine Arts, Art History, and Italian Language at the Fashion Institute of Technology for my BFA. It was there I received countless opportunities to grow and learn as an artist in ways I could never have imagined. When I finished my studies at FIT I continued my education at Fondazione Il Bisonte for a Specialization in Printmaking Course in Florence Italy. After Italy I went on to live in the Caribbean for a year, to expand my knowledge of my roots as a Dominican/Puertorican woman and to take artistic inspiration from nature. I now am based in Brooklyn NY working in my artistic practice, teaching Hatha Yoga, and a Guide at a Sensory Deprivation Studio called Vessel Floats.