I am an artist originally from St Louis but moved to Kansas City after high school, where I attended and graduated from the Kansas City Art Institute with a focus on design and illustration. Continually influenced by the rich visual landscape of Kansas City, I draw inspiration from our local surroundings and diverse communities. My fine art work is primarily executed in acrylic and/or oil paint, but professionally I work as a UX Designer in the digital space. I am particularly drawn to the Parade of Hearts program because of how it invites the interaction of the community to become a part of the celebration of Kansas City. I believe art is a universal language that transcends communication barriers and is a vehicle of creative problem-solving making the intangible tangible. I paint with an expressive hand, creating large blocks of color, that implies detail and suggests light and shadow, similar to an impressionistic approach, capturing the energy and emotion of the moment.