I have been making things for as long as I can remember. As a little girl, I was always doodling, sketching, designing clothes, drawing interiors, designing and making jewelry, and writing poetry. I came from people who loved art and lived it, and I was raised going to museums and knowing, in my bones, that beauty mattered.
The Renaissance obsessed me first, then Impressionism, then the intimacy of pencil and charcoal. Art was just always there, always a happy place.
For a long time, my creativity lived in books. I started collecting art books young and never stopped, reading them cover to cover, spending hours getting lost and inspired. I didn't realize I was building something. I just thought I loved it.
When I was pregnant with my daughter, I picked up a paintbrush for the first time. It coincided with discovering mid-century furniture, designing my own homes, and falling completely in love with abstract art: the undefined lines, the blurred colors, everything color theory had to offer. Something clicked that has never unclicked.
I started posting my work online. The response surprised me. Overnight, people were asking for commissions. Friends and family wanted pieces on their walls. I had always painted for myself, but suddenly I was painting for others too, and that was a new and beautiful thing to learn.
My first big commission came through Jen Anderson, who believed in me before I fully believed in myself. That collaboration now hangs in Florida, and it is only fitting that this, my very first show, is built around those original pieces.
After that, I took a step back. I took classes, built the skills I knew I was missing, then traveled and visited every museum and gallery I could find, soaking it all in from a completely new perspective. And then I made this collection.
I am so proud of what it represents. I am calling it Origins because that is exactly what it is: a return to that little girl who just loved to make art. That pureness lives in all of us, underneath everything we have learned and unlearned and become. This collection is mine. But Origins belongs to all of us. I hope you enjoy it.
xx - Kiki