Soul Tides Exhibition: reflection and gratitude
As we close out on the opening weekend of Soul Tides, my first solo exhibition ever, hosted by the Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center, I am experiencing a tidal wave of emotions.
In typical creative fashion, I must respond with a brief statement reflecting on the foundations of the work, and the journey I hope to share with those who visit the exhibition.
What is the life of an artist? What is the purpose of art?
As an artist, I think being an artist means being someone who is deeply, almost obsessively, fascinated by the human experience. That is who I am. And within that obsession lies the realization of how crucial our environment is to our experience.
We are nature, and nature is us. It has always been this way.
I think it’s easy to forget that in our modern, hyper-capitalistic society, where we’ve become addicted to consumption and caught up in parasocial metaworlds. It’s hard to recognize the tethers we have to the natural world. We experience nature through a lens, through a screen. We’ve forgotten how to lift our heads and simply look around us.
Here in Florida, we’re especially lucky—especially fortunate. All wildlife is important, but there’s just something so moving about our subtropical environment. The animals around us shape us. They were here long before we arrived, and honestly, they probably should be here long after us. But we’re making that increasingly impossible.
My work aims to bring you back to that tether. I hope my work holds up a mirror to you—a portal through which you can reflect on and better understand your relationship with the natural world around you.
Are you locked in, or are you checked out? Are there places in your life where you could slow down and appreciate the nuance of the natural world? I believe that in doing so, we become stronger versions of ourselves. We become empowered to heal ourselves, each other, and the world around us.
That philosophy isn’t only present in what I choose to depict—it’s also embedded in the materials themselves.
I work almost exclusively with recycled textiles because I hope to challenge our patterns of consumption, which are so deeply intertwined with our relationship to the natural world. These discarded fabrics carry histories of use, value, and disposal. By reworking them, I hope to breathe new life into what has been cast aside—much like fungi transform fallen trees into the foundation for new life.
Through that process, I invite us to question the ways we’ve been taught to consume. Our society constantly tells us that fulfillment comes from acquiring more, replacing more, and wanting more. But perhaps what we really need is to slow down, to look more closely, and to recognize the value that already exists around us.
For me, making this work encourages me to research the subjects I’m creating and to think deeply about what these habitats are going through as we continue building new homes, new cities, new buildings, and new roads. The process of making encourages me to educate myself and reconnect with the natural world and the animals around me.
I only hope that this is the same sentiment you, as viewers, take away from my work.
I cannot thank the Tampa Bay Discovery Center enough for aligning with this vision and for appreciating the impact that art can have in strengthening the relationship between ourselves and the world around us.
I will never forget the day I received Harmony’s (Education and Events Coordinator) email inquiry through my website. It came less than twenty-four hours after having a complete crash-out, where I found myself seriously questioning what I was doing with my life, what the purpose of my art really was, and whether it had the impact on the world that I had always hoped it would.
With one email, Harmony changed my life and brought me to this pivotal moment, and I could not be more grateful.
A special thank you to Leah (Director of Tampa Bay Watch Discovery Center) as well, who has been such a huge part of bringing this project to life.
And of course, I cannot thank my partner enough, who receives about four or five phone calls a day asking for reassurance about my work—and somehow always provides it. Thank you for encouraging me to keep going, for believing in me, and for giving me the confidence and stability that pursuing a life like this truly requires.
I also want to give a huge shout-out to my support system—my friends and family—who receive twenty-minute voice memos of me breaking down, who drive across the city to help deliver artwork, who constantly gas me up, who send my work to practically everyone they know, and who never stop filling me with love, encouragement, and praise. I am so incredibly fortunate and so deeply blessed.
Please continue to support Tampa Bay Watch and all of their endeavors. They work tirelessly to protect our environment in ways most of us never fully see. From organizing beach cleanups to coordinating volunteers and restoring habitats, the amount of determination, planning, and effort that goes into running an organization like this is truly heroic.
So thank you to Tampa Bay Watch.
Thank you to my support system.
And thank you to everyone who helped bring both myself and this organization to this moment.
May we all continue working toward a better tomorrow—for one another and for the world around us.
Please enjoy the exhibition, enjoy the aquariums, and enjoy the beautiful Discovery Center. A portion of all profits go to Tampa Bay Watch and their coastal restoration efforts. If you have any specific questions regarding my work or process, please feel free to reach out to me directly .
Soul Tides will be up until October 16, 2026
at the Tampa Bay Discovery Center
700 2nd Ave NE, St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Open every day 10 AM - 5 PM
https://www.tbwdiscoverycenter.org/
I hope you enjoy yourselves, and thank you all so much for being here.
