I have found healing in art. creating it & experiencing it.
Growing up on the US/ Mexico border, El Paso Texas was a unique experience, there was a sense of tradition and small town freedom. I found photography at the age of 15 after my dad gave me his Nikon FG congruently simultaneously I was deep the 1990’s punk music scene which was vibrant and wild and it influenced my life and the way I see the world.
Honored to have been mentored by incredible artists, Larry Sultan Jim Goldberg, Todd Hido, Chris Johnson, Sue Ciriclio,
BFA in Photography from the California College of the Arts (formerly CCAC) in 2005.
Relocated to Los Angeles in 2008.
Self Portraiture
Has been a constant throughout my career. I find that I put myself in front of the camera at significant life changing moments, when the current self will cease to exist and the new self is not yet born. After leaving home, after I broke my own heart, cancer diagnosis, after I made it out. The photograph is a witness to a moment of self discovery.
For years my life was ruled by excess: work, alcohol and junk food. My life fliped up-side-down when I was diagnosed with breast cancer April 2015. The recommended treatment according to the surgeon and oncologist was Bilateral Mastectomy with reconstruction and chemotherapy.
Just days before my first surgery I stood in front of the camera knowing I would never be the same. Everything changed.
Once again in 2023 I faced another surgery to undo what was done 8 years prior.
Photography is the thread of my life.
“THe only way out is through.”
—Robert Frost