It was a huge privilege to be part of the 2025 Desert Biennial Project alongside so many amazing artists. I submitted a piece called Ancla En La Arena (Anchor In The Sand), and I was honestly surprised by how much it resonated with people. It just goes to show that things rarely go exactly as you expect—starting with the drive in! To get to the dry lake bed, you have to navigate a rough dirt path that had me convinced I was going to get stuck. But looking back, the sketchy drive was just part of the adventure (unless you’re a glass-half-empty kind of person, of course!).

After the Wiley Coyotes show at the West Charleston Gallery, I had begun to really delve into my MFA studies, attempting to discover myself and my practice.  It was all very mysterious to me, becoming the artist that I want to be.  I was painting portraits, still life of things around the house, but it just didn't feel right and I was often left frustrated.  I had a number of paintings that I was satisfied with, but felt like one-offs, successes that I could visit but would struggle to reside in.  Experiments after experiments, failures after failures.  One day I received a call from Darren Johnson, the director of the Las Vegas Library District galleries.  He asked me if I would be interested in providing a piece for a group show at the Sahara West Gallery, in case you don't know, the Sahara West Gallery is very large and ideal for artists that are looking to show large works.  However, the theme was wrestling and I will honestly say that it wasn't a subject I was absolutely crazy about, so I said sure.  I decided that if I was going to show my work in that space, it would need to be large.  I decided to make it 56" x 66".