 Blooming Alchemy
36” x 36” | Mixed media on canvas Layers of iron-rich Utah dirt, plaster, and gold pigment baked beneath the desert sun — creating organic cracks and luminous surfaces that shift with the light. This piece continues my exploration of material memory and the quiet radiance that can emerge from pressure, rupture, and renewal. A visual reminder that beauty often blooms from within the breaks. Available through Gallery MAR  A special gift for a friend opening a new padel club — turning functional sports gear into sculptural art.
The paddle is layered with iron-rich Utah dirt, Great Salt Lake salt, foraged sawdust, refurbished paint, and gold pigment. Baked in the intense Utah sun, it developed beautiful natural cracks and fissures. Rope fills the paddle holes, with some strands emerging organically for a striking tactile effect. The tennis ball carries rich Utah red dirt embedded in plaster and paint, finished with gold. Together they celebrate the alchemy of everyday objects — where pressure, time, and material memory create beauty from the ordinary. Grateful to Gallery MAR for helping bring this to life.  “Art is not about becoming perfect.
It is about becoming honest. The canvas doesn’t want your best performance — it wants your truth, even if it trembles.” Fearless Artistry: A Journey from Doubt to Creative Liberation  Using layers of Salt Lake newspaper—the discarded daily narratives of this place—I overwrite with personal affirmations of belonging. This continues my exploration of migration, home, and giving agency to materials after years of movement from Brazil to Utah.
 So grateful to see these works living in such a beautiful home, thoughtfully installed by Gallery MAR.
It’s a quiet reminder that sustaining a creative life requires more than just making art; it also means being surrounded by people who truly value and invest in creativity. Thank you to these wonderful collectors for trusting me with their walls.  So thrilled to see this project come to life.
A triptych commission is now permanently installed at the new HELIX building at the University of Utah of Utah Heath. Deeply grateful to Utah Health, and Utah Division of Arts & Museums, along with Gallery MAR, for making this possible. It means so much to have my work become part of a space where students, clinicians, researchers, educators, and visitors will live with it every day.  Last year, my neighbor received a grant to beautify our local park and asked me to design a simple mural that anyone could help paint — primary colors and geometric shapes to the rescue!
It was my first time painting a mural, and it turned out to be a wonderful challenge. Thank you to Jaimee Frederick for leading the project, and to Love Your Block: Salt Lake City for the grant. A beautiful reminder that one person really can make a difference.  A delightful visit to the University of Utah’s new HELIX Building with Gallery MAR owner Maren Mullein.
So excited to finally see my work installed in this beautiful space. Deeply grateful to the University of Utah, the Public Art Division of Utah Arts & Museums, and everyone involved for including my pieces in this meaningful project.  Every artist knows the blank canvas isn’t truly blank. It’s alive with possibility, vulnerability, and the quiet fear of letdowns.
In my studio, every new piece begins the same way: I write mantras across the canvas first: setting intention, tone, and heart into the surface. Later layers of texture and paint will slowly bury the words, but I believe their energy remains. Felt. Carried. Shared between us.  A Morning Poem
How can life speak to you in a way you will truly hear? Is it through the shifting clouds? The morning song of birds? The quiet trickle of water? A sudden sunbeam warming your skin? The empty center of a pot that still holds everything? The deep peace that arrives when you finally stop? Follow your soul’s quiet yearning. It is right. It is true. Listen. Feel. There is no denying this. This is real. You don’t have much time left. May 4th, 2026 Santa Fe, NM A heartfelt thank you to Maren and Gallery MAR for creating such a special container for connection, inspiration, and genuine conversation — and to the artists who so graciously welcomed us into their lives and studios: Georgia O’Keeffe, Siri Hollander, Maura Allen, Michael Kessler, and Jamie Burnes. |