IN HER IMAGE

DROP _001

Vinculatura Sanctorium translates loosely to “the binding of the sacred.” This altar is about being chained to the very thing that gives me purpose. Art itself. It’s a portrait of what it feels like to be both creator and creation.

I collected each shell by hand, every one of them touched the same ocean I was born under as a Pisces. They represent my duality, my yin and yang. The two fish swimming in opposite directions, always chasing and escaping each other. That’s me: soft and intuitive, yet constantly at war with my own extremes.

The angel at the center is me..pierced, restrained, and beautiful in her confinement. The voodoo pins are both protection and punishment. The chains symbolize my attachment to art, how it saves me and consumes me all at once. Around her neck hang black and white dice, another reference to Pisces, but also to chance itself. Every piece I make is a gamble, a roll between chaos and creation, risk and reward.

The angel stands in crushed glass, the medium I’m forever loyal to. I paint on glass, I break glass, I rebuild from glass. It’s delicate, dangerous, and reflective…just like the process of becoming.

The entire piece is a self-altar. A physical manifestation of my contradictions. She’s dark but radiant. It’s a mirror of my evolution: who I was, who I am, and who I’m still becoming.

Vinculatura Sanctorium is about surrendering to the thing that binds me most (the act of creation.) It’s about learning to love the parts of myself that bleed for beauty, the versions that never stop building even when it hurts.

DROP _002

This was the first piece that began my collection, In Her Image.

I made it at a time when I was just on the cusp of returning to art . I wasn’t sure if I ever wanted to paint again, unsure of where my creativity fit anymore. So, I started scavenging: Goodwill runs, antique stores, thrift shops, and art supply aisles, searching for little fragments that spoke to me. Every object on this mirror carries its own tiny story..a past life, a forgotten hand, a found moment.

Around this time, I was also in the middle of deep cleaning my house, trying to reset. I wanted new furniture, new bedding, new kitchen stuff… you get it. Countless FaceTimes were called to my mom for design help and she told me I had too many trinkets and needed to put them away, (that it would help with the feng shui.) But I’ve always loved my trinkets. They’re a part of me..the chaos, the sentimentality, the memories, the beauty in clutter.

This mirror became a reflection of all those moments and contradictions. It’s where I learned that honoring myself sometimes means honoring the mess.

Collecting instead of clearing, adorning instead of hiding.

Neptune’s Trinket Box was my first step into a new era..something left-field, strange, and completely mine.