Last year, I worked on a series of paintings called "Fear/Love" that explores conflicting emotions in parenthood and plays with darkness and light. I was inspired to create these paintings after trying to explain what motherhood is like to my childfree friends. No matter what I said, it felt inadequate. No words could describe the depth of emotion, or how the worst experiences could also be laced with wonder and happiness.

At the end of last year, I began working more with palette knives to cultivate a faster, looser approach to painting. I was inspired by Charles W. Hawthorne, an artist and teacher who insisted that his students begin with palette knives, not brushes, so they'd focus on the overall energy, form, and color of a subject rather than getting bogged down with minor details.

For this book illustrated with watercolor, gouache, and ink, I focused on creating messy art that challenged my perfectionist tendencies. I aimed for “playful” instead of "good" and let paint drip and seep onto other pages. I wanted to see how I'd handle more chaos and how it'd change me.

My nine-year-old daughter Madeleine and I created this painting of Kalanchoe flowers together, our first time collaborating on an art piece. The process was fun for both of us and an interesting experiment in blending two distinct styles into one artwork.

Finishing this heavy book about color and light was such an accomplishment, I decided to write this blog to highlight useful things I learned for fear I'd forget them otherwise.

Last month, my Opa (my maternal grandfather) passed away at age 99. As a tribute to his life, I painted this portrait of him sitting on his favorite bench in British Columbia, gazing at the beautiful mountains of Creston Valley.

Stowed away in a little box, I have a set of 20+ journals from the beginning of my marriage, starting in June 2011. I'm slowly recreating them with illustrations and curation, giving them a second life and giving me endless inspiration for creating art with gouache, a type of paint I wanted to try out.