Honesty, Insight, & Action

Model Luna Vatra wearing Organic Armor.

For years, I was told never to share old work because it would kill my following and confuse fans. I blindly listened to that advice. I regularly purged my own journey and history with art from my website. Each time, it felt like I was erasing myself from my own life—a form of self-silencing to people-please, and ultimately, a kind of self-harm.

Eventually, following that advice backfired. Longtime followers couldn’t understand why they no longer saw my older work, while new viewers found little to keep their attention. The resulting loss of fans and followers was something I neither hindered nor interrupted—and at the time, I didn’t try. I hated myself so much that I wanted to watch everything crash and burn. And it did.

Then Covid arrived, hand in hand with cancer, bringing all the extra hardship that came with both. That season forced me to confront the full cost of my silence. I knew I never wanted to be in that place again. If I was going to rebuild, it would be on my own terms. I needed to trust myself again.

By the time I reached this realization, I was only halfway through my cancer treatment, and Covid still loomed. I felt trapped and limited by my circumstances. That’s when I decided to begin planning and rebuilding my website from my makeshift bed at home. I no longer cared about followers or analytics. I no longer cared how people viewed my website or whether they visited at all. My art is personal; my website needed to reflect that.

I began treating my website like a house, renovating it one room at a time.

Currently, my focus is on my portfolio, titled Life’s Work. I’ve created a gallery for each project I’ve worked on through the years, regardless of medium or content. Unlike before, this approach feels right. The site is finally becoming an honest reflection of my creative journey—and that’s how it should have been all along.

(Update: Beginning in 2023, all past viewing galleries + portfolios began migrating to my artwork archive profile)

If you would like to learn more about the story behind my work and my approach to creating, you can visit my full Artist Bio & Statement.