My family provides me joy, love, healing and well-being. It is in these relationships with family and community that I am inspired to create art. Outside of my family, my main identity is being an art teacher for Los Angeles Unified School District. During the day I do my best to create safe/healing spaces that allow young people to analyze their world and refine their tools of art making to express, document, and share themselves and their stories. During the evening time, after my little ones have gone off to bed, I have the opportunity to create. Although trained as a painter, lately I have been exploring how I can incorporate my knowledge of design into woodworking. I see art making as a way to both engage in the world and a way to slow down, empty my mind of the worries from the day and focus on small movements of the brush or the cutting tool. Art making has brought me joy and I thank you for taking the time to look through the work that I have done thus far.