I am a New Orleans native, and I’ve watched the city survive poverty, crime, corruption, hurricanes, and “renewal.” But it’s hard not to see what’s been lost. Survival leaves its mark, and what endures isn’t always what we hoped it would be.

Yet I believe in the strength of people. Not the kind measured in resilience, but in the shared experiences that shape our identity. Culture thrives when it holds identity with both integrity and friction, clinging to what defines us even as change reshapes us. That tension between preservation and transformation is, I believe, what sustains existence.

Moving on doesn’t mean leaving behind, but holding on doesn’t guarantee survival either. Both choices involve loss. Which one will we choose to live with?

That's the question that frames everything I create. My work lives in the space between:
Where diversity challenges and enriches,
Where dignity, creativity, and community take root alongside regret, conflict, and reflection;
Where the next generation can inherit a landscape capable of freedom but not without dysfunction.

I don't try to soften friction, but to reveal its beauty. Loss and survival are not opposites, but the same ongoing act of creativity and redemption.