Why Patronage is so important….

My primary goal with my work is to simply have it be seen and to give people an experience in a gallery that inspires them. Fiber arts have traditionally been diminished as craft or women’s domestic work. I hope to inspire more exploratory work in this field, and be one of the catalyst pushing this medium forward into gallery spaces and in arts education. Because I’m self-taught, my approach to textile portraiture is unique, and often confused with paintings until experienced in person. People generally stand as close as possible to examine them because their familiarity with fabric has them wondering how I did that. Because I’m innovating, the ability to share my work publicly in person is incredibly important.

My portraits in this body of work PORTRAITS: An Exploration in Identity have been involved in over 50 exhibitions both nationally and internationally. What most people may not realize is that for an emerging artist like me, most galleries do not pay the artists to exhibit their work, and in most cases the artist is responsible for the costs of shipping their work to and from each gallery for each exhibition. In addition, most juried shows also have an application fee just to have your work considered for a group exhibition. Click here to see the exhibition history for this body of work. The travel schedule also complicates my ability to sell my work. All sales contracts have to honor their travel schedule. In order to do that the buyer secures ownership with a down payment and then pays the remainder once the portrait is released to their possession. This means that I am unable to be fully financially compensated for all of my hard work on a collection for a decade. Patronage helps me achieve financially sustainability so that I can continue my creative process and follow my calling as an artist.

By Becoming a Patron…

By becoming a Patron of my work, not only will you receive a 30% discount on my prints but you’ll also receive my book PORTRAITS: AN EXPLORATION IN IDENTITY as a free gift. This book is an EXCLUSIVE offer only available to patrons of my work. Your patronage will help me continue to share my work with more people by helping me cover the cost of shipping this series of portraits to and from galleries. All funds received through patronage will help pay for upcoming exhibitions and will also help me recoup the cost of participating in past exhibitions. Your patronage will directly support the artwork from the collection in this book. Once this collection is done traveling and no longer needs financial support, this book will become available to the public for purchase on Amazon and other sales platforms. So Far, this collection is contracted to travel as a solo exhibition until 2024, and one portrait from this collection is contracted to travel through 2027. Once this book becomes available to the public, its re-publication will include the list of patrons who’ve supported this body of work, though patrons have the option to remain anonymous as well.

Please consider becoming a Patron of my work and helping me share it with more people!