If you take a walk down the streets of the historical district in San Marcos, you will see rows and rows of quaint houses, each painted a different color. These and other such houses have always been a source of fascination for me from the time I was very young. I would read books like Anne of Green Gables or walk down the miniature aisle of Hobby Lobby and daydream about all the kinds of pretty little dollhouses. As I grew older, I began to be interested in illustration. I wanted to write and illustrate my own stories to inspire others as I was inspired. My work began to take on a narrative quality, and I was sure for a while that my destiny lay in comics and graphic novels.

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               Then, I began my art education at university. I was inspired as I learned more about different art movements and really honed my abilities. My skills were catching up to the visions I had for my work, and it was exciting. I began to pull from motifs and methods from the Art Nouveau and Fauvist movements, and my work started to really take on a life of its own. My illustrations began to take on more vibrant colors, and I started to lean into pattern, shape, and negative space as compositional devices.

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               And now, we’re here. Currently, I am developing a series of illustrations that come back to my fascination with homes and dollhouses that I had as a child. My Lovely Little Neighborhood series is an ongoing series where I am mainly exploring repetition, pattern, color, line, and negative space. I currently have two aspects of the series, those being the main houses and the flower field silhouettes. I plan to add more aspects in the future, specifically stores and businesses. In order to keep things unified and challenge my creativity, I have set forward a very specific set of parameters that each piece in the series must follow. 1: All pieces must be 8 inches by 8 inches. 2: all borders must be the same size. 3: All sidewalks must be 1 centimeter tall. 4: No perspective will be used except in the sidewalk leading up to the front door. 5: The darkest and lightest parts of the image will be the windows and trim, respectively.

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               Following these rigid rules for the series has allowed me to feel challenged while creating so many pieces that are fundamentally very similar to one another. To combat a loss of interest in the series, the flower field silhouettes allow me to work more fluidly and automatically while making work that fits with the body as a whole. With these pieces, the most important aspect to unify it with the main houses is the windows. The windows are so geometric and such a characteristic aspect of the main houses that they help the silhouettes read well without relying on the other aspects such as brick, trim, or roof texturing.