This is a painting done in watercolor gouache, portraying a woman opening her chest to flowers exploding out of it, circling around the figure. The flower details are done by cutting the paper with an Xacto knife. This painting is inspired by my desire to capture the most delicate parts of nature combined with the delicateness and rawness of the human experience. The figure is "destroying" their chest to allow the beauty and pain of the flowers to come through, surrounding the space around the figure. The act of cutting paper and essentially destroying part of the canvas to create the art is a commentary on destruction to obtain construction. For example, flowers die but in turn fertilize the earth's soil to then create new life. Humans destroy parts of themselves that no longer serve their purpose to then construct new habits and mindsets, creating something closer to the idealized self. The cut paper as well as the subject matter being flowers shows the delicateness both literally and metaphorically of this idea. While cutting the paper, I had to be very precise and careful to not cut too much, as the whole piece would fall apart. In nature, flowers are often considered light and delicate. The missing parts of the flowers and leaves showing the blank wall behind the piece indicate a sense of emptiness and loneliness one might feel when struggling with mental illness perhaps. These ideas relate to the nature of human emotion and experience. Human trauma healing, for example, is a long, hard process of deconstructing prior mindsets, thought patterns and ways of coping and is a delicate process as it can easily fall apart with one wrong move. This piece is about vulnerability, emptiness and beauty, and how natural and innate these are to the human experience, as well as how similar it is to similar processes found in nature.

I am driven by examining the world and my response to it on an aesthetic, technical, and psychological level. I make art that focuses on the beauty of the more delicate parts of the world- flowers, animals, humans. I am dedicated to improving my skills as an artist, and am currently in my second year as an art student, working toward earning my BFA at Eastern Michigan University and eventually my MFA. Through life studies, nude figure drawings, and exploring more imaginative environments within my work, I experiment with new materials and techniques frequently. I love challenging myself and have been doing so ever since I decided I wanted to dedicate my life to art, when I realized it was my passion back in high school. Exploring a variety of materials such as graphite, charcoal, conte, gouache, acrylic, oil paints, watercolor, and screen printing, I find my voice in each medium, allowing it to take over and express my ideas fully. I am intrigued with combining the psychological response to the world with botanical and animalistic subject matter through my art. This scholarship would help me pursue my passion for art greatly. I am living independently off campus, paying all my own bills and working two jobs to keep up with my payments. With covid reducing my hours at work, I had unexpected costs of just about everything and have been struggling still to pay for everything myself. With no help from family, I've been working overtime while being in school full time, which leaves me less time for art making, and contributing to much of my stress while I'm in school. With monthly payments of tuition totaling almost two grand, alongside my other bills, I have been struggling greatly and have been looking for any other means of help possible. This scholarship would help ease some of the financial struggle I am facing, helping me create more art and allowing me to focus on school more. With more time to create and work, I can work on getting my art into more gallery shows (I have gotten into my first gallery show this year and would love to get into more!) It would also allow me to focus on art as a business avenue as well. I have sold quite a few paintings and done commissions, but having less money for supplies and less time to work, I haven't been able to make much art outside of class assignments. Art school is challenging, expensive, time consuming, and requires hard work, but it is the most rewarding obstacle I have faced in my life so far and drives home my passion for making art and becoming a professional artist. This scholarship would make a significant impact on my life as an art student, and would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time and consideration!