Overcoming adversity is not easy. It only takes one event for your entire identity to change, your relationships to falter, or your family to fall apart. I didn't know that after a family member's death, I would be experiencing symptoms of depression as well as the fact that it trickled down for years to come. It hid in between the chapters of high school and the parties at college, making it hard to enjoy life when you're just trying to survive the day. During this time, I found safety in my artwork. I painted, drew, and recited the feelings that threatened to bubble to the surface. I found my footing in a medium that could help me translate feelings of emptiness or loss. My poems helped dry my tears when my mother was asleep and painting allowed me an escape for when school life became too stressful. During these creative processes, I was able to let myself fully embody those feelings and explore others I felt out of touch with. As I neared the end of my undergraduate studies, I became more aware of how important my mental health is. As engrossed as I was in the Fine Arts, I began to understand mental health as something that needed to be taken seriously. It aids in how we view and take care of ourselves. It holds a mirror up at us every second of the day, demanding our attention. This perspective is what helped me cultivate a way to bring art and mental health together. I became interested in providing healing through art and am pursuing a Master's degree in Creative Arts Therapy. By nurturing my mental health, I developed a passion to help others my age. My long-term goal is to help my community understand that our mental health takes priority, especially when dealing with generational trauma. Often we are told to get over it, pray it away, or ignore it, but never have time to process what we felt or how we reacted. I aim to create healthy and creative systems for individuals to partake in, so they will be more open to sharing with me and each other about their struggles. My goal for my practice is to help young adults identify symptoms of anxiety, depression, etc. and develop a course of action for how to heal themselves. I will help the current and future generations become comfortable with taking care of their mental health.

Throughout my life, I have always had an interest in Visual Arts. I admired the beauty of an abstract painting, often finding myself lost in the contrast, brush strokes or color. I drew pictures for my mother and grandfather and showed my artistic talents at high school exhibitions. Aside from those times, I have been a caregiver. Even if I didn't realize it, I have always set aside my time to help my family or reach out to friends and acquaintances to check on them. Towards the start of my college career, I found not only was I passionate about art, but I was passionate about being kind to others when needed. One of my goals in life is to become a professional artist. I want to create artwork that could be showcased in galleries and even around the world if the opportunity arose! As I finished my undergraduate education, I began to realize that there was more I wanted to add to the dream. At the time, I was dealing with my own mental health issues. Throughout the pandemic, funerals, and college costs, I sought and received counseling. This action, and becoming more apparent of my mental health in my creativity, is what lead me to researching art therapy. Art Therapy is a way of combining both of my passions; helping others and creating art. As an art therapist, I plan to help young adults overcome their traumas through artistic expression. I encourage myself to show kindness to others by listening to what troubles them, and in turn offer them creative alternatives that will progress them into a healthier mindset.

My favorite film is Spiderman: Into the Spiderverse produced by Sony Animation. I chose this film as my favorite because not only does it have a unique animation style, but the storyline pertaining to a person of color protagonist hits so close to home. Through Miles' storyline, we see him grappling with the idea of being Spiderman because he doesn't feel ready or hasn't quite gotten that spark. As the movie progresses, we see him come to terms and blossom as a hero on his own, something that isn't an easy task to do when your environment is constantly testing and doubting you. In this day and age, as a black woman, I often grapple with how my environment sees my own creations in art or how I carry myself in society. It creates a kind of fear in me to not fault in front of others, which is something Miles throughout the movie. There's more of an understanding between me and this character, which is why it's my favorite film.

My grandfather was a huge part of my childhood experience. He placed me in afterschool programs, encouraged me to create art, and kept me company as I was an only child. I hadn't realized it, but the passing of my grandfather before starting 9th grade actually impacted my perspective on life. I first became aware of my own mental health towards the end of high school. Once he passed away, it felt like my best friend was gone. Every time I came home, the space felt bigger and more empty. To avoid being alone, I would join various after-school clubs. Through poetry, I wrote about the feelings I’ve endured while drama club enabled me to work with students to forget my mental troubles. When I was home, there were arguments between my mother and uncle, silent nights where I found it hard to breathe, and early mornings to have time to myself before seeing other individuals. I remember the numerous amounts of panic attacks from not only the stress of school but the stress of being at home. I didn’t tell anyone because I didn’t want people to see those sides of me. I didn’t want people to know that the sweetest girl they knew had the most horrid nightmares. Due to my disdain for my home, at the time, I had my mind set on leaving New Jersey. I wanted to get away from how lonely I felt in the house or how I kept bringing people into my home only for them to leave me (high school romances were tough!). I decided I needed a change of pace and Maine only half fulfilled that requirement. Despite the fact that my friends bailed on me, my mother encouraged me to go to the New England state. When I came to Maine, I felt a weight come off my shoulders. I had a breath of fresh air to think about how I wanted to make an impact on my school and ultimately, myself. I immersed myself in the typical college life every young adult has and got to learn about my mind better. I joined clubs, I focused on artwork pertaining to my life and environment, and I became well known amongst my professors. After living in Maine for some time, I’ve grown to realize how much I miss the city. I’ve started noticing how much I miss home as well, especially with my support system (i.e. my cat) and my mother. As the college years came and gone, I’ve become more aware of what triggers me, how to take time for myself, and how to overcome obstacles even when my knees are shaking! Now that I’m coming close to graduation, I’ve been able to learn more about myself and unpack a lot of emotions I’ve endured during my high school years. In doing so, I’ve had to develop boundaries and grounding techniques to get me through stressful situations regarding graduate school and life after college. The anxiety still lingers sometimes, but I know now that I can ask for help whenever I feel like it can be too much.

Ever since I was a child, I’ve always had a passion for the Arts. Through the years, many of my friends asked me to draw pictures for them, I participated in stage crew and performed in High school plays, and once college rolled around, the possibilities skyrocketed. As my middle school and high school life rolled by, I was highly encouraged to pursue a degree focused on visual or performing arts. Once I was accepted into the University of Maine, I dived into studios filled with prints, walked past the metal and wooden sculptures, and immersed myself in still life that could be replicated on canvas. I live in New Jersey, so traveling back and forth between states became a normal pastime for me. During the summer and winter breaks, I worked as a Chick-Fil-A employee, volunteered at the Newark Museum of Art, and sold a few of my own paintings. When I come back to Maine, I work in the printmaking studio as a studio technician. I enjoyed helping students learn different printmaking techniques as well as converse with them about the subject matters they used in their artwork! It was crucial to explore the reasons they included certain elements in an intaglio or wood print that conveyed the emotion they felt or message they wanted to demonstrate. As I continued my time at UMaine, I grew a bit anxious as to how I would financially support myself as a freelance artist outside of college. This anxiety only heightened when the coronavirus pandemic made put many Americans in unemployment, revealing which jobs would survive a pandemic and some that were not so lucky. Although, it didn’t hinder me from pursuing the Arts. I knew I wanted to encourage others to be creative while creating my own work, but I hadn’t thought about how stable the job might be until seeing it in perspective of the pandemic. In my search for a more suitable career, I decided to pursue a Master’s in Art Therapy as a graduate student. I constantly challenged myself through sculpture and performance art with how I view myself in today’s society. When we were sent home in March of 2020 to finish our semester online, Performance Art and Printmaking were mediums I could express myself and my political views through. Through these mediums, as well as other artistic outlets, we allow ourselves to reflect on our lives and how our experiences have led us to the person we are today. This realization, along with insight from other graduate students, aided in my process for applying to Pratt Institute. Throughout my journey thus far, I’ve learned that I hope to have financial stability when following my passions and career. Like everyone else, I’d like to have a happy marriage, family, and home; you’re stereotypical American Dream if you will. At my core, I am always going to be known as an artist, but I also know that I need a bigger push to get me to achieve the life I’d like to live.

I want to sharpen my artistic and creative skills while broadening my perspective over a range of mediums. My concentration is Sculpture, where I took an independent study to better understand and research Performance Art. Simultaneously, I worked through applying a self reflecting theme towards my work to aid myself in growing as a person. I’ve used art as a means to self reflect to establish mental growth from the content I create. As I’ve matured through my college career, I developed a body of work that visually referenced my background and my views towards our current social environment. An example of this would be the civil unrest rising in minority communities and the global pandemic. I took the time to sit down and psychologically pick apart my past experiences and utilize those reflections to make art. These pieces made it easier for me to converse about my past experiences as well as talk to others about similar stories. My education provided me a space to practice different art mediums in a safe manner. This then lead to creating a body of work geared towards social expression and development that aided in my social and self awareness. I would like to then apply my knowledge to my community, where I can help others create artwork in order to grow themselves individually.

I am currently enrolled in a BFA degree program at the University of Maine. I pursued this program because I wanted to sharpen my artistic and creative skills while broadening my perspective over a range of mediums. My concentration for this degree is Sculpture, where I took an independent study to better understand and research Performance Art. Simultaneously, I worked through applying a self reflecting theme towards my work to aid myself in growing as a person. I’ve used art as a means to self reflect to establish mental growth from the content I create. As I’ve matured through my college career, I developed a body of work that visually referenced my background and my views towards our current social environment. An example of this would be the civil unrest rising in minority communities and the global pandemic. I took the time to sit down and psychologically pick apart my past experiences and utilize those reflections to make art. These pieces made it easier for me to converse about my past experiences as well as talk to others about similar stories. This degree is an essential part of my education because it provided me a space to practice different art mediums in a safe manner. This then lead to creating a body of work geared towards social expression and development that aided in my social and self awareness.