This collaborative work with Destiny Ryan began with a simple desire to work together. We have maintained a friendship since our undergraduate days at Columbus College of Art and Design, and I felt that our color palettes would complement each other beautifully.

We approached this collaboration using the same methodology that guides my individual practice: identifying a core feeling and manifesting it into a visual representation. Together, we settled on the theme of creativity—the inherent human behavior, and the existential weight that accompanies it. Destiny's work naturally gravitates toward existentialism, using distorted dream-like imagery to illuminate the uncomfortable realities of psychological trauma, mortality, and the looming spectre of climate catastrophe. 

As passionate creatives, we felt compelled to examine what the process of creativity feels like from the inside. There is an almost spiritual component—a kind of magic that happens when you are able to conjure a vision from your mind into reality. There is also the persistent awareness that one day there will be eyes on this work; and the question becomes: how do you satisfy the viewer’s curiosity while remaining true to your vision? 

The creative life involves having both your mind and your hands in many places at once—juggling multiple projects simultaneously and navigating the overwhelming pressure to complete everything on time. Yet ultimately, if you're called to create, creation becomes inevitable—almost compulsory. This collaborative work offers the viewer insight into the internal experience of creation, and the existential questions that accompany it.

Despite any stress or uncertainty, there is a profound reward in contributing something meaningful to the world. To truly understand that feeling, you must experience it firsthand—you must create.