Category: artwork
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La Catrina (Dia De Los Muertos)
The Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos) is a tradition with deep roots in Mexican culture, blending Indigenous symbolism with religious influences. One of its most striking elements is the celebration of death through skulls (calaveras) and skeleton imagery—especially La Catrina. Often depicted as the skeleton of a woman dressed in elaborate clothing,…
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Salt & Shame
A personal story of surviving shame, reclaiming hope, and learning to meet myself with empathy.
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The Election
It’s been a while since I have written a blog post. Graduate school, a full time job, and a new puppy has made my life feel like an overstuffed PB&J sandwich, kind of a gross mess, but also pretty awesome at times! I also started a fertility journey and I am doing some baseline testing;…
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Anxiety
It’s been a bit of a rough week. Between my first class for graduate school (masters in counseling) and work blowing up, my anxiety has been through the roof. Anxiety manifests in strange ways for me. It seems to come in waves. I can manage to get sufficiently distracted by work or whatever but sometimes,…
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Under Water
I think we have all felt like we’re under water from time to time. Sometimes, it’s stress or feeling overwhelmed. Sometimes, it’s the dull cold feeling of depression. I’m not a terribly great swimmer, so I can imagine that causing me quite a bit of distress. I’m curious, when have you felt like you were…
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A Human Guide to Emotional Regulation
My therapist once said, ‘You seem to have strong feelings about having strong feelings.’ He wasn’t wrong. For a long time, I met emotions like anger or anxiety with frustration, as if feeling them meant I was broken. It felt like these emotions were beyond my control, happening unpredictably. I thought I was overreacting to…
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Chilled by the Past: A Winter Reflection
In 2018 I moved back to Kansas City from the South and I’d like to say KC gave us a warm welcome but it actually looked more like the featured photo on this post. Icy, snowy, and cold. Ok, I’ll admit, also a little magical. It was the first winter my husband experienced here in…
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Navigating Trauma and Grief through the Holidays
I painted this piece entitled, “Tethered Heart”, over Christmas break. It’s not exactly what you’d expect on a Christmas card, but the holidays can be tough for some, myself included. My painting, symbolizes the struggle of feeling bound by complex emotions, grief, and past traumas. These feelings can sometimes hang on my heart, tugging at…
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Snow
The first week of January is about in the books and those of us in KC got a pleasant surprise today. Snow! It’s still coming down so I recorded a bit of the big fluffy flakes floating down. I am lucky to live in a multi-story century old home with a renovated attic space so…
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Parts of the Inner World – Art & Comics
When I first started working with a therapist, I was struggling to explain my own inner dynamics. My feelings were in flux and I constantly felt like I was being split into several different perspectives and directions. I found out later, that there was a reason for this – I was suffering from dissociative identity…