About

A jack-of-all-trades with a singular passion: creating new things. 

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My passions are film and music, and the marriage of the two. From an early age, I've long-held a dream of becoming a filmmaker and a singer/songwriter, and that love has blossomed into independent films, almost a dozen music videos, five EPS, a full album, and a feature-length musical. We all need an escape, a fantastical dream or idea to cling to that imbues our life with magic, resets our spirits, and gives us hope in troubling times. Art does so much for the human spirit, and I've never been able to sustain emotionally without it. A born 'project' person, the slow, steady process of plunging into a new, imaginary world everyday is a heady brew I struggle to live without. 

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I started creating through writing - poetry as a child evolved into novels around age eleven. I wrote ferociously, constantly, burying my head into the teeming tidepool of imagination and watching it all bloom in rapt wonder. Between the ages of eleven and sixteen, I wrote four books spanning from 100 - 600 pages, fostering a love for character creation, world-building, and imbuing a story with a feeling intense and novel, a feeling that can inspire action, insight, or compassion. 

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But writing wasn't enough - I craved the immediate, rushing satisfaction of a permanent image. A visual legacy spoken through more than language. Something that could consume and create a world larger than words alone could carry, aiming the use of the spoken word carefully while engaging all the senses at once. 

 

At fifteen, I began making films. Working with the US A - Team Hydroplane Racing, I was able to travel to countries like England, Estonia, Poland, and Sweden, following around after boat racers with my camera, trying to capture and distill the magic of the experience to share with our community. 

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At sixteen, I self-published my first novel "He's Got Problems" and wrote the short horror film "Do You Love Me?" and got to witness it be brought to life by industry professionals. But writing wasn't enough, I needed to be closer to the camera. I wanted to simultaneously be behind it and in front of it - both the architect directing my daydreams and an emotional open valve to experience the depth of catharsis that only comes through the physical immediacy of performance. 

 

By age eighteen, I was in production on my first fictional narrative project that I wrote, directed, produced, and starred in. A 35-minute short film about a polygamist cult in the 1970's, and a young girl exploring her own fear of men as she's expected to marry into it. It was called 'Willow' and it was an exquisite experience to share with the entire team behind it. This was the same year I got my first guitar and began writing songs, savoring the same immediate cathartic rush that I found in acting, but purer, cleaner, sweeter, and infinitely more poetic. 

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Within two years of learning the guitar, I had written a few handfuls of songs. I was modeling quite a bit at the time (an enjoyable accident more than a deep-burning personal passion), and I was cast as a romantic lead in a local music video. This incredible creative experience would turn into a two-EP collaboration with the artists from the video, wherein they helped me write and produce 'V.A.L.' and 'The Places EP,' two of my favorite bodies of work to this day. I have an infinite wealth of gratitude to Immortal Girlfriend, one of the most talented, humble, and hardworking music groups that I've ever met. 

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Exploring both film and music in tandem, I had found my stride. I went on to release three more EP's, an exploration of femininity, channeling folkloric elements. Each installation had a different genre, a different character, and a different emotion behind it. PT. I: THE GODDESS: pop music focused on romance, love, playfulness, and desire. Then, PT. II: THE WITCH: eerie folk music exploring feminine fear. Finally, the EP series concluded with PT. III: THE BANSHEE. An electronic, snake-like focus on the rage born out of a feeling of powerlessness. I was able to play incredible shows - main stages at Summerfest opening for huge acts like Fitz & The Tantrums, sold-out headlining shows at venues like the Cactus Club and Bublr Bash. I knew that the marriage of music and film was where I would be my most creative, fulfilled, motivated, and joyful. 

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Of course, despite my passion, ambition, and productive output... there is very little money in the arts. In order to financially support myself, I worked as a waitress, as a nanny. I mopped volleyball courts. I bartended. I second shot wedding videos and I snapped senior portraits. I made films for Saint Kate, the Arts Hotel. But my longest and favorite job has been doing film, photography, and social media for Impact Botanicals. Since I was eighteen, I've typically kept two to three jobs to stay afloat. 

 

After I created this body of work - five EPs, six music videos, and one short film, two large life events happened. I fell in love and I fell into chronic pain. I'll address the chronic pain first: after twelve visits to urgent care/emergency over six months with pelvic pain so extreme that I couldn't walk, I was finally diagnosed with interstitial cystitis. I would spend the next three years in hours of extreme pain almost daily. Performing live came to a grinding halt. I had a hard time keeping in consistent sessions because, on top of being in daily pain, I was traveling every other week to see my partner in Ohio, and I had to say goodbye to my job, limiting my income to $700-$1,000/month. 

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Falling in love, of course, inspired a flurry of art that began to pour out of me. Despite the chronic pain, I was writing again. Love songs for Micah, new story ideas, exploring corners of my life that I had been ashamed of up to that point. He encouraged me, helped me cut my vocals, helped me mix my music, even starred in the zero-budget musical. Small-Town Starlet, my passion project, was hastily made between muscle spasms and sleep, hobbled together with love and sheer willpower. 

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Over this last year, I've finally managed to achieve remission. I've created three more music video - one of which has already entered the world and decorates the home page of this very website - and a feature film. I'm re-entering the music studio. I'm booking again. I'm writing. I am cautiously hopeful.