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Gallery

backedbyloveart

Wife • Mom 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Mixed Media Artist 👩‍🎨 Art Teacher ——
Custom animal portraits • handmade jewelry ——
Commissions OPEN 🤟
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✨ Day 9 + 10 of 31: Creative Play ✨ Confession: t

✨ Day 9 + 10 of 31: Creative Play ✨

Confession: the hardest part of this challenge isn’t creating…
it’s posting 😅

But I’m grateful for the accountability — even when I miss a day.

Day 9 looked like dusting off my violin 🎻
Making space for a practice my busy self hasn’t returned to in too long. Slow, imperfect, but deeply needed.

Day 10 came back to the page — a few quiet practice sketches in my sketchbook ✏️
Nothing finished. Just observation, and showing up.

Creativity isn’t always visual.
And it doesn’t always fit neatly into a square.

Still playing. Still learning. Still grateful. 🤍

#backedbylove #31daysofcreativepractice #sketch #violinstagram

✨ Day 8 of 31: Creative Play ✨ Today’s play came

✨ Day 8 of 31: Creative Play ✨

Today’s play came courtesy of the internet 😄

I saw an artist doing a sticky note art challenge and immediately had to try it. One sticky note. One pen. No plan. Just lines, patterns, and letting my hand wander.

Tiny surface. Big freedom.

I love how limiting the space actually frees the creativity — no pressure, no perfection, just play.

Highly recommend giving this one a try!

#stickynoteart #backedbylove #31daysofcreativepractice

✨ Day 7 of 31: Creative Play ✨ Today’s play came

✨ Day 7 of 31: Creative Play ✨

Today’s play came from scraps.

Tiny pieces of leftover paper, some fine tip markers, a ruler, and a hole punch — and suddenly I had mini lined pages ready to become little lunchbox notes 🥪🤍

No big idea.
No finished “art.”
Just lines, color, and some time in play.

This was a sweet reminder that sometimes line alone is enough. Enough to create. Enough to communicate.

Simple play. Meaningful joy.

#backedbylove #minipaper #31daysofcreativepractice #play

✨ Day 6 of 31: Creative Play ✨ Right from my clas

✨ Day 6 of 31: Creative Play ✨

Right from my classroom today — a little pocket of play.

I took a few minutes to hand-make this sweet card for my Riley girl 🤍
Nothing fancy. Just paper, scissors, color, and love.

This challenge is reminding me that creativity doesn’t have to wait for the studio or perfect conditions. Sometimes it shows up in small, meaningful ways — tucked into the middle of a school day.

Today’s play was simple.

#popupcards #backedbylove #31daysofcreativepractice

✨ Day 5 of 31: Creative Play ✨ Today’s creative p

✨ Day 5 of 31: Creative Play ✨

Today’s creative practice looked like…

🎨 Teaching first graders human head proportions
⏰ The last hour of the first day back from Christmas break
☕ Survival mode
😅 Still standing

No art made.
No paint touched.
But if wrangling tiny humans and explaining where eyes go on a face isn’t creative endurance, I don’t know what is.

Some days, showing up is the art.
Today? I survived. And that counts. 😂

#firstdaybackatschool #survivalmode #backedbylove

✨ Day 4 of 31: Creative Play ✨ Back to the piece

✨ Day 4 of 31: Creative Play ✨

Back to the piece that started it all.

Today wasn’t about finishing, it was about responding to what was already there. Following the lines. Letting the color speak. Trusting the process instead of forcing an outcome.

This work is still in progress…so am I… and isn’t that kinda the whole point?!

#31daysofcreativepractice #backedbylove #acrylicpainting

✨ Day 3 of 31: Creative Play ✨ Today’s creativity

✨ Day 3 of 31: Creative Play ✨

Today’s creativity happened in the details.

These are handmade embroidered earrings (something new I have been playing around with) but today I played with the packaging.

A little colored pencil added a fun flair that makes each pair feel even more personal.

Still choosing play. 🤍
#31daysofplay #backedbylove #embroiderersofinstagram #thesmallthingsmatter

✨ Day 2 of 31: Creative Play ✨ Tiny paper. Limite

✨ Day 2 of 31: Creative Play ✨

Tiny paper. Limited time. Zero pressure.

Today’s play looked like a quick mini watercolor, letting the brush wander, letting the light glow, letting it be enough just as it is.

No fixing.
No finishing.
No overthinking.

Just a few quiet minutes of color and movement.

This challenge isn’t about making masterpieces, it’s about making space. And today, this little sunset did exactly that 🤍

Here’s to showing up, even small.

#31daysofcreativepractice #backedbylove #watercolor #quicksketch #landscape

✨ 31 Days of Creative Play ✨ New year. Same heart

✨ 31 Days of Creative Play ✨

New year. Same heart for creating — but with less pressure and more play.

This piece on my easel feels like the perfect beginning: loose, layered, unfinished, and full of possibility. For the next 31 days, I’m committing to showing up creatively — not to finish, perfect, or produce… but to play.

Some days it might be a brushstroke.
Some days a sketch.
Some days just moving color and seeing what happens.

The goal isn’t completion.
It’s connection.
To curiosity. To joy. To the quiet voice that creates for the love of it.

If you’ve been craving freedom in your art, consider this your invitation to play alongside me 🤍

#31daysofcreativepractice #backedbylove #artinprocess #creativejoy #processoverproduction

The final batch of resin cutting boards will be av

The final batch of resin cutting boards will be available for purchase soon!

These custom wave 🌊 boards feature a one of a kind food safe resin wave on bamboo cutting boards. Along with a custom cheese knife!

These make a perfect #christmaspresents

#resinwave #charcuterie #backedbylove #artforsalebyartist

New energy, same creative mess (just temporarily h

New energy, same creative mess (just temporarily hidden) ✨ #studiorefresh #artinprogress #backedbylove

Started something new last night. #backedbylove

Started something new last night.

#backedbylove #watercolor #artoftheday #artist #artteacherlife❤️

Never forget your why 🫶🏻 #livingthedream #arttea

Never forget your why 🫶🏻

#livingthedream #artteacherlife #thirdgradeinspiration #myrolemodel❤️ #backedbylove

Summer is my favorite time of year! I love teachin

Summer is my favorite time of year! I love teaching art, but for three months I get to submerge myself in my little studio and paint away!

#backedbylove #studiovibes #youllfindmepainting

Today I invited myself into my studio to fearlessl

Today I invited myself into my studio to fearlessly play. I went in with no expectation of a completed piece, just experimenting, color mixing, texture building; play. #keepcreating #backedbylove #artistsofinstagram #acrylicpaintingoncanvas

Every year, I try to complete at least one project

Every year, I try to complete at least one project with my students. My favorite tradition is 5th grade animals!

This year I took on an elephant! This is a project where we find forms in our animals to help us establish a more dimensional and realistic drawing. Then we study fur and how each mark is important to the viewers eye. All done with colored pencil.

Then for their last day, I make a print for each 5th grade student 🥰

#itsalmostsummer #backedbylove #artist #artistsoninstagram #artteachersofinstragram

“To be a teacher is my greatest work of art.” -Jos

“To be a teacher is my greatest work of art.”
-Joseph Beuys

What a joy it has been to complete another year of teaching these students to delight in beauty, observe Gods handiwork, and continue to learn to draw what we see.

@rockbridgeacademy #backedbylove #teachersofthegram #artteacher #ilovemyjob

Some fun spring #watercolor play! #mushroomlove

Some fun spring #watercolor play!

#mushroomlove #springvibes🌸 #backedbylove #timetoplay

What a weekend!!! Here is to saying yes to new opp

What a weekend!!! Here is to saying yes to new opportunities and trying things for the first time!!

Here is a snip of the live guest paintings I finished at home and returned to the mother of the bride to include in their thank you cards. What a sweet keepsake for guests!

#liveweddingpainting #liveguestportraits #watercolorport #liveweddingpainter #backedbylove #artistsoninstagram #newadventure

Yesterday I stopped over at the Gary J. Arthur Com

Yesterday I stopped over at the Gary J. Arthur Community Center to view my three watercolor paintings on display for the @blossoms_of_hope exhibit. As I was wondering and viewing, I noticed a man there also viewing. He paused at my first painting and Riley watched as he admired. He then moved over to the second wall and stopped again on my second painting. Seeing the adoration I stopped him and told him I was the artist.

He then went on to tell me how much he admired my skill and how he could tell each one was mine. He had gotten a watercolor set for Christmas and wanted to start painting. Then as he was wanting to start he realized the first step to painting is drawing.

Of course the art teacher in me came out and even Riley got to tell him how we first have to learn to draw what we see not what we think we see, or to draw with the right side of our brain. 🧠

This is why I create. Connection. This is why I teach. Connection.

“The power of art is that it can connect us to one another, and to larger truths about what it means to be alive and what it means to be human.”

#artistsofinstagram #arteachersofinstagram #backedbylove #ilovemyjob❤️

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