How Life Shapes the Artist Within
Life is not a straight line.
From the moment we arrive in this world, we begin building who we are, piece by piece, block by block. Some of those blocks are forged in the warm fires of love, connection, and creativity. Others come cracked, weathered, or clumsily stacked through pain, indifference, or misunderstanding. But each one counts. Each one matters.
The people we meet, the moments we share, however fleeting or enduring, leave impressions. They shape and soften us in ways we don’t always see until we’ve had time to step back. Some encounters bring color, others shadow. Some add lightness to our form, while others leave quiet hollows. But every connection, every brush with another human soul, becomes part of our design.
As artists, we carry those textures into our work.
Our art is not separate from who we are, it is who we are.
It is the voice that speaks when words fail, the truth that rises when our facades fall away.
With each sculpture I form, each sketch I make, I feel the presence of all the lives that have touched mine. The kindness that softened me. The grief that opened something deeper. The stillness that helped me put the pieces back together again.
A deep connection with animals
My joy of animals is so deeply woven into my life, I sometimes feel it is the truest part of me.
When I sculpt or draw, my desire is to bring their inner beauty, their joy, their love, and their living, feeling presence into each piece. I want the spirit of that connection, the essence of being fully in the moment, to shine through.
My hope is that when someone sees my work, they don’t just see a creature, they feel its power, its light, its story, just as I once did. These are not just memories, they are living connections that still breathe through my hands.
Becoming whole
By the time we reach adulthood, if we are lucky, if we are brave, we begin to look inward. We see that we’ve built a self from both elegance and error. And we start to understand that the beauty lies not in perfection, but in integration.
The well-formed blocks give us strength. The flawed ones give us character. And when we stop trying to discard the imperfect and instead place it with care, we begin to build a more honest, whole, and deeply worthy version of ourselves.
That’s what I strive to bring into my art, not just technique, not just polish, but truth. Emotion. Reflection. A soul made visible in clay, pencil, charcoal, or paint.
I want to make beauty out of everything I’ve been. To shape something that another person can feel in their bones, not because it’s flawless, but because it’s real.
Art gives us that gift, the chance to transmute our experiences into something meaningful. To say, “This is what it felt like to be me.” and to offer it to the world, not as a final product, but as a living piece of a life still unfolding.
Farzana and the Stallion, shape shifting. What a journey with this piece.
