Where this all began...

This collection of hats and paintings are over 20 years in the making. I studied both fashion and art in college, and have worked to make sense of the balance of the two my entire career. My hats often felt too artistic to be fashionable- and my art was perhaps too fashion-related to be taken seriously. (no relevant links available) Fast-forward to 2017, when we can essentially make our own rules when it comes to the work we create. Hello, world.

The paintings in this collection are brand new, but painted on top of art once viewed as "precious"...drawings and paintings meticulously created during my high school and college years. I've been adding layers over the years, but am just now ready to call them complete. I've poured two decades of discovering what my creativity means to me into these works. In particular, they house the emotional processing of the chaos of the last year. So many damn emotions.

In the midst of every damn emotion, where do we find peace? This is where the Gray Matter Hats come in to play. Our world is so polarized. WE are so polarized, just within ourselves. Creating these hats has been a dedication to not only using my "gray matter" as I walk through the world, but to look for the spaces in between. Where is the grace, between the opposing forces? I need this grace, we all need this grace...but we need resolve it within ourselves as we also work to help heal our families and communities.

This is where the collaboration is so important. I brought together two decades of some of my favorite women co-conspirators to bring this project to life. (Check the bios) Without our connection to community, our statements are worthless. We are in this together. We heal and transform together. We are so much more when we work together and find the Gray Matter, the space between.