05/05/2026
EDEN mirrored more of my life than I expected.
As I was building this show around the idea of returning to a garden, I was also navigating a pull of shadow from some of the more difficult seasons of life I’ve had in a long time.
Six years ago, almost to the day, I stepped outside into uncertainty and believed in myself creating AURA IV.
People questioned it, said I was “too ambitious”, or even attacked me. I am dealing with some of these same things right now even as I type…
The “threatening” social hierarchy of tattoo culture, and Nova is DEMANDING we wrestle…
There have been moments of being taken advantage of, overlooked, and left behind while on the outside everything looked like it was thriving. A lot of this is my fault as I’m guilty of radiating energy, but internalizing the struggle for my own perceptions of “greater good”.
The disconnect will test you.
And somewhere in that time, the challenges found cracks; moments where I lost the feeling that started it all.
In the final stretch leading into the show, I felt like everything might unravel; this concept was big and hard to grasp. Energy shifting in ways that didn’t align, and It felt like the concept was testing me in real time; both eternally and internally…..but that was exactly the point that led to this idea of EDEN, in a painting I did one year ago exactly sharing the same title.
Growth and decay exist together.
Light and dark share the same space.
EDEN wasn’t about perfection, it was about returning to something real. Stripping everything back to what matters and CHOOSING to believe again.
To everyone who showed up, supported, or simply believes in what we’re building, thank you.
This one meant so much 🫶🎨✨