I’m an emerging artist, antiracism organizer and psychiatrist living in Portland, OR. My mosaic practice started in 2006 in Chicago. I’d sought a creative outlet to balance my work as a psychiatrist which is so cerebral and often stressful. Mosaics have provided a tactile outlet and space to use the fantastical part of my brain in a process that is free flowing and immediate. The process of creating mosaics involves forming a whole from disparate parts. This is so much of what I’ve done in my medical career. There’s beauty in what is broken or splintered, creating infinite possibilities for metamorphoses. For me, mosaics are art imitating life. And as we may feel our society is falling apart, I can see an opening for transformation and a need to imagine what this new “whole” could be. I want my art to embrace the essence of this imagining and I look to the natural world for inspiration. Acts of liberation, transformation, and rebirth happen daily in nature even in small ways. My intent is to harness the energy of collective imagining to guide my art and meld it to social justice and human work.