Hi! I’m Zoë. I started painting in 2020 following a series of breakdowns, break throughs, and overall personal transformations as a result of living through the start of a pandemic and working in healthcare during that brutal, chaotic time. I was forced to make space for myself, to let go of many key aspects of my life, and to work to create a safe place to land inside my own free fall. What came out of that space quickly took the form of colors and shapes on canvas.

I have no formal training when it comes to art. Most of what I create is a product of messy, unconventional trial and error; bold plunges forward into half-formed ideas, until something sticks. The act of creative exploration is very important to me, but I don’t care much about style or acceptance. I make things that move me, that inspire me, that challenge me or amuse me - and I generally make them exactly as I please. The need to create flows out of me constantly - and while that may change the things that I create - most significantly, it changes me. The fact that some of you are touched by what that produces is a lovely byproduct; a chance to, just for a moment, feel we have peered through the same looking glass, is quite a gift. 

In any case, my story with painting is still very much being written and has taken some interesting turns since I began. In June of last year I was diagnosed with a genetic eye disease and told that I would likely be legally blind in the next 5-10 years. Today, my vision wavers a lot. I see certain colors differently. Hues change midstream. Lines wiggle & move. But I’m learning not to fight it. 

There is a quote by Jeanette Winterson that I like: “The Buddhists say there are 149 ways to God, but I'm not looking for God, only for myself, and that is far more complicated.” My painting process feels a lot like that for me. A perilous, wondrous, unmarked journey home. But for now, I see just one way forward: seek out, revel in, and actively create as many wild, daring, and beautiful things as I possibly can. So that’s what I plan to do.