I like to believe that I have made art, Swamp Sprouts, part of my everyday life to reconnect with my inner child. At my conception, the creative spirit declared I was placed on this earth to create. As a young child, I used my creativity to formulate potions from wildflowers and twigs. By 13, I was painting canvases alone in my bedroom – venturing downstairs only to show my finished creations to my father. 

As I grew older, my priorities shifted to fit those of society – do something that makes the most money. Although my parents always told me to do what I love, this daunting demon of the financial realm would not get off my back. To this day, I still fight it. 

Despite my urge to major in the arts, I graduated college with a Bachelor’s degree in Mass Communication. My ill-fated dream was to work as a marketer in the live music industry. The universe played along with me for a few years, but as we know and often fail to believe, shoving down creativity simply does not work.

While working for a production company in New Orleans, I realized the music industry was a new demon I had to fight off. Luckily for me, the pandemic did most of the work. My world was turned upside down, my dreams crushed, and I was forced to sit with myself. Unleashing my inventive mind upon the world is how I coped with the uncertainty we all felt at the time. 

The free time I never had soon turned into the creative time I always needed. When my paintbrush made its way onto a piece of sliced wood back in April 2020, I had no idea I was starting a personal movement. Swamp Sprouts rebirthed my will to paint and rebuilt my trust in my intuition. It rebirthed me.