30x 24" varnished acrylic on canvas. Leaving a fundamentalist religion is the very real choice of unknown and danger ahead of you, and everything you know behind. Bravely facing and walking into that storm is a decision every person raised in a closed society like this, who walks away, faces.

32"x28" acrylic on canvas, "My Fight," is a literal and figurative representation of the fight I and many others like me sustain for years to free themselves from the indoctrination, gaslighting, shaming, fear mongering and impressed upon them by fundamentalist religion.

32"x12" acrylic on canvas, varnished, "Conditions of Worth." In many fundamentalist religions, children are indoctrinated and taught their worth is conditional upon obedience. This often begins with baptism and/or other rituals of commitment and compliance.

38"x24" varnished acrylic on canvas, "Their Patriarchy" represents the expectations of patriarchal fundamental religion on women, as she tries to live her own dreams. Painted expressing my own experiences growing up in and leaving Mormonism.

28"x16" acrylic on canvas, "Quieten," is a self portrait walking through a fantasy garden, representing the quietness I feel in my soul as I finally experience the peace of authenticity and meaningfulness in my life that I have created, without having it dictated to me by others.

16"x28" acrylic on canvas, "Hold up the Walls," represents a turning point in my painting and my trauma-healing. After my religious childhood, I was determined to raise my boys with choices, acceptance, treasuring every moment. As I healed and grew, I realized as a mother and I human, I can control nothing, nothing is perfect ,and every moment is precious and fleeting. While I had been painting scenic nature and childhood paintings representing the beauty of motherhood and nurture, I was completing the piece during my realization of the imperfect and temporariness of all things, and how important that makes them- letting them be as they are. Instead of finishing this work with the soft finishing touches I historically used, I began to blacken out edges, showing the sweet memory fading as it formed, threw and splattered paint over it to show its imperfections, making it uniquely our own.

18x26" acrylic on canvas, "Ordinance," is a parallel statement about the vanishing boundaries between my experiences growing up female in a closed fundamentalist religion, the years of my life I spent trying to escape, and similar religious patriarchal forces rearing their ugly head in politics. Ignorance is privilege with real and severe impact.

24x12" acrylic on canvas, "Culinary Artist, 1," this amazing human now an adult, and a culinary artist. Creative People are everywhere!

28x18", Acrylic on Canvas, "Network Engineer," This Amazing Human is Latin American, adult Male, and he is Creative. Creative People are Everywhere!

28x16" Acrylic on Canvas, "Counselor," This adult, Caucasian female is Creative. Creative People are Everywhere!

18x26" acrylic on canvas, "Social Worker," This adult female Caucasian amazing human is Creative! Creative People are everywhere!

18x26" Acrylic on Canvas, "Culinary Artist, 2," This amazing human is an adult, Haitian-American female and she is Creative. Creative People are everywhere!

12x12" Acrylic on canvas, "Career Advisor," this amazing human is a multiracial-American female and Creative! Creative People are everywhere!

18x26" acrylic on canvas, "Teaching Artist," this amazing human is a Black American and very Creative! Creative People are everywhere!

This amazing human is an Artist. Creative People are everywhere. Not all Creative People know they have Creative Personalities, or that they are Creative at all. The diversity amongst Creative People is important,. and helping Creative People recognize and support their Creative Traits is critically important to our Communities.

40x12" acrylic on canvas, "Dark Room," is a recurring nightmare I have had since childhood. It was difficult to paint, as I had no reference, other than my own mind, which is very clouded by terror. In the nightmare, there is a dark house in which I live, with a tall staircase. At the top of the staircase, all the way to the top of the dark house, up into the rafters, there is a dark room. I know nothing about the room except of its powerful darkness, heaviness, emptiness, sadness, violence and malevolence, which, whenever I get to the top of the stairs, I feel to my core. I have yet to interpret this trauma dream due to the intensity of it, though it is not literal in any way.

48"x32" acrylic on canvas, "Don't Pick the Flowers," is one of the earliest nightmares I recall from my childhood, and as an adult, so evident of conditional worth and indoctrination. In the nightmare, it was lightly raining, and I was in my backyard, picking wildflowers, when deep thunder struck, and a disembodied voice from the heavens thundered, "Don't pick the flowers!" Terrified, I ran back into the house seeking help, only to find myself completely abandoned, not a soul to be found. As a nearly 40 year old woman, this image still gives me chills.

40x28" acrylic on canvas "Drive-mare," is a representation combining my recurring driving nightmares. These are frequent, and all about a loss of control. This powerless painful feeling is one of my deepest fear, one of the most horrible parts of living in a fundamentalist religion. This painting combines the loss of control of driving to the road flooding by a large body of water, suddenly changing to the inside of a dark cave, escalating steeply up a large mountain, and dangerously towering overpasses.

40x12" acrylic on canvas, "Impossible," is another recurring nightmare I have as a result of my religious trauma, along a theme. While the settings change, the nuts and bolts are the same: I am endlessly packing, trying to leave to go somewhere, but no matter how much I pack, more items appear to be pack, never allowing me to leave, keeping me forever trapped and out of time. This is a powerful feeling I had while I was trying to get out of Mormonism, and a fear that still haunts me.

A recurring nightmare I have is both of my children in mortal danger, usually involving water or fire, and my impossible choice to only be able to save one of them. This is reflective of my innermost fear of hopelessness.