About

White, upper/middle class straddler, queer, nonbinary femme living, working and walking around Durham, NC

​

I make a lot of art unpacking my class, whiteness and other identities to try to keep moving in this world. I love beads and lose them constantly. 

​

My work and world are deeply shaped by...

​

I was born and raised in a wealthy suburb of Boston (Lexington, that many say is the "home of the American Revolution") with my two younger siblings by a mom born and raised in New Jersey and a dad born and raised in Upstate New York. My mother's grandparents (my great-grandparents) all came from Greece and so we continued to congregate by the beaches; I spent at least a week every summer down the shore of New Jersey with my parents and siblings and Yiayia and Papou cousins and aunts and uncles. My dad's mom's (my grandma's) family came from Germany in the late 1800's and were basket makers. My dad's dad (my grandpa's) family came from villages in the Carpathian Mountains that were at one point in time known as Czechoslovakia. We congregated at houses with my dad and his family, but also continued to relax by lakes and mountains. 

​

I grew up going early every week to my elementary school for math club and playing on soccer teams that met at the middle school's field behind our house. I grumbled about taking Greek dancing lessons in the church hall but I loved school and making art and didn't grumble about those, at least not until later. 

​​​

 In elementary school, my mom taught my sister and I how to sew and I made a doll I still have to this day. When my grandpa died, I learned to embroider fruits and vegetables on a cloth to hold dried flowers from his funeral--I never finished. When my Yiayia died, I got some of her costume jewelry which I took apart bead by bead to create something new and began my journey sewing with beads of increasingly smaller and smaller size. 

​

​