My watercolor sketches celebrate the beauty and fierceness of women!

I have been working to empower women for years. Be it by helping single moms navigate the Child Support Enforcement system in Illinois, and raising money to put new school shoes on the feet of their children, to raising funds to help under resourced women get the life saving mammograms they need, but cannot afford. While doing this work, I have been listening to women and collecting the inspirational bits they say in moments of honesty. Women are funny, brave, audacious, bold, vulnerable and inspirational. We are amazing!

In the last couple of years, I have started pairing those sayings with watercolor sketches of women I find inspirational for a myriad of reasons.

Each sketch is an individual in her own right. My goal is to infuse them with power, beauty and strength. Some of these women, I know, and some are strangers and some I have created out of a thought, a word or an idea. All are women I admire. Some you might even recognize. Each of the women I have chosen, (and continue to choose) are uniquely and unapologetically herself, and I hope my work mirrors that. 

After hanging with some friends, sharing some ideas, laughs and more than a little bit of wine, we decided to give these "women" a voice, and a platform.

I have found it therapeutic to put this work out there. To say so many things with my work, that are sometimes too, well, just too, to actually say out loud.  I have also really enjoyed talking to women from all walks of life, generations and nationalities during this journey, to get their take and to relish their voice. 

I hope this work brings joy, and the realization that we, as women don't need anyone's approval or permission to be ourselves.