I'm a figurative female artist with my MFA from Boston University and also a high school art teacher. My two worlds---one as an artist, one as a teacher--can conflict at times but there is a uniting strand between my life as a female who scrutinizes and studies the female body and its changes and the vulnerabilities and insecurities that my students experience. This series of work---paintings from images taken of me by a friend in my most physically vulnerable—reflects my own exploration of feminine cycles....menstrual cycles, cycles of confidence and insecurity in body image, and the cycles of daily routines, from the bathroom to the bedroom. These micro-cycles mirror the cycles that my students go through, 14 year olds experiencing puberty, changes in self-image, self-consciousness. In a way I'm returning to the beginning by putting myself back into this teenage world; it was then that I became more aware of my physical changes and scared of them, spiraling into self-destructive behavior to combat these changes...it is only now as a 32 year old, twice the age of these students, that I have regained comfort with my body through years of exploring it through my art. It's a completed cycle that is at the core of my identity as a female and an artist.

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