I am located in Los Angeles, California, but I grew up in a small town in South Carolina. I spent my days as a kid exploring in the woods near my house, catching lightning bugs at night and playing dress-up with a box full of vintage dresses my mom got for me and my sister. Those wild and free days of letting my imagination run are now something I regularly try to hold onto.
One of my first memories of creating was when my mom taught me how to sew on a little old Singer machine. I would make a big mess of the bobbin and get everything all tangled up, but she would patiently cut the tangles loose, put her hands on top of mine and get me back on track. With her hands on mine, she showed me how to make quilts, dresses, bags and all sorts of things. The first item I remember making on my own was a dress for my pet chicken, Twiddledi. I was so proud of it that I even did a little photo shoot in my backyard of her in the dress I had made.
As a creative person, I see the world around me with curiosity and glittering eyes. I get so excited about the color palette surrounding me, such as the engaging colors in the feathers of the hummingbirds that visit my feeder each day. Or while on a walk, I stop and appreciate how intricately the petals of a flower are put together. I’ll see these little spikes growing off a tree and will think, “That would look incredible on the shoulders of a gown.” I’m constantly observing and absorbing the beauty of the world around me.
Whether your gift is a song, painting a piece of art, making people laugh, capturing a moment through a photograph or even just nurturing those that are hurting, we all have a gift we’re supposed to share.
I feel passionate about creating because it’s my contribution to society. All of us have some form of beauty we’re meant to put into the world for humanity to share in collectively.
If I don’t create … if you don’t create … it would be an artless, music-less, joyless place that I don’t want to be a part of.
Finding my creative style, however, has taken time. I stressed a lot in the beginning about what my aesthetic was and who I was as a designer. I would constantly look at other designers, trying to figure out who I was. When I finally let go of that and just kept creating more and more of my own work, I started to see some common threads and was able to weave together my true aesthetic. The Pegasus Gown, the most special piece in my studio right now, was the first piece I made that I was like, “Ah-ha! Now that is my aesthetic,” and it really solidified what direction I wanted to go in creatively. That piece has been really well received too, so it was encouraging to know there are people out there who are looking for those unique kinds of pieces.
I regularly draw creative inspiration from nature, the escape in cinematic fantasy and this practice I’ve started where I simply close my eyes and just see what images float in. I don’t try and push my mind in a certain direction … I just see where it flows naturally.
When I struggle with inspiration or I start to feel burned out creatively, I find it is best to take time off. Usually, if I wake up feeling stagnant—overwhelmed by it all — or in a swirl of negative emotions, it just means I need to take a day off and not think about “creating” for a bit. It’s taken me a while to have the maturity to recognize that, let go, and accept that the burned-out version of me can’t do anything well. The well-rested, joyous version of me puts out the best work so it’s important that I listen to my body and my mind and take time off when it’s needed. I am naturally a workaholic so I have to be very intentional about replenishing myself.
My best friend and husband, Jason Parker, and I talk constantly with each other about the creative process, roadblocks we come to and what inspires us. We really spur each other on creatively and help one another take time out of the grind for rejuvenation and replenishment. Jason is a deeply creative soul, and I am thankful for our wonderful relationship.
When we moved from Los Angeles from Nashville, it was a lot of work to reorganize my studio to fit into the smaller spaces of a big city. If I were to give advice to someone else creating their own studio, I would say to focus on two things equally: functionality and inspiration. You want your space to be functional so you can use it to create all the things you want to create, but it also can’t just be utilitarian because you need it to spur on your creativity. It has to be an equal balance of both. In keeping everything really organized and functional, when my creative whirlwinds hit, I know where everything is and can have a clean wide-open space to work in. I have two really strong parts of my personality that often conflict with each other — one side that is extremely meticulous, organized and a bit OCD, while the other side of me is a wild and chaotic creative energy. I try to at least start with a nice neat palette so when the hurricane hits, everything has a home to go back to.
For me, creating is a necessity and part of being human, and making people feel beautiful and original in one of my designs is what I strive to share.
I have learned with time, that along with having a functional and inspirational creative space, it is important to keep focused on your own creative journey and not everyone else’s. This is my best advice to someone who wants to pursue his or her own creativity. It’s natural to have people in your field that you idolize and want to be like. You look at them and say, “I want to be like them,” but the reality is they are the only “them” there can be. Their unique journey and unique talents brought them to where they are, and no one else can be just like them. You have to be you. You’re also poking your head in on a moment of their journey and have no idea the many years of struggles it took them to get to where they are now. Glean wisdom from people who are further ahead than you, but don’t beat yourself up for not being as good as someone who has been doing it for twice as long as you.
Pay attention to your own path, choose to get a little bit better every day, and take time to cultivate your own voice.
Letting go of fears to just create has been my biggest challenge as it’s so easy to get caught up in the whole, “What if nobody likes this? Is this too weird?” spiral and let that wreck my whole creative process. I have to just let that go and let my authentic self out because my originality is actually what people love most about my designs.
And, good things can and do happen when focusing on your authentic self. I’ve been pouring over red carpets for years, watching it all on TV and dreaming I could be a part of that one day. I love seeing the beautiful pieces of art come to life and had always wished so badly I could see my designs out there too. I cannot believe it, but I am now living out that dream. It doesn’t even seem real, but I now get to turn on the TV and see my own pieces on the red carpet! I feel beyond grateful and am so thankful to the people who have entrusted me and worn my designs on their special day. I cannot wait to see what the future holds.
“Be so good they can’t ignore you.”
— Steve Martin
STORED COMFORT
My favorite item in my studio is my mom’s old china cabinet. I’ve dragged my mom’s old china cabinet along with me every step of my creative journey and repurposed it for different things, ensuring it’s nearby. I can still hear the sound in my mind of her opening up the doors to get out little glasses for a parfait or special plates for dessert as we all gathered around the table. She always believed in me and cheered me on with my art, so having this piece in my studio since she passed away has helped me continue to feel near to her.
