How My Art Teaches Me About Self-Discovery

I was adopted from Guatemala as an infant, a fact that has always shaped my life in complex, beautiful, yet often challenging ways. Growing up, I struggled with feeling secure in my identity, sensing a deep void where a connection to my birth country, culture, and heritage should have been. Adoption brought love and opportunities, but it also carried a silent ache, a fog, and an intangible loss that left me yearning for answers about who I was and where I belonged. As a teenager, this internal conflict became a storm, and I would do anything to try to escape it and escape the world I was living in. My rough years eventually led to a wilderness program and therapeutic boarding school where I met my art mentor, who, even to this day, inspires me in every way. These experiences felt isolating and overwhelming at the time, but looking back, they were pivotal and shaped my life just how it was meant to.

In the solitude of the wilderness, I began confronting my emotions. Whether I liked it or not, I was forced to examine some of my darkest thoughts. Through therapeutic programs, I started piecing together fragments of my identity but still looked the other way. This journey brought me to art school—where my creative voice finally had room to grow.

While college was a transformative time for my artistry, my life outside my work was another story. I was living in ways that were physically, mentally, and emotionally unhealthy, disconnected from the life I wanted for myself and disconnected from my true passions. My art felt more like a lifeline than an expression, and I knew I couldn’t keep living this way.

Turning my life around wasn’t easy, but it was essential. I wanted to grow closer to my family, find meaningful friendships and relationships, and have a purpose.

Over the past eight years, I’ve dedicated myself to reclaiming the identity I felt I lost after adoption. That started with a complete lifestyle change and then continued until the last year when I searched for my birthmother and reconnected with a side of myself I desperately needed to learn about. This journey of self-reclamation has been one of exploration, healing, and growth. Through painting, I began to process my personal experiences with adoption, understanding the interplay between loss, connection, and identity.

My paintings tell stories about searching for connection within oneself—an exploration of what it means to bridge the gaps between the self I was born into and the self I’ve become. Painting has become more than just a practice for me, more than just another business I am building, and more than something I share on social media; it’s a way to connect with the deepest parts of my soul and shoot that connection out into the cosmos to the farthest part of Guatemala, and back into the hearts of the members of my workshops and generous buyers of my art.

Art has taught me that self-discovery isn’t about finding definitive answers. It’s about embracing the complexity of our experiences and allowing ourselves to grow into the fullness of who we are. Painting is there for me when my emotions feel too hard to contain or verbalize, and I need to express myself silently. Painting reminds me that even when life feels fragmented, there’s beauty in piecing it together.

Today, my art is a reflection of this journey. It helps me connect with the world around me, creating bridges of understanding and shared humanity. Through every brushstroke and every color, I find a sense of belonging—not just within myself but in the more extraordinary tapestry of life.

This is the power of art: it’s not just about creating something to look at. It’s about creating something that feels true. For me, painting is a dialogue with my past, a celebration of my present, and a hopeful embrace of my future.

In every way, my art is my connection to myself—and my offering to the world.