Telling the stories I want my children to grow up with.

I am an illustrator and character designer based in San Francisco. I work in children’s and young adult illustration with a focus on character-driven worlds.

For years, holiness looked like obedience without joy. I did what a good Christian wife and mother was supposed to do. But somewhere along the way, my faithfulness became a kind of fear. I was trying to earn my place.

That’s when the parable of the Prodigal Son stopped being a story about the younger brother, and became a story about me. The elder son never left home, but he never knew his father’s love either — he served out of duty and resentment, keeping score, waiting to be noticed for everything he gave up. I understood him completely. I had been staying faithful to my family and my faith, and quietly grieving the artist I thought I had to bury to do it right.

The father in that story tells the elder son: everything I have is yours. Not earned. Already given. I didn’t have to keep proving my worth through what I gave up.

My current personal project, Vindicate, is that story retold in a world of pirates. It’s a story that I had in mind since I was in high school. My life experience was what I needed to complete it.

I am also a wife and a mother of four. The work and the life are not separate — the work is the life, finally lived out of love instead of fear. Check out Vindicate here.