‘Taking’

I created Taking to give form to the exhaustion, depression, anxiety, guilt, grief, anger, and hope that so many women experience while juggling responsibilities, sidelining their passions, and carrying the weight of emotional and domestic labor. This collection is deeply personal—it reflects my own journey through career success, major life changes, perinatal and postpartum depression, family loss, extreme burnout, and the slow path to recovery. The series consists of 10 interconnected, interactive canvas sculptures, each representing something taken from a woman along this journey. It explores the struggle to find balance, to hold onto a sense of self, and to heal in a world that both intentionally and unintentionally strips away what little energy remains. Too often, mental health is dismissed as a private issue, but Taking reveals the ways our environments shape our well-being. My hope is that this work sparks conversations about personal mental health experiences, the importance of mattering, mental health awareness in schools, workplaces, and public spaces, how to ask for help, and the need for deeper empathy.