Juvenile Hall Buddhas

Fused glass and paper, Oakland, CA. "I volunteer with a program (The Beat Within) inside California’s juvenile halls. It encourages locked up, mostly BIPOC teens to express themselves through writing and art. The pencil drawing created by one of the teens looks to me like a Buddha. I reproduced it twice: one symbolizes incarceration and one symbolizes freedom.

The transformative properties of glass are a metaphor for life’s ever-changing, uncertain landscape. I see my art as being part of a conversation. Each piece is the intersection of my own vision/intention and what the viewer sees in it. Some of my pieces contribute to existing societal conversations regarding justice, freedom, inclusivity and spirituality."