About Michelle

Art as a way to process, connect, and begin again.

Thanks for stopping by to get to know me!

How can you trust what I say if you don't know who I am, what I'm about, and where I've come from? And that's a very fair point.

So who are you?

That’s been a hard question to answer for a long time. I'm still on a journey to find that out.

There are a few direct truths that shape who I am and how I got here:

I lived undiagnosed with ADHD and Autism, navigating a world that felt hostile and confusing while believing something was fundamentally wrong with me.
I was suicidal for fifteen years.
I moved in and out of abusive relationships that nearly cost me my life.
I eventually learned that emotional neglect defined much of my upbringing.
Art and creativity became the way I survived—helping me cope, explore, process, and communicate what I couldn’t otherwise hold.

Art wasn’t a hobby. It was a tool for staying alive.

Over time, creating didn’t just help me—it helped the people around me. That experience led directly to building this business: one centered on the real, lived benefits of art and the act of creating, especially when words, systems, or support fall short.

More Details

I have been going through EMDR in Trauma Therapy lately and digging into my history. I'm hoping to discover what happened to me and why I have so many protective responses since I was a child. John and I have both had many medical professionals and people we have encountered surprised about the stories we tell and push for us to write our story. We will be working on that to help give some perspective and depth to who we are now and what we are wanting to do with our lives.

I honestly believe that EVERYONE should be writing and sharing their story. You'd be surprised that what you see as boring and mundane is crazy and new to someone else. The world is huge and each life is fascinating!

John and I will be approaching our life stories uniquely which will also emphasize the differences and yet similarities we deeply share.

This gives an idea of what kind of perspective I am coming from.

I was born and raised in the 90s in El Sobrante (Richmond), California. For those who don't know, that is across the bay from San Francisco. We were like a subdistrict of Richmond so writing either as our address worked.

I have been to the following countries:

Canada, Mexico, Ecuador, China, Australia, Fiji and more than half the states in the US.

My degree is in Business though I realized at the end of my second to last quarter of completing the degree that this was definitely not what I wanted to do in life. I wanted something with art, and at that time, anything business seemed straight to corporate and anti-creative type careers.

I want a career that focuses on art, creating, psychology, sociology, human development, mental health, and art therapy for everyone up to trauma patients.

I have survived two extremely abusive relationships going through emotional, mental, physical, sexual, AND spiritual abuse. There have been many times I was forced to sit and try to process what was going on around me and within me. One ended with a DV restraining order and me moving to another state.

Struggling with multiple health concerns and the odd effects of comorbidities:

Autism, ADHD, Insomnia, CPTSD, PTSD, chronic pain, severe social anxiety, mild to moderate depression and others randomly pop up due to medications or high levels of stress like multiple blood clots in my lungs due to birth control.

Each of those bring 3 to 7 different problems. Many overlapping at the same time.

I will be needing to draw out a map of all the struggles we daily or cyclly take care of to show the weight of our daily activities. Mostly because I need it to communicate with my medical professionals. If I have trouble remembering the information when I need to tell the people I need to tell most because of my disabilities...then what then? I will post a general overview of it all. Mostly because I'm personally impressed how much I have had to handle on my own for so long. I thought this was normal just to find out just one of them was a serious issue that involved medical help.

With my background and what I have been through, I know how impactful using art and exercising your creativity can be in your life. How it can help you find who you are. How it can help you reconnect with yourself. And how it can help you communicate to the world that can convey far more than words could.

My Recommendations

This is a list of resources I went through that helped me pivot my life.

A lot of what I have learned and work off of, I have learned here.

Bible

How to live (and not live) life. I personally recommend starting with Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah, Genesis, Revelations, Acts, and Romans.

Running on Empty

Learning what it means to live a life with Emotional Neglect. The first book after 35 years that made me feel seen.

There is a specialty even amongst trauma therapists that understand emotional neglect.

The Emotionally Abusive Relationship

One of the first books I read that helped me recognize patterns in my life and break from them. Sometimes you don't even realize you are doing it to yourself!

ADHD and Asperger Syndrome in Smart Kids and Adults

I mostly read through this and loved how they broke down Executive Functioning and the struggles of Executive Dysfunctioning. Helped me see where my struggles were and create methods to adapt to them.

Disentangling from Emotionally Immature People

There are people that just don't know what to do with their emotions so they take it out on you. This helps you separate what is yours to take responsibility for and where to set up and enforce personal boundaries.

Will I Ever Be Good Enough?

This is a niche book for daughters healing from the damages of narcissistic mothers. Very helpful knowing where the boundaries lie with what was my responsibility as a child and what wasn't my responsibility...because I was a child.

My Art

Art shaped by process, not perfection.

Here is a sampling of my artwork. I have gone through many phases and styles over the years. I have been creating art since I was in diapers...starting with clay. One day I hope to have tried my hand at every art media there is out there! It is a requirement for me to create to stay sane. I wish that were an exaggeration but it really isn't.