Growing up on Long Island, nearby Fire Island was where we spent our summers. Hours were spent at Sunken Forest under canopied trees, the damp coolness of the shad where my imagination was never limited but flourished. My days were spent in perpetual motion, dreaming and creating with everything in my magical surroundings. Fire Island and my connection to the Sunken Forest runs deep. They are part of every summer memory, and I cannot separate them from the rest of my childhood. When my essence was most malleable, this magical place embedded itself into the core of who I am as a person and an artist. Incorporating my love of the outdoors into my work was only natural, if not inevitable.