Growing up, I loved anything that had to do with the stars and planets. Naturally, Sailor Moon became my favorite show to watch while in High School. The American run of the series primarily consisted of the earlier seasons which only featured the inner planetary sailors. For some reason I became fixated on the idea of what a sailor for the outer planet of Saturn should look like (without realizing that character had already been created and existed in Japan). I decided that she would have a purple outfit and short hair. I was so into the idea of this character that my mom helped me create a costume for Halloween based on this design! Once I grabbed a hold of later seasons of Sailor Moon and discovered what Sailor Saturn really looked like and what her story was, she quickly became my favorite character of the series.

In Junior College, I signed up for every subject of study that I was interested in that I had not been exposed to in High School. This included a course in Astronomy. I loved learning about the planets, their moons, and all the other forms that exist in space like nebulas and black holes. There was something about the subject matter that felt romantic in a way, like there was a story in the stars that was waiting to be told.

I carried this idea with me while attending ArtCenter, and dedicated a page in a book I had created to the orbit of Pluto and its largest moon, Charon.

Plate #2 from the book, "To My Soulmate," 2003.

Interestingly, throughout these decades of my life, I did not think much of Astrology. I was born towards the end of July, so every horoscope I encountered insisted I was a Leo, but I never felt like that description fit me quite right. So I dismissed the idea that there was any real truth to Astrology.

Fast forward another decade or two and my husband found himself inspired to take a certified course in Hellenistic Astrology. He explained to me that although I was born with the Sun in Leo, my Rising sign was Libra and that it was this sign that better described me as a person. And honestly, it did! The more he learned, the more I became impressed with how detailed the information that he could decipher by simply looking at planetary positions was. I came to appreciate Astrology as an incredibly vast and complex field of study that unfortunately through the centuries has become shunned and looked down upon in Western society resulting in only narrowly focused discussions on the subject existing in popular culture, leading in turn to a lot of misinformation amongst the public.

With my husband's encouragement, I recently decided to start studying Astrology myself, and am currently in the midst of astrologer Austin Coppock's Year 1 course, with the entire program consisting of 3 years worth of material! My studies have naturally begun to inspire my art. I'm looking forward to sharing these new paintings when they are ready and in the process, expose more people to the incredible stories that the stars and planets can tell us about ourselves.

My studies have also led me to discover more of the significations that exist within my own astrological natal chart. I find it quite fitting and maybe more than just a coincidence that the most Dignified planet at the time of my birth, and therefore one of the most prominent plants in my chart is....Saturn! Makes me wonder if other people's favorite Sailor Scouts also align somehow with their own charts. Based on my studies so far, I wouldn't be surprised if they were.

"Saturn's Requiem," pencil and acryla gouache on paper, 2022.

One last note: If you're curious to learn just a little more behind the history and practices of professional Astrology, then I highly recommend listening to this episode of The Astrology Podcast: Explaining Astrology to a Skeptic.