Hi, I'm Serena...
I live in beautiful cottage country a few hours north of Toronto, Canada. I share my home with my husband and two boys, along with our cat Beans and dog Copper. Where I live, we experience the glory of all 4 seasons, and whatever the weather, I spend a lot of time outdoors. The beauty of the Canadian landscape always finds its way into my pieces, whether through color or subtle references to nature.
But the stories that I focus on most are those of women. My pieces honor our stories, and also challenge long held stereotypes of beauty, aging and femininity.
There are a lot of reasons I create art to inspire women, but a few go especially deep. If you'd like to know more - keep reading and I'll share a few more parts of my journey.
Get to know me a little more...
I've been creating since I was a child and even had my own business as a mural artist, but nothing has been as important to me as creating the pieces that I do now.
Growing up I received many subtle and not so subtle messages that I interpreted as meaning that my value was less than others, and especially as a girl.
This thinking was the perfect storm for a quiet young girl who wanted to please to find herself the victim of varying abuses. I doubted my own experiences and didn't think that they truly mattered.
...when I finally realized
that I was the one that needed to take care of my own emotional and mental health, I found myself a single mom working odd jobs to support myself and my boys. Though my art career had been put on the back burner for years, I knew that I needed it back in my life.
So with a couple of new paintings, some samples of my older work, and my story, I applied to have a solo show as a way to tell my story.
Each painting in my show titled "Passages" told a part of my journey through a difficult time and on to healing. People related to the art I had created, it had touched their hearts and they felt less alone.
I knew then that I had to add my voice to the ever-growing group of women telling our experiences.
"Our strength is our beauty"
This is why telling our stories as women is so important to me.
I want to make sure that young girls believe in themselves and aren't afraid to let their voices be heard.
I want midlife women to know that the journey they have travelled has made them strong, and that this strength is their beauty!
And I want older women to value the lines on their skin as badges of honor and their silver hair as glorious crowns to wear proudly.
This is why I create art to inspire and uplift women!
international women's day
A Painting to Celebrate Women Everywhere
This piece is named Lotus to express that it is our journeys that make us strong, and our strengths that make us beautiful, just as the Lotus flower reaches through muddy waters to the sun.
Various brushstrokes and colors represent women everywhere.
