“If we are to understand the human condition, and if we are to accept ourselves in all the complexity, self doubt, extravagance of feeling, guilt, joy, the slow freeing of the self to its full capacity for action and creation, both as human being and as artist, we have to know all we can about each other, and we have to be willing to go naked.”                                                                   -May Sarton

I am an interdisciplinary creative - a designer, fine artist, published poet, the owner of VESL STUDIOS, and the host of THE GAAAP podcast.

I curate, design, make, and write with a background in art therapy practices, art education, and graphic design. I live a life as a creative professional that doesn't strive to have one medium or one practice. I am trained as a fine artist, with a BFA from The School Of The Art Institute Of Chicago and my goal has always been to create a sustainable life interweaving my creative practices. 

Everything I create whether through process or outcome is approached with design in mind. Design is at the forefront of my professional life. I am a freelance designer for Pariah Magazine and have designed for coffee shops, vintage shops, musicians, and a variety of small businesses. My expertise is in branding, merchandise, and social media design.

I created VESL STUDIOS in 2020 after graduating from college on a mission to create as an extension of my fine art practice that was accessible, design-focused and community oriented. Vesl Studios is a cultural reactant, a landing for limitless minds and collaboration. With a multi-media approach, the brand is a response through physical space, clothes, objects, artworks, and design to a world that confines. Vesl Studios is built off the ethos that a vessel is anything that contains. we are vessels, inspired by need and a dream. Ultimately, Vesl Studios is about engaging in play, centered on fostering and maintaining the vessel that is you.  

@VESL.STUDIOS

@VFOR.VESPER

I had my first book published in 2022 called “Gradient”. I coin it a “Poetry novel” mimicking the structure of a novel with a linear story and broken up into chapters. In-between each chapter is a mix of short story, prose and structured poetry. You can read more about and purchase my book on my website!

The GAAAP Podcast is one of my newest editions aiming to connect with others on a human level outside of the boxes we are structured in and around with a center focus that we are all creatives, it is inherently human to be creative. Find the podcast on Patreon! 

My fine art practice is understood as emotional waste; conscious and unconscious ways in which I process the push and pull of information I absorb through the direct and indirect experience. I find myself reaching for substance and thinking in stanzas.

Substance - material, both written and physical; paper, clay, paint, poetry etc. 

Stanzas - fragments of what I’ve heard, said or read paralleled with imagery of the past, the present and the unknown. 

My practice with substance and stanza reveal the gap between self and other which I explore visually in order to unlearn, relearn and redefine through distortion and manipulation of material.

Themes I explore include: 

Neurodivergence

Body Autonomy

Transparency 

Abuse - emotional & physical

Mental health awareness 

STI awareness

PHOTOS TAKEN BY : @randysteelephotography

@jillianclark

@shankelphoto