My Journey to Real Silk

Real Silk Murals before - Winter - 2026

I first learned about the Real Silk Mural Project in January 2026, almost by accident.

At the time, a different mural opportunity was making the rounds because of its unusually large budget. Quite a few friends and former clients sent me posts about it, encouraging me to apply. But if I’m honest, I felt unqualified. The mural was substantially larger than anything I had taken on before, it was intended for a major sporting venue, and the subject matter didn’t feel like a natural match for my work.

I was excited to see that the project was also hiring an apprentice to work alongside the selected muralist. That seemed like an incredible opportunity to learn from someone with more experience. I would leap at the chance to apprentice under an established muralist, but I quickly discovered that I was overqualified for the position.

That was a disappointment. Still, it was while visiting the Indy Arts Council website to look at that opportunity that I came across another mural project, one that felt as though it had been written specifically for me.

I was stunned.

Silk Lofts was searching for an artist to reinterpret five illustrations from the 1920s featuring women modeling Real Silk hosiery, transforming them into a contemporary mural installation.

The connection to my work was immediate.

If you have followed my career from the beginning, you may remember that my first mural, completed in 2021, was a recreation of F. X. Leyendecker’s 1922 cover illustration The Flapper. It depicts a glamorous young woman with monarch butterfly wings and a sheer green silk dress. I had barely finished the first layer when clips of the painting process began going viral on TikTok. That mural helped launch my career.

My third mural returned to the visual language of the same era. Inspired by Alphonse Mucha’s Monaco–Monte-Carlo, I painted the image over a brick fireplace and incorporated a diamond-shaped mirror installation that echoed the geometric ornamentation within the artwork.

A few years later, I revisited the period again when I was commissioned to reinterpret Louis Icart’s The Bar as a playful twist on a pet portrait.

Again and again, I had found myself drawn to these women, these silhouettes, and the elegance, ornamentation, and atmosphere of the early twentieth century. Long before I knew the Real Silk project existed, I had been developing a body of work that seemed to prepare me for it.

So when I read the project description, I was floored.

I had set myself up for this.

This was meant for me.

What first appeared to be a chance discovery suddenly felt like the natural continuation of everything I had been building. The subject matter, history, scale, and opportunity to reinterpret archival imagery within a contemporary space all aligned with the direction my work had been moving for years.

After several months of waiting, interviewing, and exchanging emails, I finally received the news: I had been selected for the project.

I was thrilled and deeply grateful.

There are moments in an artist’s career when the path becomes visible in retrospect. Individual works that once seemed separate reveal themselves as part of a larger story. Every mural, experiment, and recurring fascination had led me here.

Everything I had worked for had prepared me for this moment.

There are moments in an artist’s career when the path becomes visible in retrospect. Individual works that once seemed separate reveal themselves as part of a larger story. Every mural, experiment, and recurring fascination had led me here..

Everything I had worked for had prepared me for this moment.