Cat Parade first started when I was messing around with some Sculpey, while watching my favorite TV show, Friday Night Lights. Without thinking too hard about what I was doing, I suddenly started painting underwear on my unidentified creature's bottom. I found it pretty silly, and almost looked at it as a very minor moment in my artist career. That is until my Dad, who thought it was also a funny little thing, actually took my new piece pretty seriously. This moment stroke the birth of The Underwear Pal.

Once I made the second Underwear Pal, I couldn't really stop! I was doing a lot of paintings of cats at the time, so my unidentified creatures soon took the form of cats, and other specific animals like bears and pigs. The more I played around, the more characters I became fond of, and just had to include them in my Cat Parade Family.

I wear my jewelry all the time, and my biggest fans are my students. I teach kids between 6 and 11 years old, and I think they are what inspire my quirkiness and spontaneity. It feels truly satisfying to see their faces light up, when they find out that I'm the artist behind my necklace and earrings. It gives me hope that I'm inspiring the artist inside of them as well.