I love painting, so I paint. And I love working with leather, so I make. My practice moves between painting and handcrafted leather work, not as two separate activities, but as parallel ways of thinking through making. When I design leather objects, I consider how they will be held, used, and lived with — how function and quiet beauty can exist together. That way of thinking also informs my paintings. In my paintings, I don’t aim to produce images that exist only for myself. I want the work to speak to others — to hold stories and emotions that can meet the viewer somewhere in between my experience and theirs. I am interested in that shared space of seeing and feeling. I believe that, for a contemporary artist, it is not only about waiting for others to understand a private world of expression. It is also about imagining what people might want, need, or long to encounter — and creating work that responds to that space of desire and attention. For me, painting and leather making form one continuous practice: thinking, shaping, and finding meaning through the act of making.