The Izzie Archive
Some stories cannot be told in a single piece.
This archive is not arranged by medium, but by meaning.
The Izzie Archive brings together the artworks, writings, journals, botanical collections, and reflections inspired by the life of my heart dog, Izzie. While each project stands on its own, together they document an ongoing journey through love, grief, remembrance, and the quiet process of learning how to move forward without leaving her behind.
Rather than following a strict timeline, these works trace an emotional one. Some were created before her passing, some in the depths of grief, and others as I slowly rediscovered beauty, purpose, and hope through nature.
This archive exists to preserve not only her memory, but the lessons she continues to teach me.
She is with me still, every step of the way.
Always.
Heaven's Gate - 2023
Grief's Cage - 2023
Sunshine + Daisy Daydream - 2025
Izzie's Garden - 2026
Eclipse - 2026
Izzie’s Legacy 💫
The Craigslist Moment 💫
The Paw Prints
If you've noticed paw prints scattered throughout this website, you haven't found a glitch. They're Izzie's.
During her life, I collected a few different paw prints from different moments, each one carrying its own little piece of her.
One of the most meaningful came from a particularly chaotic day in the basement.
My cat knocked over a can of paint and a glass shelf, leaving broken glass and paint everywhere just before I had to leave for work.
In the middle of that mess, Izzie stepped in the paint and walked across the basement floor, leaving her paw prints behind.
At the time, it was one more disaster I absolutely did not need. Looking back, I'm incredibly grateful it happened.
I left those prints exactly where she made them and eventually sealed them beneath clear coat, turning what could have been nothing more than a stressful memory into something I could treasure.
There are other prints, too. I made a true-to-size print from her paw using gel food coloring and paper, carefully repeating the process until I had one that captured the shape of her paw. That print eventually became the paw print tattoo on my wrist.
There are also a couple of ink prints that turned into something closer to abstract art because, as I remember, Izzie was very much not interested in cooperating that day.
They now watch over my studio and my work, a little reminder that she was never particularly concerned with staying inside the lines.
And then there is the print I was given at the veterinary clinic. They knew what was coming, and they took the time to make a keepsake for us using a memory box that preserves the depth and shape of her paw in foam. It is one of the quietest and most tangible reminders I have of her.
I digitized these different prints and transformed them into the colorful, glowing paw prints you see throughout my website.
They wander across the pages, sometimes tucked into a corner, sometimes stepping over a photograph or a few words, and sometimes landing right in the middle of my work.
That part is intentional.
I wanted to feel like she is still walking through my creative life, every step of the way.
The way she once walked through that basement, leaving her little footprints in the middle of a complete disaster, she now leaves them here too. Across the art. Across the stories. Across the things I am still making.
She doesn't stay neatly inside her own page.
She gets to leave her footprints everywhere.
