I always say I have three people to thank for acting as the catalyst for where I am today - my mom, my sister, and Harry Potter.

The Part with My Mom
My mom, and her entire family, were gifted with artistic talent. Growing up I watched her paint beautiful landscapes and draw realistic portraits. I’d sit and marvel at her creations and wonder how someone could make something out of nothing. Naturally, I wanted to be just like her, and when I was 10 years old I asked for a set of canvas and paints. She took me to Michael’s and bought me a pack of 8”x10” canvas boards and a small set of Sirius acrylic paints.

My only other references to art at the time were Bob Ross and Thomas Kinkade, also introduced to me by my mother. I practiced painting by emulating their style. Their work helped shape some of the core principles of my art today. Bob Ross, with his use of bright colors, encouraged me not to be afraid of color. Bold saturated colors have dominated my palette ever since.

Then there was Thomas Kinkade his light-filled paintings taught me to pay attention to the way light interacts and affects an environment. This has become a great source of inspiration for me, and it’s an element that I carried over to my digital artwork. Digital art can easily feel flat, but by adding various shades of the same color it can give it depth and make it come to life.

The more that I practiced the more that I fell in love with the process. Time would feel irrelevant. Everything else would simply fall away, and I would be utterly immersed in my own world.

This love that I nurtured over the years led to a degree in art from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

The Part with Harry Potter
At the same time I was learning how to paint I was becoming increasingly obsessed with Harry Potter. This was the early 2000s, and all the books had yet to be released. It was a magical time to be a fan. When I wasn’t painting, I spent most of my time pouring over fansites and forums speculating with thousands of other kids about the awaited fate of our beloved characters.

One of my favorite fansites was MuggleNet (still around today!). They would hold a monthly movie poster contest. They would announce the theme for the month and participants would then composite movie stills into “movie posters”.

I was amazed at how good these entries looked, and the fact that they were created by kids my age added to my amazement. I remember thinking to myself, “I have to know HOW they’re doing this! I want to do it too!”

Through some digging, I found out that they were using a little program called Photoshop.

I discovered that Circuit City had Photoshop in stock for $70. So I did extra chores around the house for months and saved my money until I had enough. My parents drove me to the store, and with my cash in hand I told a young worker “I would like to buy Photoshop please”.

She looked me up and down and scoffed “It’s $400”.

My face crumpled and my dreams came crashing down that day in the middle of the Circuit City aisle. What I had seen earlier was the functionally bare Photoshop Elements, and not the full-fledged Photoshop program. I returned home defeated, but not for long.

Eventually, I did get Photoshop and quickly found a new obsession. I spent countless hours teaching myself how to use it to manipulate images and create my own Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings fan images. This experience opened my eyes to digital creation and paved the way for creating the art you see here today.

The Part with My sister
After college, I stopped painting and focused on my career as a designer. However, not long after, I experienced some loss in my life. It prompted me to return to painting as a way to cope with what was happening.

One day my sister came to visit me and she saw what I was working on and she made a comment that changed my life forever. She said, “You should totally sell your paintings.”

Before that comment, it had never occurred to me that I could create art, sell it, and make a living off of it. Over the next few months, I pondered greatly over if I should, or shouldn’t dive into this new venture. “Could artists really make a full-time living with their art?” I only ever knew that art sold after someone’s death. The only other way I knew one could make money from art was to either become a teacher or get lucky enough to break into the elite art world.

In 2012 my sister posted a picture of a painting I was working on on her Instagram. She had an active interior design blog and was friends with designers and other design bloggers. She received comments asking who the artist was and where they could buy it. That was enough to convince me that I could make this work.

At that point in my life, I felt like I had nothing left to lose and if there was ever a time to take a great risk it was now.

On January 22, 2013, I nervously and excitedly hit publish on parimastudio.com and started my journey as a working artist.

Since then my art has been purchased by hundreds of people around the world, and sold in stores like Anthropologie, West Elm, Burke Decor, and more. Several artworks are part of hotels like The Bellagio and the Waldorf Astoria. My prints have appeared in movies such as Vox Lux and streaming shows like Tales of the City. Additionally, they have appeared in publications like Domino, Dwell, Better Homes & Gardens, and HGTV.