About a month ago I got an inquiry asking if I would like to speak at an upcoming art and design event and I jumped at the opportunity. I was connected to the event organizers through artist Tessa Heck, we met a couple of years ago after I popped into her studio to check out her work and say hi. She had spoken at a previous PechaKutcha event and thought I would be a great fit for this one. Thank you, Tessa!

If you haven’t heard of PechaKutcha before it’s a global storytelling event where people share their passions through quick, visual presentations. The standard format is 20 slides, each showing for 20 seconds, while the speaker talks. It started in Japan in 2003, and now it happens worldwide. PechaKutcha means Chit Chat in Japanese.

I was excited to be invited but also unsure whether people would want to see uncensored birth photography at the event. I shared some examples of my work with event organizers George Giavasas and Alisha Schilling, and they were both fully on board with my art.

I had about three weeks to put together my presentation, and for some reason, I got the impression that I needed to memorize everything I planned to say. Ha! Turns out, that wasn’t necessary—but by the time I realized it, I had already committed my talk to memory. So, I just went with it.

The struggle of calling yourself an artist

I knew I wanted to talk about what it means to be an artist, especially the struggle of actually calling yourself one. So many artists deal with this struggle, myself included. Even with a fine arts degree in photography, I’ve never been great at writing those deep, philosophical artist statements. I just like photographing things that I find beautiful and that’s never really changed.

I also talked about how birthwork is creative. Being a doula and a photographer are both deeply artistic in different ways. This speech was probably the closest thing to an artist statement I’ve ever written, but really, it was just me speaking from the heart. When I first read it to Alisha one of the events organizers, we both got teary-eyed. Birth and motherhood hit people on such an emotional level. We’ve all been born, most of us have had moms, and many of us have either given birth or witnessed it. It connects us all.

Sharing the stage with incredible artists

The best part of the night? Getting to speak alongside so many talented people. Everyone was amazing but there were a few who really stuck with me:

Sydney Boveng, talked about making art out in nature. I immediately joined her newsletter and purchased some stickers!
Charlotte Mack, is a photographer who takes stunning self-portraits. I felt so connected to her work and couldn’t believe she’d only been shooting for a short time.
Meredith Patterson, shared her story of being an actor in NYC during September 11th and performing for first responders. Her talk hit me hard. I was also in the city that day and spent hours thinking I had lost my uncle, who is like a second dad to me. Luckily he came home that day. It was wild that we both ended up speaking at the same event with such a shared experience.

Checking a big goal off my list

Speaking in front of a packed room at the Wachholz Center was one of the scariest things I’ve ever done—but I’m so proud of myself for doing it. One of my big goals for 2024 was simply to be an artist. And on January 30th, 2025, standing in front of a room full of creatives, I felt like one. Checking that box felt incredible.

Watch my presentation here:

I will share a slideshow version on the PechaKutcha website with my words from the event and the photos in a few weeks when it’s edited and ready. The photos will be much easier to see and the audio will be improved.

Huge shoutout to Alisha Schilling, Elma Giavasas, George Giavasas, and The Wachholz Center for putting together such an incredible, free community event. There will be two more PetchaKutcha Kalispell events happening this year and I hope you’ll check them out.