This series of artworks explores my experience living with dyslexia and ADHD. Growing up, I didn’t learn to read until third grade. I remember staring at words, knowing they were meant to hold meaning, but seeing only shapes layered upon shapes. The letters blurred, blended, and overlapped, refusing to resolve into anything I could understand. It felt as though my brain was fundamentally wired wrong.

These early struggles shaped my lifelong relationship with words. Writing is still a painstaking process, as organizing my chaotic thoughts into coherent sentences feels like untangling an impossibly knotted thread. It can take an hour to craft a single sentence and even longer to connect ideas meaningfully. My thoughts don’t follow a straight path but swirl and spiral in a torrent of tangents. Without intentional effort to pause and organize, my ideas often feel jumbled and fragmented.

The marks and textures in this series reflect these challenges. Layers of overlapping forms and blurred lines echo the way words used to blend together on a page as I struggled to focus on them. They capture the tension between chaos and clarity, frustration and perseverance.

Creating this work has allowed me to translate these lifelong experiences into a visual language. Dyslexia and ADHD affect more than just how I process language—they shape how I think, organize, and express myself. Yet, within these challenges, there’s also beauty in the disorder and complexity.