Unnamed Artist

"Palindrome", 2025

This is the year I'm claiming a name.

I'm recognizing that no matter how I line myself up, I will always be the same.

Confession: I've always felt weird calling myself a "Digital" Artist. I've also never felt right calling myself a "Photographer" when referring to my fine art vs. my portrait photography. I don't like the term "Mixed Media" artist either.

Then WTF do I call myself! ~ joking ~ not joking.

What really makes me laugh is that I have built up SO many walls within myself that I actually run my own photography business, Wild Roots Photography, and have only allowed myself to fully claim the name, "photographer", when I was photographing clients.

I have always felt awkward labeling my art because I have a process that involves so many layers and so much content and I never wanted to be misunderstood as someone who simply presses a button.

There, I said it.

Photographers are only cool in the art world if they are analog.

Digital Artists, especially in 2026, are looked at with a side long glance, as folks wonder if it's all just AI.

Mixed Media sounds like you aren't honing your craft.

Of course, these are all blanket statements but each carries a kernel of truth.

So What Changed This Year?

You might ask.

Me. I Changed.

Between all the meditating, journaling, birth chart reading, and inner child work ~ I have a new sense of clarity.

PHOTOGRAPHY has always been my backbone. I see the world in frames. I sense the nuances of light. I sequence out the moments.

But I've always been so concerned about being an imposter that I was always afraid to claim I was anything!

Imposter Syndrome is real folks.

I used to skirt the edges of names. Saying things like, "I use photography in my work", or "I am a photographer but....", or making sure to bring up my darkroom photography background to justify my use of the term.

Photography is at the heart of everything I do. I live and breathe Photography, always have.

Why was I so afraid to be called out as being a fake?

Because I use it in a beautifully nuanced, non-traditional, way. I've never lived my life straight forward, I turn in circles, and dance, and swim, and climb, and then maybe get to where I'm going, much more informed and alive because of the path I chose to take.

So while I'm not a purist ~ I'm not tainted either. I'm interesting. I'm surprising. I'm challenging the common core and pushing the medium. Contemporary Photography at it's finest.

Stepping into 2026, without the masks and filters and faltering thoughts.

Mirroring what's been mine the whole time.