When I don’t know what to do, I create. I create spaces, paintings, bags, rooms, gardens, whatever keeps my hands moving and my mind from collapsing in on itself. I have ADHD. I have PTSD. I’m in recovery. I’m grieving. I’m stitching my life back together one brush stroke at a time.

I got sober when my son was still a boy, which meant his childhood looked nothing like his sisters’. My recovery and his growing up happened at the same time. We ran Spartans together. We trained Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He sat in meetings with me. He became the anchor that kept me trying to get this sober thing right.

As he got older, I recognized some of my own struggles in him. Attention. People pleasing. Feeling like the world expected him to be small. We worked hard to give him room to explore art, to know his worth, to build a life he could be proud of.

From that, Ramirez Murals was born.

We’ve done countless projects together. We renovate apartments. We restore old pieces. We paint murals and leave our colors across the globe. Now he and his partner travel and create their own worlds through art.

This has been the greatest adventure of my life.