Princess Victoria

2025
4 × 6 in.
Watercolor and Ink on Paper

Princess Victoria wears her crown, but there is no kingdom around her. There is no castle, no throne, and no crowd admiring her. There is only Victoria.

I created her as an imaginary princess, but she represents something very real to me: the version of life we create inside our heads. I spend a lot of time imagining different lives, different places, different relationships, and different versions of myself. Sometimes those imagined worlds feel more comfortable than reality.

Victoria is a princess simply because she believes she is one. Her crown gives her an identity that the outside world doesn't have to understand or validate. Maybe she has an enormous kingdom somewhere outside the frame. Maybe she has nothing at all. Either way, when she puts on the crown, she is Princess Victoria.

I relate to that because painting gives me the same freedom. On paper, reality doesn't get the final say. I can take something ordinary and make it important. I can turn a stranger into a wizard, disappear into the woods with Sasquatch, create creatures that don't exist, or give someone a crown and an entire life that only exists because I decided it does.

There is also a loneliness to Victoria. Being a princess doesn't automatically mean being happy. Titles, possessions, relationships, jobs, and appearances can tell the world one story while the person underneath them feels something completely different.

Princess Victoria is about giving yourself permission to create another reality when the real one isn't somewhere you particularly want to be.

And sometimes all it takes to enter that reality is drawing a crown.