Resiliency is the ability to recover from or adjust to adversity or change.

This piece is a multifaceted love song to being resilient. A tribute to a city that’s always finding ways to reinvent itself - working through its own, sometimes painful, transformation. Using the symbolism of the dragonfly and the butterfly to represent the theme of metamorphosis and celebrate my younger sisters, Jen and Jamie. The Codorus Creek and the Rail Trail, noted places of intentional renewal, providing the stage.

The story behind the art…

Jen had wished for a little brother or sister for years. Our mom found out she was pregnant with Jamie on Jen’s 8th birthday, and she was overjoyed. She became like a second mother to her, a best friend, the two of them formed an unbreakable, infinite connection that will never fade.Butterflies represent new beginnings after hardship. They become a whole pile of goo in the chrysalis and then emerge glorious.
Jamie is like this monarch, she has faced her own share of trials and through it all she keeps rising, keeps moving forward. That kind of resilience is really only possible by going through the darkness.Dragonflies, like this meadowhawk, are symbols of transformation, resilience, and hope.
Jen loved dragonflies. When she was diagnosed with stage four colon cancer at 39, she leaned heavily into that radiant hope.
She fought bravely and made it to her 40th birthday on October 30, 2025.
After 224 days, most of them good, filled with so much laughter joy and love, she went to hang out with the Big Guy upstairs on November 20, 2025.
She told me she’d come back to visit me as a dragonfly, and now I see them everywhere.When she was diagnosed in April 2025, I had to do something, anything to help in some way. I had an idea to put a design together for her as a fundraiser, so I started to draw. It was a simple dragonfly with a ribbon making up its body and a heart in the middle. I’ve never really called myself an artist, just someone who loves to draw and create. That design was the first time I put that love of hers into something, and it eventually grew into her being represented in this piece, a small way of keeping her alive.

Jen’s symptoms were subtle at first…

just fatigue and some off blood work. The kinds of things that are easy to explain away or dismiss. Looking back, there were clues long before anything was caught.Colorectal cancer is no longer just an older person’s disease. Rates are skyrocketing in adults under 50, and it’s now the leading cause of cancer death in that age group.Jen’s story isn’t rare, it’s becoming more common every year, it’s a reminder to listen to your body and advocate for yourself.Don’t wait, don’t brush it off.
Ask questions, push for answers, get checked.

Not to be rude…

Whenever Jen was about to hit you with a hard truth, she’d say, “not to be rude, but…” and then let her rip. She was always bold like that, never one to hold back.So - not to be rude, but get your butthole checked.