Near the end of my final semester in art school, I was struggling with a painting. It was a large one — about four feet by six feet — and it had slowly become crowded with figures. Faces, performers, fragments of characters. I kept adding to it, trying to make the whole thing make sense. Another detail behind many of the figures in that painting is the puppets. During art school I discovered that I actually preferred working alone in the studio rather than depending on live m

Before Oz Had a Name Before the doors. Before the lantern woods. Before the mythology I now paint -There was Lightning . . Lightning: The Pony That Started It All Horses have shaped my life for as long as I can remember — my art, my farm, even the quiet mythology of Oz that threads through my work. But it all really began with one small golden pony named Lightning. I had loved horses obsessively since childhood. My bedroom walls were covered in horse posters. I devoured books

Some paintings arrive quietly. Others seem to carry a presence from the beginning. This Friesian horse portrait was one of those pieces. From the first brushstroke, it felt less like creating an image and more like translating an energy. The calm strength horses often embody, that mixture of gentleness and deep knowing familiar to anyone who has loved them. Horses have always occupied a symbolic space in my work. They represent companionship, intuition, movement between world

Something new has been unfolding quietly in the Studio. Over the past few nights, I’ve been building a growing collection of everyday objects designed to carry a little piece of Oz out into the world — beyond the canvas, beyond the walls of the gallery, and into daily life. I’m so excited to introduce a new wave of Studio at Oz products , including: Storybook-inspired journals Lantern mugs Canvas tote bags Soft apparel Decorative pillows and home goods. Each one is created as