I always tell my stepson that I may not have given birth to him, but he was the one who made me a mother. Always on the fence about having kids, there was a good chance I would have aged-out of the motherhood option before I could make up my mind. But then my fiancé’s young son came to live with him, and he put the question to me, “Are you in or are you out?” and I knew right away I was in. The next year we were married and I was pregnant right after, but this was the year I became a mother. The artwork this year really encapsulates all of this - starting as an independent artist, traveling the country making and selling art, then getting engaged, then becoming a stepmom to a kindergartener.