Hello! Welcome to JOSTARRMO, my love. You can call me Abby.

Welcome to my little slice of existence, I’m glad to share it with you. I’m grateful you’re here— here reading this, but more importantly, HERE as in existing— and I hope I can inspire or uplift you in some way along my journey. I believe that creativity is our nature and each of us has an individual calling that celebrates the wonder of existence and challenges us to grow. If only we let ourselves.

You can read below for a bit about me and my work. (Check back soon for a FAQ page!)

About Me— My Origins

I am a lover the universe… from the simple to the complex. Growth, design, transformation, authenticity, connection, intention, passion, serendipity, and wonder are my obsessions.

I was born in Colorado and moved to good ole South-central Indiana as a small child. As I grew amongst the forests and creeks, so did my deep admiration and respect for this land, despite the severe neglect and destruction of our ecosystems that was brought on by the westward expansion of our colonial empire. I’ve lived several places since, including Yellowstone National Park and Indianapolis, but I currently reside in my hometown, Columbus, Indiana, on the land of the Myaamia, Shawnee, Adena, Kaskaskia and Kickapoo peoples. Here I learned the power of community and the need for passionate people to pave the way for future generations to prosper. I hope to create my community here and at large to be a more equitable, inclusive, free, creative and sustainable place. Our futures depend on it.

I attended The Herron School of Art + Design for a little over two years before I discovered that it was not for me. Overall, I am grateful for the people I met and the growth I accomplished there, but I found it to be limiting, sterile, and destructive. The great thing about being an artist is that you don’t need a degree to make art— you only need yourself. In my time since I parted ways with that institution, I have cultivated my own creative practice and learned how to heal. I’m still deepening my roots and unfurling my leaves, but I have developed a craft and voice that I am so deeply proud of. It took a lot of pain and hard work to get here, but I couldn't be happier. This is only the beginning!

My focus is currently geared towards improving and expanding my creative practice, investing in my business, and reaching more people with my art through exhibitions, markets, and online. I hope to branch out into other mediums, residencies, venues, and community projects. I am also hoping to be able to support myself full-time through my art soon (so any support is greatly appreciated and helps me to fulfill my dreams!).

About my work (a bit of an artist statement):

Beauty and creation are inherently divine and inextricably linked. In fact, the act of creation profoundly weaves together all life, for life itself is creation. Cells continually build themselves, plants, animals, and fungi harmonize into lively ecosystems, and humans extract meaning from it all. We create this meaning and order just as the life force behind this existence— whether you call it God, the Universe, or just plain life— builds and sustains all natural order, beauty, and life. In turn, searching for meaning through the act of creation is intimately human and profoundly divine.

My current body of work features vibrant, undulating organic forms (mainly fungi, a current hyper-fixation), tediously rendered in watercolor. I am enamored with the use of water, earthen pigments, and plant fibers (paper) as the relationship between these materials illustrates connection between life and our planet. I frequently use gemstone pigments in my work, such as amethyst, jadeite, and diopside for this same reason as well. I hope to engage audiences with saturation that captivates attention and calls for action before society completely forgets about these small but vital natural wonders. In a world dominated by flashy, colorful marketing motivated by distraction and destruction, I aim to create a world filled with wonder and the beauty of creation that reveres the simple in the complex.

As I create my art, I meditate on what it means to be alive— to be both a creation and a creator. Enamored by the pure design that exists uninhibited in nature, I seek to empower and enlist this natural potency of life. I create for pure creation's sake. I aim to understand whatever is beyond our human perception and wander into the space between it all, the space where pure creative intelligence flows abundant and clear. In this, we can find the vastness of meaning, intimacy, and connection— all through creation. 

I love people, nature, and thinking about my place in all of it. I think the context of our lives in the largest community earth has ever hosted is something that is too often overlooked. We are facing unprecendented societal change and the gravity of our global situation has not fully been realized by most people. It amazes me how disconnected most are from our environment and from our true natures. That’s why I've dedicated my life to cultivating community healing and creative expression, with an emphasis on education, consciousness, and understanding.

I hope that my work and story can inspire others to love themselves and go after what they believe in as well. I want to be the voice I didn’t have and to encourage others who are struggling.

Let’s change the world together.