​A YEAR OF EXHIBITIONS, TALKS, OPENINGS, AND COMMISSIONS

 

Looking at my exhibition calendar, I realize it has been one long, continuous stretch of exhibitions from last summer through now, without a break.

From February through mid-June alone, I exhibited in Denver, Des Moines, and Chicago, mostly either in solo or 3-6 artist exhibitions. It has been an intensely busy period, with one exhibition following another, while at the same time working on a public commission, several private commissions, and maintaining my regular studio practice.

Throughout all of this, I have also stayed committed to my rekindled interest in ceramics, quietly building my Reef Pod series in the background.

When I add caring for my boys and staying in close daily contact with my mom, who lives in a retirement home in Croatia, I begin to realize just how much I am actually accomplishing.
 

Here's a quick overview so I can come back to it later and remind myself - you got this!

 

 2025 Origin: Wondrous Worlds, Robert F. DeCaprio Art Gallery, Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL​ (SOLO exhibition, with an artist talk, and workshop, and critical review in New City Art by Vera Scekic)  

 

 

 2025 Dream Garden, Geneva Public Library, Geneva, IL​ (SOLO exhibition, with an artist talk) 

 

 

 

 

  

2005/2026 Series of 5 watercolors commission for the main lobby of Duan Building at Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, Florida

 

2026 Olson-Larsen Galleries, Des Moines, IA​ (SOLO exhibition, with an artist talk + virtual studio tour)

 
2026 Weightless Radiance, Walker Fine Art, Denver, IL​ (six artist exhibition)

2026 Elements of Summer, Gallery 1871, Chicago ​(three artist exhibition), running now through September 5th

 

 

A NEW WATERCOLOR COMMISSION FOR MAYO CLINIC"S DUAN BUILDING

January 2026 

 

In 2025, I was commissioned to create a five-painting watercolor series for the main hallway of the newly opened Duan Building at Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida—a project that offered the opportunity to bring moments of beauty, reflection, and calm into a space dedicated to healing. The completed work was shipped and installed in early January 2026, and I'm delighted to share a few images.

The commission consists of five 29" × 29" watercolor paintings, created in a lively, optimistic palette inspired by my "Viridis" series.

The five paintings stand in conversation with one another - a narrative of shapes, forms, and colors unfolding across the series - and while purely abstract, it is cohesive and harmonious, like a story of a magical landscape, gradually revealing itself before the viewer's eyes.

 

 

While I'm thrilled to have my artwork displayed in such a prominent setting, what makes this commission especially meaningful is the purpose of the Duan Family Building. It will house the first carbon ion therapy program in the Western Hemisphere. Carbon ion therapy uses positively charged carbon ions that release their energy precisely upon reaching targeted cancerous tumors. This treatment destroys cancer cells while minimizing damage to surrounding healthy tissue and is particularly effective against cancers that are resistant to other forms of radiation.

I'm truly humbled to think that my artwork may bring a small measure of light, comfort, and solace to patients, their families, and visitors during their time there.

 2025 IN REVIEW

 2025 brought a rekindled engagement with ceramics, as I began expanding the Reef Pods series, developing and broadening my “pod” inventory through variations on a theme. While my Gathering series of small, unglazed vessels—plates and bowls—focuses on calligraphic-like marks on the clay surface and exposes the clay’s natural body color, Reef Pods led me to delve more deeply into color and glazes, introducing new variations of marks, textures, and shapes.

 Whereas the Gathering series speaks to ancient worlds, archaeological sites, and nostalgia for the childhood days of my early life in Slavonija, the eastern continental region of Croatia, the Reef Pods series connects me to long summer days on the Adriatic coast and to hours spent swimming and exploring the richness and curiosities of the undersea world. I feel invigorated by this fresh avenue in my work. I see is a deep connection between my paintings and ceramic work, though it is not happening on an intentional or preconceived basis, but rather evolving naturally and organically.

 I often recall advice from my sculpture professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, from which I graduated in 2002. - the late Stjepan Gračan. He emphasized the benefits of switching to a different medium every so often as a form of exercise; pushing oneself out of the routine of repetition and the comfort of familiarity in order to keep ideas fresh. Coincidentally, Gračan himself was a student of my great-uncle, Valerije Michieli, who, too, was a prominent sculptor and professor at the same Academy many years earlier.

 On a more personal note, 2025 was marked by yet another summer trip to Croatia and Slovenia with my family. We visited several major national parks and many beautiful towns along the Adriatic coast, finishing the trip at my favorite location in the Slovenian Alps. We were fortunate to spend time with both my mother and my mother-in-law in Croatia. Looking back, this trip will always carry a bittersweet memory, as baka (grandma) Milica—my husband’s mother—sadly passed away in October, just a couple of months after our visit. I am deeply grateful that she and the children were able to share those moments together.

 

 

Visits to my first homeland are always both beautiful and difficult. Like flipping through an old family album, every scene and every location sparks a vivid memory—at once a bright sensory kaleidoscope of childhood and youth, and a stark reminder of time passed.

All in all, 2025 was another year of creating and exhibiting. I presented my work in two solo exhibitions: Origin: Wondrous Worlds at the Robert F. DeCaprio Art Gallery, Moraine Valley Community College, Palos Hills, IL, and Dream Garden at the Geneva Public Library, Geneva, IL. I also showed new work from my Origin Aqueous series in Perfectly Lost at Walker Fine Art in Denver.

I gave presentations about my work and process at both solo exhibitions and led a student workshop on watercolor and mark-making at Moraine Valley Community College.

 

I was pleasantly surprised to discover a thoughtful, in-depth review of my Origin: Wondrous Worlds solo exhibition, published on Newcity and written by Vera Scekic.

While I don’t hide the fact that the initial sparks for my work come from personal life experiences—childhood memories, a longing for home, a need for grounding, and a sense of being suspended between two places, never quite settled—I rarely think about these themes consciously while I’m creating. Instead, they simply unfold, almost like a visual journal (or perhaps a memoir).

Reading the review felt like a sudden revelation of just how deeply my roots are reflected in the work. I was genuinely moved by Vera’s discerning sensibility and her ability to connect so intimately with the inner life of my art.

 

 

 

Lastly, while my solo exhibition Dream Garden at the Geneva Public Library and Perfectly Lost at Walker Fine Art in Denver remain on view for a couple more weeks, I’m already beginning to look ahead with excitement to what’s next in 2026: a solo exhibition at Olson-Larsen Gallery in Des Moines in February/March, followed by a group exhibition at Walker Fine Art from April through early June.

 Onwards!