Heyo. I'm Jules.

Co-Founder. Chief Visionary Officer. The person who will absolutely jump up and down when you walk through our door.

I was born into a sensory world and never really left it. Everything I’ve done - and I’ve done a lot - led me here. Scroll down and I’ll tell you the whole story, and why it matters for the work I do today.

My story. The whole thing.

I was born dead. Nearly drowned at one. Couldn't hear or see clearly until I was seven. I grew up in a sensory-based world with a language I created myself - long before anyone had a name for what that was or what it meant.

Looking back, it makes perfect sense that I ended up building a sensory art sanctuary.

I'm part of the Oregon Trail generation - the last kids to disappear on bikes until dark, the first adults to straddle analog childhood and digital adulthood. I traveled with paper maps, Thomas Guides, and enough cash to get from A to B. I’ve always lived life face-first.

Art, sports, science, music, construction, Eastern traditions, Taoism, New Age spirituality, theatre, philosophy - I fell in love with it all. My family trained in Reiki, breathwork, astrology, astronomy, and worked with Shamans on soul retrieval. I grew up understanding the body long before I understood the world. I became a Reiki Master Practitioner by the age of 16.

I’ve always been a happy person. I’ve always laughed. I’ve always created.

And I’ve always carried PTSD - not as a footnote, but as a teacher. It gave me fluency with people who are quietly surviving something.

I am a proud ally of the LGBTQIA+ community. Everyone is welcome in my space, exactly as they are.

My bloodline includes Indigenous ancestry I’m still tracing. Wicked Rae’s sits on the traditional, unceded lands of the Duwamish people. I burn sage every morning - not as performance, but as gratitude.

The Nonlinear Path That Built Wicked Rae's

At 16, I moved to Hollywood. I acted on TV shows, performed improv, worked for MPH Entertainment, and did artwork and voiceovers for the History and Discovery Channels.

At 18, I died in a car crash.

It changed everything.

I moved to Arizona, studied art and aerospace engineering, and was recruited into EEG, Neurology, and Sleep Medicine. I fell in love with the brain - and with helping people understand their own.

My career in one breath:

Wildland and structural firefighter → 20 years in Sleep Medicine → academic hospitals across the US → 10 years inside the Department of Veterans Affairs leading clinical operations across Sleep Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Primary Care, Specialty Care, the ICU, and Prosthetics & Sensory Aids.

Along the way, I became an Industrial & Organizational Psychologist.

I’ve seen people at their best and their worst. I’ve held people as they took their final breath. I’ve watched what pressure does to the human nervous system - and what play can restore.

Wicked Rae's grew out of all of it.

Why I Do This Work

I love creating experiences that help people laugh, connect, and feel free.

I love watching adults remember themselves.

I love seeing the moment someone’s nervous system finally exhales.

My blog, No Maps Required, is where I write about the things that shape my work - philosophy, neuroscience, art, play, somatics, and the random things that aren’t random at all.

Pull up a chair.

Start reading here.

My Art. The Portfolio.

I've been a painter my whole life.

I paint from the inside out - what it feels like to be inside the moment, experience, feeling. A painting made after 9/11 isn’t about the towers. It’s about what that day felt like in the body. A portrait of a musician comes out entirely gold because that's what his music does to me.

I'm a Surrealist by nature. I access the unconscious directly and let my hands pick the colors and the process. If I overthink the piece - I toss it. That simple. At 18, I drew the family portraits for the Amityville documentary on the History Channel for Histories Mysteries - what a brilliant experience that was with MPH Entertainment. I still remember the eyes of the son to this day.

You can explore my portfolio here. This is some, not all. But I will keep adding past pieces and new ones as I can.

I sell original pieces and take commissions - and 100% of proceeds support:

community programs
scholarships
research
donated workshops
nonprofit auction items
low-income access

I believe in art that gives back and sustains community while lighting the flame of creativity in others. Cheers to staying curious, getting messy, and letting go to the process.