Based in Ōtautahi Christchurch, with a background in design, culinary art and textile art, Wood gradually pivoted to painting, eventually leading them to Ilam School of Fine Arts. In recent years, Wood has been exploring altered states of consciousness as a tool for creative expression, emotional processing, and ancestral connection. Engaging in intuitive, process-led painting supported by hypnotherapy, meditation, and music, Wood’s imagery and brushwork emerge organically, guided by her subconscious. Inspired by her ancestors’ creative practices and influenced by therapeutic methods, Wood’s process centres on fluidity and instinct, inviting transformation through chance. The Jasper x Sophie collection is a separate ongoing series of collaborative paintings with Wood’s son. The collaboration began when Jasper was five years old and was an opportunity for Wood to include whānau in her practice. Their collaborative process is an exploration of trust, risk, kōrero, and connection. Jasper’s drawings are expressions of his emotions and his perception of the surrounding world. Their collaborative work becomes an intergenerational visual dialogue and a shared act of aroha. In parallel, Wood’s own intuitive paintings draw together ancestry, memory, and emotion, tracing the shifting terrain of her altered-states practice.