artist’s statement I use my experiences of adversity to inform my works, along with themes rooted in psychology, philosophy, domesticism, and language as the basis for my practice. These experiences are correlated with the high risks associated with high Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) markers. I weave multiple topics together to present multi-layered narratives unraveling as profoundly or simply as the viewer chooses to engage, refining and simplifying provocative encounters through a gaze of hypervigilance, carefully toeing between harsh realities and soft Sherbert scenes that feel like otherwise misplaced moments by comparison. We lean into subconsciously accepted storytelling visuals that are most familiar to us, sometimes deceiving us with their oversimplifications, and look deeper into the complex nature of the trials of reality unfolding before the viewer.
The paintings I create are grounded in various degrees of realism to abstraction, to emphasize or draw out varying visualizations of the lucidity within my memories, impact, and emotional essences of what took place in the scenes depicted. This can look like hyperrealistic urban telephone landscapes, to abstracted scenes of chaos composed of only shapes, or heavily textured middle grounds developed with painting knives and large, bright blocks of color. Each offering small windows, glimpses into forgotten past realities that inform the present. Shifting and moving as the memories they represent, like sand through the fingertips, becoming a continuous and intangible enigma. My paintings are composed of dark, cool colors and highly contrasted scenes. I use lighting as a way to evoke feelings of loneliness. Within my sculptures and installation works, light reappears to represent the presence of the individual. Carefully considering ritual, the passage of time, and the presence of oneself within a memory. Installation works encompass candles representing sexual assault survivors, prison letter night lights, multiplicities of Narcan applications with sound components, and durational locative recounting of loss. Complex psychological spaces are created as visual puzzles to foster thoughtful conversation among audiences.
In my current explorations of research, themes expound on that of domesticism, systems of abuse, resilience, mental illness, memory, and trauma, based on my intimate relationship with these topics and grappling to make sense of what has been my reality. In part, aiming to understand why these events happened, what patterns to be aware of, and unpack the psychology breaking traumatic family cycles. I approach my work through a lens of hypervigilance and C-PTSD. As a result, my works embrace a sense of dissonance, rumination, time, spatial and memory gapping, disconnection, and overlooked moments, often rooted within silence among the chaos. In these gaps, the spaces not paid attention to are where these events unfold, shedding light on the experience of dissociation. Through my practice, I bring hope, understanding, compassion, and companionship to feelings of loneliness from complex situations or environments.
