Each time I walk into my studio, I'm open to possibilities and hope to find a moment of honest clarity. When I get a rare clear moment, I am energized to paint, draw, or collage. But it’s the medium of oil paint where I am able to sculpt and evolve an idea or concept in an intuitive way. It’s been a lifelong exploration that investigates the psychological phenomenon of what we think a thing is, against the systemic systems we’ve grown to rely on. One of the hardest parts is to push through surreal symbolism and get to the core where find what needs to be said so simply.  It’s an intimate, personal moment of reflection as an image works its way through my process.

 

Four themes have emerged for me. They are:

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1. Witnessing - what does it mean for one person to be fully seen and accepted by another?

2. Hatching - how does being vulnerable and authentic without compromising emerge?

3. The gap of dissociation - what happened to split or hide our reality?

4. Yearning of purpose - why must we desire? 

 

Across each of these themes, I challenge the prosthetics of the modern way of living by investigating how our ready-made world becomes hybrid with our psyche. 

 

Images, artifacts, and paintings are not the aim for me; each work is an imperfect recording of the process at a given moment. The paintings and drawings have no defined meaning.  This is a process where my depression, anxiety, and flashbacks don’t exist.

 

I must also acknowledge the onlooker for whom I carefully consider when I work. Who are they? How do they approach one of these recordings? Could one relate to being a victim, an aggressor, a quiet observer? Can one sit in confusion or does one control immediately?  Why did we hide our gut reaction? I want to know if painting can reunite the fissure of binary divisions. Will my artwork support those that have yet to find or reclaim their power?