Statement

I find that using a variety of media: coffee, tea, sand, soil, mirror, dried leaves, flowers, and glitter, along with a combination of acrylic and oil based spray paint, adds texture and diversity under different lighting. Keeping a natural approach toward everything pertaining to my paintings, including the application of paint to the canvas or wood, brings forth a visual translation of emotion that only a fluid, free‐flow process can create. Thinning the paint and letting it swirl, using gravity as a tool, gives me basic control while still leaving an element of uncertainty when the paint finds it’s place and dries.

In my first series, “Raw” I strive to capture the vibrant, sometimes ephemeral colors in nature and make them infinite. The rich mangoes of sunset, with its fleeting time span, and the transformation of monochrome greens to a scattered assortment of ambers, vermilions and earth tones in autumnal leaves exemplify the majesty of cyclical change. My intention is to bring meaning and attention to the deeper, simpler beauty in all things living.

Nature was my initial inspiration to paint. It has become the basis for my color palate, a tool in my painting process and is a medium in the pieces for texture in representation of itself. To show the versatility of a single shot over a span of time I utilize metallic and iridescent paint, which helps me create a piece that is just as mutable as the day. My initial intrigue with the glint and glimmer came from Romaine de Tirtoff’s use of gold and silver flake in his paintings and prints. I love the added element as it either reflects and shines or falls mute and blends.

Usage of masking in my second series, “Impressions,” leaves figures stark white, with the edge never perfectly crisp. It is symbolic of nature finding a way to seep in and impress itself on us as we constantly separate ourselves from it. I hope to bring people to contemplate this: Is the white space lacking color, or, like the light spectrum, is it enriched with all, simultaneously, to a perfect balance? In this series I wish to show that living things seem to have fallen in the background and are sometimes overlooked and taken advantage of. We’ve lost touch with the impact we have on nature and it’s impact on us.

Art is the only true passion that has remained a staple in my life. It has driven me to look wider, feel deeper and smile truer than ever before. I hope it has the same effect on you.