Artist Statement

My work is a free association exploring the relationships between my past, present, and future, through objects and figures suspended in atmospheric spaces. The vast field of the negative areas echoes a cognitive space where these objects and figures are examined and combined to create a dreamlike reality. As I work, I recall each detail surrounding a specific object, and my sense of time and space disintegrates and falls away into a two-dimensional surface and simultaneously extends to an infinite and distant horizon. My material selection adds to the meaning of the objects for me. Some objects are brought to the fore, in sharp clarity, rendered in detail using a variety of mediums; others, rendered in fine pencil, preside silently over the scene.

I work from my own associations with my current reality, history, and what the future could hold, so that my internal narratives drive the specific selection and placement of objects within landscapes. My own story does not appear resolved in the completed image, which can provide the viewer with a gateway to reverie in their own memory space. My hope is that the universal nature of personally precious objects and their attendant memories can guide the viewer to create a unique set of meaningful personal narratives.

My use of imagery and explorations of cerebral responses are influenced by surrealist methods and subject matter. Where the surrealists delve into the subconscious and embrace absurd juxtapositions, I engage in a conscious exploration of memory and recombination to guide future possibilities of my choosing. Initially I used my work as therapy of sorts: I had just experienced the traumatic loss of my father and processed the emotions through my work, incorporating objects and spaces from my childhood. Over time I have developed a meditative practice of creation, using elements of my memories in the present moment and merging unknown futures to create a cognitive cohesion of my own scenarios.

The origins of my work are narrative, and to explore my story from a different perspective, I took a screenwriting class during the pandemic. I am currently developing a script based on my drawings and paintings, and am creating a short film that blends stop-motion animation dream sequences mixed with a blunted reality. Screenwriting opens more avenues for exploring my recombinant practice in ways that are compelling to me through the essential elements of sound, movement, dialogue, and time. I plan to explore this new canvas over the next few years along with my drawings and paintings.