Women, mothers, and Great Mother goddesses are victims of centuries of ongoing, violent patriarchal repression. Contemporary life is filled with so many images of dismembered female bodies that they have become unexceptional, accepted, and banal. In this brutality, I see a collective expression of grief and a longing for reunion with some or all aspects of Mother—be that one’s own mother, ancient divine beings, or states of oneness with all life. I paint into that longing.

My paintings explore un-male subjects—femme, trans, animal—in states (motherhood, menstruation, captivity, creativity) that mark them as unmistakably ‘other’ under a patriarchy. I seek to illuminate how these experiences complicate identity and eradicate clear boundaries between self and other, as well as to trouble the easy distinctions between contemporary, industrialized life and pre-modern, mythopoetic traditions. I see my work with the figure as a profound opportunity to engage painting’s past, while also conjuring more just, complex, and dynamic futures. It is my hope to make space for a more whole and liberated subject, both in the paintings and in the world.